These are all interesting, and it seems, as in so many polls, that Scandinavia -- with its robust social welfare programs -- leads the pack in so many ways. There's lots we can learn from them.
None of these seem to give any credence at all to the hyperbolic language used in previous posts, nor the headline that the US is "failing" it's women. It seems as if the same socioeconomic issues that plague the US as a whole is the same for women.
Given my own experiences in North America and Europe, I'd say that women in NA are less restricted by traditional notions of gender roles -- as has been noted, Europe has a degree of social conservativism that's always struck me as strange. The weird French resistance to SSM (seen in the "manif pour tous" demonstrations) were rooted much more in essentialist notions of masculinity and femininity than actual opposition to homosexuality. Anecdotally, I can vouch that issues such as date rape are much more open over here, and I have never heard of anyone having to buy a fake wedding ring to avoid catcalling as friends if mine had to do in Italy, Spain, etc.
I was looking for graphs and charts and statistics for you, so take no responsibility for the headline of US is failing its women. I googled international comparisons of gender equality, not "Proof women are fucked".
All of our experiences and observations are pretty much by definition limited, which does not mean they are not interesting ideas to consider, but are not definitive. I would also guess that it is possible you might be missing the nuance of the experience because it does not fall under your radar in the way straights will miss the nuance of gays' experiences and whites will miss the nuance of a black experience, however objectively attentive they may think they are. The status is not the same.
And while certainly the socio-economic situation affects men as well as women in US, the study is not on how women are doing when compared to men in their respective countries, not how women are doing as a sole indicator.
Date rape and cat calling have never been my main interest it this. So while we can talk date rape and not have to wear fake wedding rings (which actually appear to many US men to be a come-on
, so what would be the point?)
I'm interested in leadership roles and the inclusion of more women in tenured science and math and philosophy, of stronger networking between women,
of society finding more adjectives to describe us than the limited array we get which might happen if we weren't lumped in as another class and seen as the individuals we are.
I would like to have a discussion about the essentialism of masculine and feminine and see where we all stand and it is a subject that interests me and affects us all.
However, I will stop here because this is a thread about the boys and I don't want to shortchange them.