Book Review: Gender equality: Women and men are different but equally important

Abstract

In Gender Equality: Women and Men Are Different but Equally Important, John Bancroft intends to argue, as the title of the book implies, that women andmen are different but equally important. Across nine chapters, Bancroft establishes a solid and well-researched foundation of background evidence and theory for this thesis, which becomes fully developed in Chapter 10 (“My Dream of Gender Equality”). Throughout the book, Bancroft also offers anecdotes regarding his own experience as a researcher, psychiatrist, and sexologist that make for an informative, succinct, and interesting read. General topics covered include physiological sex development (Chapter 2), birth control (Chapter 7), historical roots of patriarchical social systems (Chapters 3 and 4), considerations of religion (Chapter 6) and race (Chapter 5) as influences on discriminatory social structure, feminism (Chapter 8), and modern evidence of gender equality (Chapter 9). Bancroft’s thesis seems to reconcile modern feminist narratives of gender existing as a social construct in a patriarchal system that privileges men, with biological, physiological, and other evidence that suggests statistically probable differences between those assigned at birth to be male or female. The latter influences, in particular with respect to reproductive ones, highlight the ways that many women and men differ, though they are equally important despite historically and currently prevalent forms of overt and blatant gender-based discrimination. Indeed, the author addresses the problematic, disproportionate representation in places such as the workforce, in the division of domestic labor and childcare, and in holders of political office (Chapter 10). Bancroft proposes a two-team model with each team comprising of only women and only men, wherein each team works collaboratively rather than competitively. By having socially vital institutions occupied equally by women and men, Bancroft argues that hierarchical systems that conventionally privilege men can be balanced such that progress toward true gender equality can be made. However, the scope of this two-team model seems to require some additional considerations. A strength of Bancroft’s review of the differences between women and men (Chapter 2) is its focus on biological and physiological factors, developmental and sociocultural factors, and legal and political factors, all of which serve to highlight and validate the complexity of our understanding of what exactly the social categories of women and men are. At the same time, Bancroft uses the terms gender, women, and men throughout these discussions without articulating whether or not this refers to biological sex, sex designation, outward appearance, or identity despite these dimensions having differentiating terminologies. As an example, Bancroft’s discussion of “the role of testosterone in the sexuality of women and men” (p. 10) presupposes exclusively cisgender individuals who develop sexual interest as women and men. Within the same chapter, Bancroft labels particular aspects of biological development as “normal” and “abnormal,” while these terms are intended to refer to development that is statistically probable or optimal for one’s health, they are also used for more ambiguous and loaded topics such as gender identity development. Additionally, Bancroft uses the terms transgenderism and transsexuality interchangeably. More attention to definitions of these terms, as well as a careful and deliberate choice of terminology, would help to clarify the perspective the author intends. Beyond the language used, I finished reading the book with many questions about exactlywho belonged in Bancroft’s vision for a society in which gender equality existed. Bancroft argues that “the fundamental requirement for gender equality is that it exists and prevails in the close, committed relationship between a woman and a man” (p. 159), as this is where patriarchy originates. Although Bancroft in detail considers and reviews nuances of feminist theory and scholarship (Chapters 8 and 9), the critique of patriarchy that follows in his two-team vision for the society, however, seems to exclusively consider heterosexual, consensually monogamous relationships between cisgender two-person pairings of people capable of and/or interested in procreating or adopting children, which by contrast makes ambiguous how people without one of these identities would operate in this system. Additionally, Bancroft’s discussions of patriarchy based on race and religion (Chapters 5 and 6) lay the groundwork for exploring how the understanding of structural inequality based on gender benefits from an intersectional perspective that considers intersectional identities (e.g., the inequality experienced by Black men and Black women as distinct from the experiences of men and women or of Black individuals more broadly); however, this is not fully integrated in his discussion about a two-team model. Clearly, systematic oppression does not solely exist at the level of sex/gender and other identities might influence how power operates. Ultimately, Gender Equality: Women and Men Are Different but Equally Important offers the critical reader a strong background and review of relevant literature and insightful anecdotal experience of its author; while well-intentioned regarding the inclusion of marginalized identities, however, the offered vision of a more equal society through a two-team system may need further intentional consideration of those that neither team implicitly or explicitly invites.