Gender realism

Re: The myth of cure- all female corporate boards. Barbara Kay, Feb. 7

I have long admired Barbara Kay’s attempts to combat and defuse the demonization of the male sex.

I love her refusal to buy into the notion that the possession of ovaries or testes automatically qualifies any person to do any job. She has been around long enough to know first- hand that, while nurturing the young may be a biological imperative in most women, there are individual men who are better at that than some women. She’s also been around long enough to notice that a household ( or a company or a nation) cannot function when all its constituents see aggression and competitiveness as primary values. Ms. Kay is not a sexist; she’s attempting to be a realist.

She falls a bit short of realism when she writes, “Women self- select for the career roles they want.” There is no doubt that this is true of many women and I look forward to a time when it is true of all women and all men. But for women who find themselves in traditions (cultural, religious or corporate) that are hostile to female bosses, self- selection of career is an oxymoron.

Having said that, her example of the Humane Society of the United States is a good reminder that there isn’t much evidence to sug- gest that women are less subject to the corrupting influence of power than men are.

Kurt Weinheimer, Toronto