The Thing About Gender Parity

There are plenty of women that are happy to argue their faces blue about gender parity, but here's the thing about that:

We've won our civil rights battle. There are no laws left to stop us from pursuing what we define to be success; and for many women, that definition may be different from those of many men.

Talking parity, instead of actively pursuing what you really want, is a way of asking permission from The World of Men* to do things men simply don't ask permission to do. I don't know why this is; blame conditioning, or even the biological differences between XX and XY, but the glass ceiling is bloody well cracked** and the only thing keeping you from rocketing past it is you.

If you're still bitching about parity, consider that what you're looking for is not parity but the opportunity to be successful.

Success is not parity.

Success is exceptional. So shut the fuck up and go do exceptional things.***

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*It will continue to be The World of Men as long as we treat it like it has the power to grant us something.

**Ask Mary Wells Lawrence, who had REAL issues with parity during that period romanticized by Mad Men.

***Oh, and maybe read fewer things like this and more things like this.