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OPINION

Gender roles should not be up for partisan debate

By Greta Hallberg, For The Miami Student

In my political science class last week, we took a survey to determine our partisan leanings. It's a survey conducted by the American National Elections Studies about different policies and you rank whether or not you agree on a 7-point scale.

Most of the questions were pretty standard for the current political conversation - health care, abortion, etc.

I try to claim my independence from both parties to maintain my journalistic objectivity and most of my answers were 3's, 4's, and 5's - right down the middle. No surprises there. It wasn't until the last question of the survey that I really got heated.

My professor switched the slide and flashed this statement on the projector: women should have an equal role as men in society.

We were supposed to rank whether or not we agreed with this statement and apparently our answer would indicate our partisan leanings. Being the reserved and shy student in class, I very visibly rolled my eyes and scoffed at the question.

"I don't understand how this statements determines your partisan leanings," I said, not really under my breath.

"You'd be surprised," my professor replied, saying that only 60 percent of the population agreed with that statement.

For one of the only times in my life, I was speechless. Our teacher moved on, leaving me fuming at my desk. To me, gender equality shouldn't have an effect on partisanship, at least not anymore.

How is it okay that gender equality is grouped along with discussions on health care and the economy? I can't comprehend how in 2015, 95 years after women were given the right to vote, women's equality is still a political issue.

There are women on both sides of the aisle that have broken the glass ceiling and made a name for themselves politically. Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State - both the Republican and Democrat are pretty kick-ass women. Sarah Palin was a candidate for Vice President.

Nancy Pelosi was the first female as the Speaker of the House. Countless women have risen to prominence in Washington, playing an equal role as their male counterparts, proving that their gender does not determine their ideology.

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These women, Republicans and Democrats alike, clearly have an egalitarian view of their role in society. They're living it out. Their drive to make meaningful contributions to society does not make them a Republican or a Democrat.

For the 40 percent of Americans who disagree with the statement, it is misguided to think that both stereotypical gender roles are not equally crucial to society. Women have historically been homemakers while men worked to make money for the family. Isn't raising children to be functioning adults as important as being the breadwinner?

In today's world, we have stay-at-home dads, single-parent households and millions of women in the workforce. Is it really reasonable to say that men and women don't already play an equal role in society?

Raising a family is an admirable goal, one I'm definitely not mature enough for yet. I can't even remember to feed myself some days, let alone claim responsibility for another human.

But who is to say that my journalism career in Washington, D.C. is more or less important than my friends becoming an engineer, a teacher or the mom of the next Steve Jobs?

As a proud feminist, I am still baffled. Equality of the sexes is so deeply ingrained in me that I fundamentally don't understand seeing one gender as inferior. It's time to stop talking about men and women differently in the first place.

Policies in Congress to eliminate the wage gap quite frankly aren't going to work. Any kind of policy talk deepens the partisan divides about the issue. In the gridlocked Capitol, parties are going to take opposing positions. Talking about gender equality will only polarize the parties on their view of women and their role in society.

Let's take this question out of the partisanship survey, taking gender equality off the equation. Our views of women in society should not impact our political party. Gender should not be a political issue anymore, and it's time we stopped talking about it like it is.

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