Does "male privilege" exist?

Hi.



I saw this argument:



http://ift.tt/KKzyXl

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrew Ahmed Raslan "Male privilege is the gender ratio in the government" - while the female population somewhat outnumbers the male population in the West in terms of numbers, and all females of age have the right to vote. "Male privilege is the income gap" - statistically, more women major in social sciences and liberal arts than men, while more men major in science and engineering that women. Social sciences are not as well-paid, regardless of the sex of the person in the field, as engineering or the sciences are. That would account for the income gap in people with higher education, although I admit I could not speak for those without higher studies, simply because I'm not really part of any social circles that aren't made of people with higher studies. "Every little nook and cranny in our culture which views men as inherently stronger in all regards" - in a society so "concerned" with equality, this is obviously no longer the case - schools teach equality of genders, if not female preference and putting females on a pedestal, and the education we receive during our earliest years counts the most for people with low levels of self-awareness (which is basically the majority of people). Furthermore, why is it that nobody cares about prejudices that display women as being inherently better than men in several regards, such as charisma, social intelligence, ability to be a caretaker, agility and muscle flexibility, or linguistic capacity? Oh, that's right, because feminists are one-sided bigots who have nothing better to do with their lives than play the victim card rather than contribute something to society and when that society rewards them in accordance with their lack of contribution, they distort the facts in frustration and play the victim card in another area/from another perspective. Argument. Destroyed. Namaste.

So is this correct -- "male privilege" does not exist, in fact socially, there is equality, and furthermore that apparent biases in various fields' gender ratios are not due to any kind of problem with the society, but simply free choice (and there's nothing involving sexism motivating that choice)?



What does one need to do to assess the existence of "male privilege" correctly? How can one determine whether or not women are simply "choosing" not to go into such fields simply due to personal preference alone and it has nothing to do with any sort of discouragement due to any kind of sexism or discrimination whatsoever?



Is there any kind of actual evidence (other than just assertions) about whether or not "male privilege" exists, whether or not that women's choices in these matters are solely motivated by personal preference and other things unrelated to sexism, or whether or not some form of discrimination is involved somewhere down the line? Are there any good studies on this topic?



Is there any kind of "objective" or "right" answer on whether or not "male privilege" exists? What is the best way to form one's own opinion with regards to this?

via JREF Forum http://ift.tt/LY1YhV