Egalitarianism is tougher than it looks sometimes. I wish it was as easy as being the champion fence sitter that some people think we are. In reality, by not taking a side we often end up as everyone’s enemy or at least someone to regard with scorn. We want to participate in the fight for equality without taking part in the Oppression Olympics, and people despise us for it.

Surely, every egalitarian wonders at some point, “Are there any issues Feminists and MRAs can work together on?” because surely they can’t always be at odds. Well, look no further! Except do because only looking at one source is a really dumb thing to do, especially on a website with no quality control like Medium.

Here are some issues that we can work toward together.

Incentivizing Fatherhood And The Working Woman

Incentivizing fatherhood is an overall good no matter which way you slice it. The stay at home husband would mean endless opportunities for a career oriented woman. It would lower the rate of workplace deaths for men and give them purpose and direction. All while fighting gender roles and societal expectations.

Not to mention, a functioning family unit is important for a child’s development. Fatherlessness correlates with a whole range of problems for children. To pick a few:

90% of runaway children have an absent father.

85% of youths in jail have an absent father.

71% of drop-outs have an absent father.

I could go on. Science has even linked father loss to reduced telomere length. So apart from the obvious and wide ranging benefits to families and children, how would incentivizing fatherhood change the gender war?

Fatherhood In The Face Of Male Disposability

Men make up between 70–80% of suicides depending on where you are in the world. They also make up as much as 93% of deaths on the job and do I even need to bring up deaths in the military? The point is men are dying left, right, and centre. Part of the problem could be not having anything to live for in the long term. If we praised and incentivised fatherhood in our culture it would give men something to aim toward. Once you have a kid you have a purpose for the next 18 years plus. Fatherhood should be something we praise a gush about just as much as motherhood. Even from a young age the role of a parent should be held up high.

It isn’t hard to make this change. Even in the God of War franchise noticed this untapped goldmine. In their latest game, the battle-hardened Kratos now has a son who he navigates the world with.

It’s such a little thing, but one of gamings iconic symbols of pure testosterone and masculinity is a father. I should also mention that this particular God of War game has an unusually high story completion rate. Above 50% in fact, which is above average even in AAA games. It’s clear this story is resonating with boys who make up the majority of gamers.

Women Benefit From Stay At Home Fathers

With a husband being the primary caretaker it leaves the wife of the house free to pursue a career. Having more men at home with the kids will directly influence the pay gap because it will remove some of the competition. If there was a majority shift where men became the caretakers it would greatly influence the effect of parenting on a woman’s career other than the initial pregnancy. It may also discourage women from taking time off and further help towards closing the pay gap. It would also contribute to closing the spending gap since men would be doing the shopping instead of women.

This would stir a huge change not just in the political world but in the media in general. No longer would the father be portrayed as a hopeless goofball in cleaning commercials. Instead he would be the competent and cool shopper. If we were to even out this spending disparity a enough to upset the media advertising status quo we can begin to guess the positive effect on our children’s self-esteem. Not only that, but such representations contribute to making such things more societally acceptable. So essentially, if we had more stay at home fathers in control of the family money we would create a better environment for future stay at home fathers and career women.

Raise The Wages Of Care Related Careers

Full disclosure, I’m a teacher so I might be a little biased. That said, care careers do not pay well, whether it be teaching, social work, or customer service. These are female dominated careers and it is easy to see what is happening. Women tend to be more agreeable than men. It isn’t just that they don’t ask for raises, it is also that wages slowly slip down and we allow it to happen.

The difficult part is how do we fix this? Do we make a law that puts a floor on how low these careers can go? We already have minimum wage but should there be some sort of second layer of protection for those qualified in these careers? One thing is for sure, men tend toward picking higher paying jobs. If care jobs paid more we would see more men in these positions. Not only that, but having men in this sector would help stop the wages from slipping so much since men don’t tend to be as agreeable.

More men in care could make a huge difference in the lives of children. Just think how this would counter female on male abuse on children, or how it might positively impact schools to bring different styles of teaching to the table. It is another all around good for everyone if we can find a way to accomplish it.

Better Safety Standards In The Workplace

On the same note as the previous answer, we also have to look into work safety. Generally speaking, women are more risk-averse than men. So if we want to see more female representation than we need to put a lot more pressure on certain sectors when it comes to workplace safety.

Essentially, if these jobs were safer it would make them more accessible to women. Not only that, but it would help stem the huge percentage of male workplace deaths. That’s good for everyone!

Make Law Sexy

A common thing to come up in any FEMRA debate is the sentencing gap. It is simply a fact that women are sentenced much more lightly than men for the same crimes. Obviously, this leaves a bad taste in any egalitarian’s mouth, but what causes it?

Well, to be quite honest this is a male problem more than a feminist one. Men are generally more sympathetic toward women. Especially, large breasted pretty ones. So how do we fight this? Well, we need more women in law. Women sentence other women far more harshly than men. They have no in-built reflex to hold back on other women. In fact, nature would dictate certain benefits to taking down other women, especially the pretty ones. In short, we need more ruthless women to get into law and take out the trash.

Law needs a PR campaign to help attract some foxy ladies.

Make Grading Anonymous In Schools

In recent years it has come to light that gender biased grading is hurting both boys and girls. This can range from teachers grading girls easier in the sciences to encourage them to pursue them to teachers subconsciously discriminating against them. This is happening to both genders in a variety of ways with unpredictable effects.

The easiest way to remove this glaring fault in our system is to make grading anonymous. Assigning students numbers instead of names and sending the work to other teachers. This would reduce the number of tests since arbitrary tests would have a negative impact on school finances. It would also kill this form of sexism dead in the water.

I hope this inspires you to go out there and make a difference! This piece was inspired by a question I was asked on Quora so if you have a question for me feel free to throw them my way here. If you want to support me on Patreon you can follow this link.