Women's Rights are Human Rights

    To most men, the idea that women’s issues affect them seems absurd. Why, boys ask, should I care about women and their rights? To many, the plight of women is too remote for them to care; women’s issues are seen as applying to women only, and thus men refuse to care about them.
    However, even when one overlooks important issues like justice and liberty that make paying attention to women’s issues imperative for men, it is still important for men to care about the issues women face because of economic and social reasons.

First, this is supported by economics. Since women make up roughly half of the population, discouraging women from taking up jobs halves the workforce, thereby hurting the economy. Not only that, but it lowers the chances of a brilliant female inventor producing a gizmo that solves one of the many problems of our world.

    In a 2009 paper entitled "Women's Liberation: What's in It for Men?,” UCLA researchers Matthias Doepkey and Michele Tertlit demonstrate that from a purely economic perspective, granting women greater freedom is beneficial for the economic welfare of men.
    “Women’s rights are closely related to economic development,” Doepkey and Tertlit wrote. “This is true both across countries, where women have most rights in the richest countries, and in time series data: women have slowly improved their legal position in parallel with fast improvements in the standard of living.”
    Thus granting more power and independence leads to more wealth overall. Greater independence for women economically can reverberate in the home, creating benefits there as well. Working mothers are positive role models for children because they exhibit not only a strong work ethic seen in few other people but an ability to be both strong and compassionate.

In addition, the fact that women represent 54 percent of the population means that extending rights and freedoms to women could double the possible output of society in any number of ways. Allowing women to serve on the front lines in warfare, for example, would open the doors for some highly talented female soldiers to enter our army, thereby increasing the strength of our military.

    Even boys who are well off have a stake in the empowerment of women. By perpetuating a male-female dichotomy (the idea that men and women are completely divorced from each other and thus at odds), those who perpetuate sexism end up hurting themselves. By trying to raise themselves above women, men create for themselves the idea of the “macho man” to distinguish themselves from women. By pinning this label to themselves in order to raise themselves above women, the sexist invites his own set of stereotypes: the stereotype of the brutish, beer-swilling, impervious to emotion, and almost sub-human man exemplified by characters like Homer Simpson. Unfortunately, these negative stereotypes are applied to men in general, thereby hurting themselves. Sexists can then use this as a justification for discrimination against women, perpetuating the ugly cycle of sexism and intolerance.
    This macho mindset invented by men to justify oppression of women comes with its own host of problems, almost all of them borne by men. Macho ideas of violence being the way to settle problems lead to violence that is borne almost entirely by men, and the accompanying higher prison rates for men that come with higher violence rates. The idea of male toughness manifests itself in the belief that men should be emotionless, which can cause emotions to boil up inside a person, eventually causing them to be overwhelmed.  
    All these arguments, of course, just address the impact of women’s rights on men. By their very definition, women’s rights campaigns further the causes of equality and liberty for all persons. All people deserve rights, so any morally upright man ought to recognize that denying women equal rights is akin to denying blacks or Native Americans rights. No one who calls themselves a decent person can ignore the plight of women, which is arguably the biggest issue facing the world today. For example, the violent, macho mindset of male dominance fuels war because it perpetuates the belief that combat is an acceptable solution to problems. In addition, denying women the ability to work or succeed in business removes more than half of the potential innovators and laborers from the economy.
    The positive effects of women’s empowerment can be felt at the high school level as well. Many girls are intimidated by the aggressive nature of class discussions, which causes valid and important opinions to be left out of discussions.
    Unfortunately, men cannot instantly become ardent feminists, even after reading this article. To achieve such a radical change in men’s mindset, constant reminders of the necessity of recognizing women’s rights issues are needed. The school happens to be the perfect environment for this. Even a minuscule fraction of the time spent by students in class, if used effectively, could help bring about an acceptance of women’s rights concerns amongst the male population of Palo Alto High School. Ideally, these lectures about women’s issues would be done in freshman world history, or sophomore contemporary world history, since sexism is a global problem.
    If more men can start realizing that women’s rights issues affect everyone, their mindsets might start to shift. Even if the only change that comes out of women’s rights being preached in history class is that some students are more polite to women, that will be a victory for humans of both genders across the globe.