Eeva Sodhi, who happens to be a female (feminist please note) has on her now archived website some interesting articles.

Manufacturing Research.

The integration of gender equality analysis into the research and evaluation work of the
<Department implies a departure from traditional research methodology. It does not start
<with a premise of neutrality, nor limit its investigation to sex disaggregated data. A
<gender research approach begins with women's experience as they see it.

http://web.archive.org/web/20050308115735/http://www.nojustice.info/Research/ManufacturingResearch.htm

Perceptions are not Facts

http://web.archive.org/web/20050317002453/http://www.nojustice.info/PerceptionsarenotFacts.htm

Justice Canada instructs its research contractors to "make a careful choice about which
<indicators are going to be applied , because you want the indicators to reflect the
< gendered approach you are developing"

There can hardly be more insidious form of deception than the intentional manipulation of
< public opinion by presenting data in a manner which creates an ideologically motivated
<perception that one identifiable group is responsible for all evil while hiding the fact that
<those who are portrayed as the collective victims are equally culpable. It is
<incomprehensible that men, who still are the main tax payers, defenders of and
<providers for their families, quietly allow themselves to be used as the scapegoats who
<are driven down the cliff to their destruction.

<The fact that men like Michael Rand willingly play a role in this deception proves that
<"the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world". Regretably, this rule has become
<tyranny that is leading us into chaos.

Continuing from my last post:

Phanto – I am sorry that you think my articles are “juvenile”. As a colleague once said to me, “I will keep talking about this issue until things change”.

Runner – I do not think the successes and failures of the Gillard government was due to quota systems to promote people.

ttbn – , One of the most common derisive taunts thrown at women who speak about gender equality is “manhater”. It’s been around since the days of suffrage, and still gets used today, as indicated by the emails I received last week. Most feminists, like me, do not hate men.

Thank you, Jay Of Melbourne, for the link. As I have said, statistics should be used honestly so there can be informed debate.

Craig Minns – Thank you for sharing your anecdote about returning to university. I am unsure of the data (what ttbn calls “hard evidence”) concerning mature age students. It seems possible there are many more mature age women than men on campus because women often retrain when their children are older and they are planning to re-enter the workforce. Men are less likely than women to leave the workforce when their children are young. By the time their children are older, men are often in senior positions and less inclined to start again and retrain for a job in a new profession.

Wolly B

In my work as a public health researcher, it is important to analyse data using categories such as age, socioeconomic status, gender, and ethnicity. This is not politically motivated. It is motivated by a desire to target public health interventions so that they are effective.

Eeva Sodhi, who is a female (feminist please note) wrote this article

"Why Men Fail"

The often repeated observation in these documents was that men have "disengaged" themselves. Yet, if we look at the reality, it would have been far more accurate to say that men have been pushed aside, or forced out. In the final analysis, can we blame men for thinking: "If I am such a monster, why should I struggle in order to earn more?"

The British said it right: "Call a man a dog and he will eventually behave like one". As soon as a man has proven himself responsible and a high achiever, like the vast majority of men do, along comes a woman who, with the generous help of the government and judiciary, will not only rob him of everything that he has worked for but who also tries to make sure that he ends in jail (“The only answer our society has offered so far has been to put a rapidly growing share of adult men behind bars”…same source as above).

http://web.archive.org/web/20050310180627/http://www.nojustice.info/Media/WhyMenFail.htm

Hello Dr Russell, by definition "senior" positions are a relatively small part of the workforce, therefore to suggest that any demographic is "often" in such positions is, with the greatest of respect, risible on the face of it.

However, you are quite right to suggest that women may be better placed to attend university as mature-aged students than men are, especially women of middle-age compared to their male counterparts. One reason has already been given in an earlier post of mine, relating to the differential nature of the legal situation around families after breakdown of relationships. The feminist movement has been extremely successful in achieving opportunities for women to seek education as parents of young children.

But I suspect there are even bigger forces at work:

- the streaming of young men into blue-collar careers which have, in many cases now become contracted "self-employment" carrying large debt loads and little security;

- the upgrading of traditionally female fields to professional status, including many of the caring and educational fields, so that women who wish to become nurses or teachers for example can now spend 6 or more years as part-time university students rather than working as full-time trainees in a workplace;

- the preferential employment of women in Government workforces;

- the availability of HECS and the cutoff income levels for repayment, which means that those who work part-time will not have to repay much (often nothing at all), while those who work full-time and have an effective high rate of tax thanks to paying child support (which is a much larger cohort than those in "senior positions") will have a large extra burden of repayment.

There are many other factors, including the broadening of entry pathways and the changes to schooling designed to enhance female outcomes.

You didn't answer the question I asked above, which was the reason for my telling my own story. What do you mean when you speak of gender equality? If you want my support as a "male champion of change" I think it's reasonable to know what it is I'm being asked to support.

Dr Russell,
The fundamental flaw in the Feminist critique is the dogmatic position on male power merely because of a perception that a small number of men at the head of a few elite families are able (to some extent) exercise their will over the population as a whole.
Historically working and poor men have always had the worst of it, to quote a popular song by the Dropkick Murphys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTafZRecy2k