Throughout most of history, women have had very different, yet still very important roles in society. In the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s, not nearly as many women worked outside the home as today. Even today, women are more likely to be stay at home parents or work part time. That is *gasp* women’s choice to be sahm or work part time. I see women on Facebook complain alllll the time about “wishing” they could be sahm’s.
I just wanted to address this. Yes, women are choosing to stay home, or work part-time, but it is not a decision that is made in a vacuum. They are assessing a bunch of different factors in that decision, and there are a lot of systemic issues that make staying at home more palatable for women. You actually address one in your next paragraph.
What’s funny, is my wife and I are young (no kids, but plan to have some) and my wife doesn’t work. She stays busy with things around where we live, hobbies, etc, but no work. Her earning potential simply isn’t worthwhile for us with my income.
A big reason that she stays home is that her earning potential is much less than yours. So unless she absolutely loved her job, why would she keep working? And why is her earning potential so much lower? Her individual choices, of course, but there are systemic, sexist reasons why women end up in lower paying jobs. To start with, back in the 30s to 50s, it was legal to pay women less than a man for the same work. So careers that attracted women were paid less for blatantly sexist reasons. And those careers are still paid less due to inertia, and justified by saying (incorrectly) that free-market just doesn't value those contributions as much, and it's not our fault women like that kind of work (not to mention the cultural forces telling girls and boys what careers they should or should not be interested in when they grow up).
The problem with sexism (and racism) today is that, with rare exceptions, it is not blatant anymore. There are entrenched systemic issues that are not easily seen or fixed, but all people hear when they hear women cry sexism, is 'mad men' type blatant sexism that really isn't a problem anymore.
So nowadays, a woman and a man in the same role, same job, are generally paid the same. But men tend to end up in higher paying careers due to residual effects from blatant sexism decades ago.
And mothers are excluded from promotion tracks because it's 'common knowledge' that a woman will value her children over her career, so don't bother promoting her, cause she'll end up wanting to go part time anyway. And then she eventually does go part time because she has been passed over for promotion repeatedly, while her husband has been promoted several times. So now he makes more, and it makes financial sense for her to go part-time rather than him. And those who originally passed her over feel justified in their decision.
The woman who doesn't have kids avoids that particular booby-trap, but is still promoted at a lesser rate than men if there is a boys' club mentality. It is perfectly natural for those in power to promote their friends, and those that they know well. So if there is a robust friend network that excludes women (because our language might get raunchy and offend; or women just won't be interested in what men are), then promotions will naturally go to the friend group, and to men. Or even worse than the boys club is the leader who won't spend time alone with women (aka Pence) in order to protect his moral purity. So now he can mentor young men into a promotion track, but women are excluded.
All of these things are little, but they are cumulative. And they are hard to eradicate because they are not blatant.
To get this back to the fanboy discussion, I don't believe that most people are being sexist in their choices. Instead I think that our system is set up to favor men, and they are seen as mainstream. So men are promoted and shown more, so more people are exposed to them and like them. For instance, if I want to watch sports on OTA television, I don't have any options other than the most popular (aka mens' sports). And if I have cable or internet, there are simply many more male options than female. Many other posters have pointed this out.