Chris Jepson: Want a better society? Make it better for women

Does having a daughter make one more likely to become a Republican? It’s a story like that that could have one upchucking his breakfast. I was reading an op-ed in the Dec. 15 New York Times by Ross Douthat suggesting daughters did just that. Douthat reported reading a headline that went, “Study: Having daughters makes parents more likely to be Republican.”

Of course the reason is sex. But, more on that in a minute. I attended a party last week and a conversation I was having with a couple involved the status of women. I asserted that the better it is for women, the better society will be for everyone. That is self-evident.

Even a cursory understanding of history illustrates that women have received the short end of the stick since before men started creating patriarchal religions. Essentially, we are the same “creature” we were tens of thousands of years ago, so why did it take until the 20th century for women to “get” the right to vote and participate in governance? Even now, in America, women are not “equally” represented in the halls of power. But then again, Republicans such as Ted Cruz, Steve King and Marco Rubio are redefining what it means to be masculine – and not in a particularly favorable way.

That the exceptional woman (powerful) was the rare historical leader is an indictment of how men have long considered women. Yes, there are the examples of Cleopatra, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Catherine the Great and Elizabeth I. Etruscan women of 7th century B.C. Italy experienced “near equality” with men. Ancient Egyptian women had higher status than women of other contemporary cultures (see: Babylonia, Hittites, Assyrians, Jewish). But the number of historical examples of actual egalitarian cultures you can count, maybe, on the fingers of one hand. For thousands of years.

So, if half the “good” human minds are/were female, why is it women were (are) held in such low regard?

To look at how women were considered in the past, look no further than Saudi Arabia today. “That” part of the world will never amount to much until the fact of being female is accompanied with respect and equality. I read that if a man in Saudi Arabia has the misfortune of seeing a woman just after completing his daily prayers (absolution), he must completely wash himself. Profoundly bizarre.

It’s all about sex. It really is. Men making sure that his progeny is, indeed, his. It’s about controlling female sexuality and fertility. I don’t know if I completely subscribe to the theory that men were/are fearful of a woman’s power to create life, but I do believe men historically established cultures (and rules) to tightly control access to women.

Ross Douthat wrote that having daughters makes parents more apt to vote Republican. This is based on the current hook-up culture of America’s youth today. That “indecisive” men are getting all the “goodies” yet women remain biologically tethered to only so many “good” years of fertility and that sex without commitment leaves women vulnerable to long-term unhappiness. A timeless argument.

Women ultimately control the keys to heaven. I have more confidence in today’s woman. It’s a new age. No emancipated woman benefits from Republicanism as currently configured; it is a patriarchal throwback to repression and control. Any female might legitimately ask: “And how has that worked out for women?”