Equal rights between women and men? I'm against!

There are many reasons that society need children. One of them is for the children to pay for the elder population's social security when they pay taxes as adults.

Another benefit is the perpetuation of the human race, though this is disputable given the state of the planet.

Having children costs women an estimated $500,000 to $600,000 in lost career earnings over a 30-year span. This drop in income is known as the motherhood penalty. It accounts for nearly 80% of the remaining gender wage gap, as men's earnings typically remain stable or increase (the "fatherhood boost") after having children.

The Earnings Gap • Annual pay: Working mothers earn a median of about $55,276 to $56,680 per year, compared to $72,280 to $76,388 for fathers. • Per-dollar ratio: Mothers make roughly 71 cents for every dollar earned by fathers for full-time work. • Career trajectory: A woman's income drops sharply after childbirth and often fails to fully recover even a decade later.

Key Factors Driving the Loss

• Workforce interruptions: Women are far more likely to exit the workforce temporarily or reduce their working hours. • Flexibility trade-offs: Unequal distribution of care work pushes mothers toward lower-paying, flexible, or part-time roles. • Hiring and promotion bias: Studies show managers are less likely to hire or promote mothers, or offer them lower starting salaries compared to childless women.

Long-Term Financial Impact • Retirement security: Lower lifetime earnings directly reduce Social Security benefits, pension accumulations, and individual retirement savings (401k/IRA). • Compounding effect: Missing out on peak career advancement years (ages 25–35) permanently flattens a woman's wage growth curve.

The physical costs of pregnancy • Gestational changes: Alters cardiovascular, endocrine, and musculoskeletal systems permanently for some. • Childbirth trauma: Includes pelvic floor damage, tearing, or surgical recovery from cesarean sections (C-sections). • Chronic conditions: Increases risks for long-term issues like urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, and chronic back pain.

The physical costs of fertility

• Women undergo monthly cycles and major life transitions (pregnancy, perimenopause, menopause) where estrogen and progesterone drop precipitously. Men experience a slow, steady drop in testosterone of about 1% per year past age 30. • Bone Health: Women face a much higher risk of Osteoporosis and earlier bone density loss because postmenopausal estrogen withdrawal accelerates bone resorption. Men lose bone mass much more gradually. • Brain and Mental Health: Women face twice the risk of Alzheimer's disease and higher rates of mood and anxiety disorders linked to lifetime hormonal fluctuations and eventual estrogen withdrawal. Men have continuous, lower-level neural conversion of testosterone that provides partial neuroprotection. • Cardiovascular and Metabolic Health: Premenopausal estrogen protects women by supporting healthy fat distribution and lipid profiles. After menopause, cardiovascular and metabolic risks rise sharply, matching or exceeding male risk profiles as this protection wanes.

Women need to be rewarded for their service to society instead of being penalized There are many ways this blatant injustice can be redressed. For example, it should be legal that women be charged 70% of what men pay when buying. The price would be raised for men, and lowered for women in order for the merchant not to be prejudiced. Women should get grants every time they have a child. France lost a lot of population because of its two wars in the 20th Century. Their grants to families for children helped repopulate the country. The cost to women's health should be addressed systematically. Hence, women should have more rights than men because they serve society with their bodies. Imagine women went on pregnancy strike?! Society would have to come back crawling.

In the late 19th century, there were dreamers who thought that people should get money when they became old, or when they lost their jobs, that women should get paid leave when they had a child, that children shouldn't work, that housing should be salubre, that education should be free. People thought they were crazy.

I am such a dreamer.

Caterina Campodonico was a peanut seller in Genoa, Italy, who saved her hard earned money to buy herself a monument (above). Women, mothers, need to be celebrated.