Gender parity in sailing

[boatman61]

I prefer to live up to the standards and expectations of myself.. its off more importance to me.
If these happen to meet or maybe exceed the expectation of others.. I'm happy for them.

[Brob2]

Originally Posted by Boathooked

However we can attempt to empathize, understand, and discuss each others views based on our experiences and understanding.

That is so true, and I wish that we all made stronger attempts at understanding and empathizing. Problematically, the stereotypes and research both suggest that women are more likely to have nurturing and empathetic traits while men are more likely to have competitive and aggressive traits. That, in my view, makes for uneven traffic on that 2 way street of understanding. Please note I am not suggesting all men lack empathy, nor that all women have it.

Originally Posted by Boathooked

Somehow I am in a "privileged" position though I can say I have never seen it, but some say I do because I have dangly-bits, rather patronizing if you ask me but it is someones viewpoint.

But it is fact in many parts of our society even though in some areas we are quite egalitarian. I have spent many years working in an international bank in Canada and and can say that despite government legislation and a corporate drive to create more opportunities for women to succeed in banking there is often a significant bias held by white men against women in general performing competently in senior management roles. Regardless of the reasons for this bias I can tell you it does exist in many men, in some women, and, it would appear, in this forum (IMO).

Originally Posted by Boathooked

With that said, I do think that the most recent generations of woman are not "held back" so much by society but by internal biology, again though just one persons opinion.

I'm sure some folks might have rolled their eyes at this comment but I can assure you that this is fact. For one, I have been part of discussions on promoting internal candidates for management positions where the idea that a woman of child bearing age would indeed lose significant ranking points in the competition if she was recently married, or had a small family, or whatever, was a part of the conversation. Not paying for that maternity leave, or dealing with the hassle of filling the position for it, damn it. It's quite illegal in Canada to have those discussions, but they happen frequently. And many men think women are hormonal-ly ill-equipped to handle stressful work. Well, the worst Senior VP I had to deal with was a woman, but the best boss I've had was too, as were most of my top Bank Managers. But some guys wouldn't hire a female Bank Manager if their depended on it. Those dangly parts simply do get us into some places more easily than we might without them. It wasn't very long ago that women couldn't tee-off at prime time in the morning at my country club. I doubt it was the only one.