Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

Biden’s ‘Gender Equity’ Plan Would Treat Women Like Cogs In A Machine

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In late October, the Biden White House somewhat quietly released its new “National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality.” Although the 42-page document was ostensibly dedicated to promoting “equity and equality,” in truth it appears to be far more motivated by corporate America’s thirst for obscene profits and woke bureaucrats’ insatiable pursuit of power.

The first giveaway line comes about ten pages in: “Simply put, our nation’s economy and the global economy cannot reach their full potential when half of the workforce is left behind.”

Who is this “half of the workforce?” Why, all adult women, of course. Every person belongs fundamentally to the workforce, as if the entire worth and fulfillment of a human being lay in their contribution to the economy, according to the plan’s Democrat authors. And, under this premise, it is a major problem that some of them — namely, women — aren’t contributing as much as they could.

Coming from a party that claims to stand up to corporate interests, this message is shockingly deaf to the concerns of the average working family. For example, do stay-at-home mothers have a detrimental effect on the global economy if they are not actively holding down a job?

There is no mention of the beneficial effects of mothers spending time with their own children, or of the goods which come from strengthened familial connections. The only consideration to be found is the need of putting mothers back to work.

To further encourage this end, the document promotes the expansion of “care” programs for children of increasingly younger ages. This allows a mother to conveniently leave her kids, who are not yet of school age, in the arms of a government employee while she herself is “free” to pursue any form of labor, menial or otherwise, she wishes.

Once again, this has nothing to do with helping the average working family. If anything, it centers around breaking families up, replacing parental involvement with government influence.

Unfortunately, it only gets worse from there. Consider the document’s plan to ensure safety and “equity” in the workforce. Despite the many paragraphs dedicated toward preventing sexual harassment and ensuring women are considered for plush corporate positions, there is no plausible suggestion which would actually accomplish these things. In fact, the proposals that are put forward would likely only worsen the plight of many women.

Under the guise of criminal justice reform, for example, the document calls for policymakers to “address barriers to reentry into the labor force from the criminal justice system, particularly those barriers that are unique to women, girls, and gender nonconforming people.” So, to protect women and care for them properly, Democrats want to make it easier to allow criminals back into the public workforce? And don’t forget that these particular female carveouts will also apply to those men who claim to be transgender and are placed in women’s prisons. Just ask California’s women prisoners how this policy is working out for them so far.

The problems also extend to the document’s attempt to promote “equity” in education. Here, the actual quality of education, something that affects every child regardless of gender (and particularly those underprivileged children who cannot afford private schools and tutors), is given only lip-service at best. Instead, the plan’s “real” concern is to make sure that gender-fluid students are allowed into whichever bathrooms they choose, despite the risks posed to other students.

Democrats would rather fight to normalize “alternative” lifestyles in children’s literature than to teach a child to think. Examples like the tragic sexual assaults in Loudoun County, Virginia, schools serve as evidence of what their “equality and equity” mean for America’s students.

At the end of all this, the truth is clear: the Biden White House couldn’t care less about women’s safety and well-being. Its focus on “closing the gender gaps” in almost every area listed in this document is merely a matter of producing certain superficial outcomes without any regard for the complex reality in which working families actually live.

Democrats are seeking to play the overbearing parent who will force girls to become engineers and boys to become homemakers in order to balance the numbers they see as historically unjust. They aren’t trying to help women; they’re trying to control us and line their pocketbooks while doing it. Americans should reject this vision, lest we all become merely genderless cogs in a bureaucrat-controlled machine: equally ranked, equally insignificant, and equally powerless.

Sandra Kirby is a policy associate for American Principles Project.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.