A Call to Action

The reviews of President Carter’s latest book, A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power, have been generally very favorable and rightly so. So I only offer two of my favorite quotations:

it touches every nation, perpetuating and expanding the trafficking in human slaves, body mutilation, and even legitimized murder on a massive scale. This system is based on the presumption that men and boys are superior to women and girls, and it is supported by some male religious leaders who distort the Holy Bible, the Koran, and other sacred texts to perpetuate their claim that females are, in some basic ways, inferior to them, unqualified to serve God on equal terms. Many men disagree but remain quiet in order to enjoy the benefits of their dominant status. This false premise provides a justification. . . .

and

Among current presidents of colleges and universities, 23 percent are women, the number having doubled during the past twenty-five years, but the overall pay gap was about the same as in general employment, with women’s pay in full-time faculty positions about 80 percent of men’s. A 2013 study at Yale University showed that established professionals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (the STEM subjects) are much more willing to give a job to a young male scientist than a woman with the same qualifications. If they did hire the woman, her average annual salary was nearly $4,000 lower than the man’s. It was striking to note that interviewed female scientists were at least as biased against hiring and paying women as their male counterparts.

For readers who need a lighter approach to this heavy subject of profound and pervasive sexism and / or for those who won’t appreciate reading Jimmy Carter reviewing his legacy and current work towards worldwide egalitarianism, I offer this:

thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/t3jp2g/jimmy-carter-pt–2