It's amazing to me how badly everyone hates the idea of government regulation. Don't get me wrong, it's important to restrict what we allow government to do. But it CAN be a force for good. Why everyone balks at the idea right from the start and refuses to even CONSIDER a government solution to any problem is beyond me.
This (the gender equality issue) CAN be solved by government, at least to a greater degree than any private entity can. And it can be solved the same way as any other problem: with money.
1) Restrict federal grants to AS/BS/sciences degrees instead of arts degrees, or at least skew them 70:30 in favor of sciences majors. Forbid grant recipients from changing their majors once grant money is accepted. America doesn't need more writers, artists, and poets. We need more engineers. There is way more than ample precedent for government steering people's decisions with money.
2) Give women preference for these grants just like minorities already do. Why this isn't already the case, I cannot fathom. The sad fact is that if a low-income family has access to a single grant, and they have both a son and a daughter, they're almost always going to choose their son to get the grant, because they're playing the numbers, and the numbers say the son will make more money. You HAVE to solve this problem at the root. Give them a good reason to pick the daughter by making her more likely to receive the grant.
3) Mandate the separation of "trade schools" and "community colleges." This was a mistake on day one and it remains one. AC Repair Men and Research Lab Technicians should not be trained in the same building. Women often simply don't want to spend 4 years being hit on by gruff idiots going to school to learn how to rebuild a car engine. And they shouldn't have to. While we're at it, the guy trying to rebuild car engines shouldn't be forced to learn Biology 101 in order to get a certificate in car repair, so this benefits everyone.
4) Enact strict penalties for police officers for improperly handling rape accusations, and equally enforce existing laws for making false accusations. There are already laws against making false accusations of any criminal offense, rape included. These should be prosecuted to thew fullest extent of the law, and yes, lairs should go to jail. On the other hand, there is no equivalent law or regulation to counter this. Genuine rape victims have the deck stacked against them. If a cop tries to convince them not to file charges, they have no recourse against that cop. Nor do they have any recourse against their aggressor if the cop outright refuses. This is wrong. With the alarming rise in campus rape in the past 10-15 years, this problem is only getting worse, and I can imagine a woman might very well choose not to attend college for safety reasons alone. Handling this is a simple matter of enacting guidelines - which the president or attorney general can do themselves without congress - that create penalties against any officer of the law if they pressure a rape victim not to press charges.
These are a few simple, specific solutions that can tackle a large part of the problem. This could be done by a dozen men in Washington in a single day. Why it hasn't been done is unfathomable.
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And...slashdot has banned line breaks apparently. Sorry to everyone for the wall of text above.
It's amazing to me how badly everyone hates the idea of government regulation. Don't get me wrong, it's important to restrict what we allow government to do. But it CAN be a force for good. Why everyone balks at the idea right from the start and refuses to even CONSIDER a government solution to any problem is beyond me. This (the gender equality issue) CAN be solved by government, at least to a greater degree than any private entity can. And it can be solved the same way as any other problem: with money. 1) Restrict federal grants to AS/BS/sciences degrees instead of arts degrees, or at least skew them 70:30 in favor of sciences majors. Forbid grant recipients from changing their majors once grant money is accepted. America doesn't need more writers, artists, and poets. We need more engineers. There is way more than ample precedent for government steering people's decisions with money. 2) Give women preference for these grants just like minorities already do. Why this isn't already the case, I cannot fathom. The sad fact is that if a low-income family has access to a single grant, and they have both a son and a daughter, they're almost always going to choose their son to get the grant, because they're playing the numbers, and the numbers say the son will make more money. You HAVE to solve this problem at the root. Give them a good reason to pick the daughter by making her more likely to receive the grant. 3) Mandate the separation of "trade schools" and "community colleges." This was a mistake on day one and it remains one. AC Repair Men and Research Lab Technicians should not be trained in the same building. Women often simply don't want to spend 4 years being hit on by gruff idiots going to school to learn how to rebuild a car engine. And they shouldn't have to. While we're at it, the guy trying to rebuild car engines shouldn't be forced to learn Biology 101 in order to get a certificate in car repair, so this benefits everyone. 4) Enact strict penalties for police officers for improperly handling rape accusations, and equally enforce existing laws for making false accusations. There are already laws against making false accusations of any criminal offense, rape included. These should be prosecuted to thew fullest extent of the law, and yes, lairs should go to jail. On the other hand, there is no equivalent law or regulation to counter this. Genuine rape victims have the deck stacked against them. If a cop tries to convince them not to file charges, they have no recourse against that cop. Nor do they have any recourse against their aggressor if the cop outright refuses. This is wrong. With the alarming rise in campus rape in the past 10-15 years, this problem is only getting worse, and I can imagine a woman might very well choose not to attend college for safety reasons alone. Handling this is a simple matter of enacting guidelines - which the president or attorney general can do themselves without congress - that create penalties against any officer of the law if they pressure a rape victim not to press charges. These are a few simple, specific solutions that can tackle a large part of the problem. This could be done by a dozen men in Washington in a single day. Why it hasn't been done is unfathomable.