A Gender Policy Council That’s Sexist … and Racist? | Opinion
On 2/15/21 at 6:00 AM EST
By Warren Farrell
Every new president vows to heal the very divide his party and opponents have spent the last year and billions of dollars magnifying.
One of President Joe Biden’s first policies appeared to bridge the gender divide by creating a White House Gender Policy Council. As someone who served on the Board of the National Organization for Women in New York City, I have seen enormous progress in women’s issues, and a need for more.
Simultaneously, for a half century, millions of parents of boys and I have witnessed an ever-growing boy crisis. We see it hurting not only boys, but the fathers they may become, and our daughters who seek future young men worthy of their love.
By creating a council for “gender policy” rather than a council for “women,” Biden seemed to be heeding the warning embodied in Betty Friedan’s The Second Stage: The liberation of women will plateau if attention to men’s issues does not follow.
The Gender Policy Council’s mission is to help only women and girls. Boys are left out. Fathers are left out. Men are left out. Even transgender people and gays are left out—if they are male.
Politically, this is understandable: Men dominate corporate and political power structures. That’s a valid half of the gender picture. Here is the missing half: The U.S. currently has seven federal offices of women’s health, and none on men’s health.
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Related reading: Males need help, now: Michael Gurian, Spokane-based childhood development expert