I’m quite torn about this posting, for a number of reasons. My initial reaction was to consider my own experience – for me, women have been “worthy competitors”, and more importantly, mentors, throughout my career. I remember Jana in high-school… untouchable (I mean that grade-wise!!) – we competed for highest-standing every year, and I would regularly lose :-/ I remember vividly Dana, in my undergraduate programme at U of A, and a far superior student to me… beat me every time! Liz – my best friend, and a biochemist (different field), but nevertheless crucified me at every turn grades-wise…and had found the “women in science” programme that had just started at UofA, so was being mentored by successful women faculty members. I learned from a very early age that women were (and always have been) not just my equals, but my competitors! When I finished my PhD, I moved to Germany *specifically* to work for (and with) a woman, who I considered to be the best in the world at her area of science! I have to admit that I smiled and was a bit taken-aback by the way she “mothered” me through my first year with her (e.g. I was not *allowed* to do an experiment by myself! I simply had to stand beside her and watch her do it… and learn…)… but at the end of the day, I *did* learn! I DID absorb what she had to offer, and I am forever grateful to her! (and I cried my eyes out for a week when she died last year ) I am now UBC faculty of medicine, in a department that is dominated by women… our department head is (as of last week) a woman, and most of the faculty members are women. Frankly, I don’t normally notice this – I don’t care! – but in the context of your posting I do notice it.

All this leads me to say that, in **my** world, women have not only become equals, they have often over-taken men v.v. leadership roles. In **my** world, the battle of the sexes is OVER!

…but… I understand that it is not over in all other domains

However, what concerns me more is that the pendulum is swinging too far in the other direction! In the past 5 years I have been listening intently to the numerous reports like the one I am linking below (it isn’t necessarily the BEST one, only the one that I could find off-the-cuff to include in this conversation). Boys are now being *intensively* discriminated-against in our schools! why? Because our entire society has become… feminized! (e.g. http://www.british-ild.com/downloads/articles/Feminisation.pdf) Being “just a normal boy” is now considered to be abhorrent!! Good lord, we don’t want aggression!…but that is un-doing millions of years of evolution!! LOL! We *must* accept that men/women/boys/girls are DIFFERENT, and stop trying to boil them in the same “soup”.

Equally competent, COMPLETELY different in how they get there… and we’re now pandering to the girls, just as we used to pander to the boys… and the result is no better now than it was then.