Society! We’ve made so much progress in the last 50 years. There’s … there’s … spaceships, and … other, better spaceships?
I’ll be honest. I don’t really know what has happened in the world since like last Wednesday.
But many other denizens of this planet who are cognizant of shit like that think we’ve come a long way. One major stride we’ve made has been toward equality of the sexes.
No longer are women’s career choices resigned to having their ass slapped by Don Draper after his fourth scotch or having their ass slapped by Don Draper after his sixth scotch.
Nope, now women can be motorists and pilots and matadors (maybe?) and chefs. All sorts of jobs and livelihoods that were once solely the domain of men are now available to women.
And us modern millennial men, we are totally chill with it and don’t harbor any resentment whatsoever because we are cognizant that this progress is a good thing and women are just as and often more so capable than men and a fair and equitable society that renders gender irrelevant is a good thing.
Right. We all believe that. All us dudes are in agreement because this is 2016 and we are not at all like men of the past, those boorish brutes with their scotches and their ass slapping.
Right?
Nope.
A new paper by the Harvard Business Review found men are just as sexist as ever.
Men! Just as sexist as ever (not a bad slogan for us, tbh).
The proof is everywhere.
In February 2016 researchers at the National Institutes of Health published a study on how college biology students view their classmates’ intelligence and achievements. The researchers found that male students systematically overestimated the knowledge of the men in their classes in comparison with the women. Moreover, as the academic term progressed, the men’s faulty appraisal of their classmates’ abilities increased despite clear evidence of the women’s superior class performance.
But that’s just like … because like … you know … there’s stuff that …
Millennial men’s views of women’s intelligence and ability even extend to women in senior leadership positions. In a 2014 survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults, Harris Poll found that young men were less open to accepting women leaders than older men were. Only 41% of Millennial men were comfortable with women engineers, compared to 65% of men 65 or older. Likewise, only 43% of Millennial men were comfortable with women being U.S. senators, compared to 64% of Americans overall.
Because it’s like … what you’ve got to understand is that … I think you’re thinking that we don’t like women, which … let me explain …
Moreover, according to a 2013 Pew survey of Americans, Millennial women are significantly more likely than older women to say that the country needs to continue making changes to bring about equality in the workplace, but Millennial men are the group most likely to say that all necessary changes have been made.
Right, see … there’s just been so much progress made that like … we need to …
Taken together, this body of research should dispel any notion that Millennial men “see women as equals.”
Yea.
That’s probably true.
Hey, at least we don’t need to pretend anymore.
[H/T @lemonsand]