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The government would have you believe that women are beleaguered. That so many of us are denied entry into our fields of choice by discrimination. That women are “underrepresented” in various areas. And that women are not paid as much as men. This might be true for some, but there’s plenty of reason to be envious of women, too. Women outnumber men on university campuses. Women also have lower high-school dropout rates, commit suicide at lower rates, and have experienced less job loss in recent economic downturns than men have. When economists account for all the factors that go into the purported pay gap, it disappears, the result of women’s legitimate choices about work.

Yet we may end up with a budget that focusses exclusively on men in the coming decades, for the simple reason that it is widely accepted and acknowledged that the economy already has a “man problem.” Study after study has shown that technological change and shifting market realities have badly eroded long-term job security in sectors traditionally dominated by men.

There are economic challenges for all of us, man or woman, of course, but using the power of the state to force women into the workforce against their will while ignoring the challenges of men to make a rhetorical point isn’t just insulting, it’s counterproductive.

Andrea Mrozek is family program director at public policy think tank Cardus.