(AFP) 27 June 2008:

The Bulgarian Olympic Weightlifting team might not be where one would go to find gender equality on a normal day. And it’s true that the men and women compete separately, lifting different weights. It’s also true that the women compete against women from other countries, men against men.

However, there is one area in which they do share complete gender equality, even if this might not be something to be all that proud of. All of the applicants to this summer’s Olympic Games have been rejected, for all of them, each and every man and woman, were found to be taking banned anabolic steroids.

Still equality is a good thing, right’

(NATIONAL POST) 7 June 2008:

In the ongoing debate about gender equality, the words seem to keep changing their meanings. We all agree with the basic thought of equality, but what does that in itself actually mean?

One meaning is equality of opportunity: that men and women (and those not sure either way) are equal before the law and get the same chances at the joys and opportunities that life has to offer. Another is equality of outcome, the argument that men and women should be the same. That latter rather ignores (often for socio-political reasons) the fact that people might make different decisions about what they want from life and thus end up in different places, despite having the same opportunities.

That much we have known for some decades, but the language is changing again in order to obscure an argument already debated. Equality of opportunity is now defined as “formal equality” and of outcome as “substantive equality.”

Once everyone has worked out that this is in fact the same old argument obviously they’ll have to change the names again.

(AFP) 2 May 2008:

There are indeed areas where men and women are becoming more equal: for example, in the UK, the levels of female public drunkeness have risen by as much as 1,000 percent in some areas to the same as that of men.  Now it’s true that having a larger number of women so drunk that they pass out in the street is not normally thought of as an advance in the civilization, but there is another way of looking at it.  Among the younger groups men and women are indeed seen as socially equal now.  Well, it’s a straw to cling to, isn’t it?

(LUBBOCK AVALANCHE) 4 March 2008:

A small data point in the changing world of work: In the 1970s, tax assessors offices in Texas were entirely male dominated. The junior secretarial and clerical staff were often women, but the senior assessors (an elected position) were almost entirely male.

However, now, in Lubbock, for example, there are no men in that position at all. The same is nearly true in the surrounding area: 80 percent of the elected senior officials are female.

Take it as an indication that changing the world might take some time: it’s taken an entire generation since the equality at work legislation was first passed for this to happen.

(THE TIMES) 6 January 2008:

There’s one area where we might not be all that happy at increasing gender equality: in the number of men and women who drink and drive. It isn’t just the well known brushes with the law of the likes of Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan: it’s women in general.

Figures from the UK show that the number of female drunk drivers rose by 60% between 1995 and 2005. It is true that this still means that women make up only 12% of all drink drivers, but this really isn’t an area where we would welcome greater gender equality (unless the numbers were zero for both sexes).

(ST CLOUD TIMES) 27 October 2007:

We usually think that increasing racial equality is a pretty good idea. We’re also pretty sold on the idea that increasing equality between men and women across society is a good idea too.

However, while this might apply to incomes, life spans, and leisure time, there’s one area where it really isn’t such good news. The increasing number of women going to jail. Some county jails are seeing increases of between 30 and 43 percent over the past five years.

(UNION TRIBUNE) 18 June 2007:

A New York woman has just accepted a $29,000 settlement from the New York City authorities. It’s a civil settlement arising out of her arrest and being held for 12 hours two years ago for appearing topless in public.

The award stems from a 1992 State Supreme Court ruling that insists that if men have the right to appear topless in public then so do women.

Opinion is still divided as to whether this is a welcome insistence of the equality of men and women under the law or a slight blindness to the differences between the sexes.