The UN's War on Gender

The left is pushing for ratification of the UN treaty on women's rights. The treaty though may undermine the privacy and freedoms of American women.

Recently, the United States Senate held the first round of hearings on the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).  Despite having been adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979, the treaty has never been ratified by the Senate.

The National Organization for Women (NOW) and other supporters claim, “in agreeing to ratify CEDAW, countries agree to take concrete action to improve the status of women and girls.”  NOW applauds countries such as France for improving “maternity leave and child care for women working outside the home” after having ratified the UN Women’s Treaty.

French women are equally as pleased with recent advancements in improving maternity leave and childcare.   However, it is only with respect to issues surrounding maternity and childcare benefits that French interests and CEDAW coincide.

According to the 2010 Gender Gap Report, the majority of French women (65%) are employed, however, only a small portion of these women occupy high-level, fulltime jobs. The fact that women are still earning half of men’s average salary is seldom a point of controversy for French women.  Conversely, women’s labor force participation is a point of pride.  While living in Paris, my professors and peers frequently boasted that – thanks to la sécurité sociale – most French mothers returned to work soon after having a baby.  Not only were women happily returning to work, it was an accepted norm.

While concerns about absolute gender equality may not agitate French women, they are intensely motivated by policies that threaten state-sponsored benefits sustaining the status quo.  When French Justice Minister Rachida Dati returned to work just five days after giving birth, French feminists were outraged.  They claimed that her example "could be used to undermine hard-won and generous maternity rights".

The very nature of these coveted benefits emphasizes gender differences so as to promote the most effective, beneficial policies.  For instance, because women play a more active role in tending to a newborn, the government guarantees new mothers 16 weeks paid maternity leave.  Similarly, the government devotes whatever funds necessary to cover all hospitalization fees, as well as costs of pre and post-natal medical exams.  In essence, by emphasizing gender roles, the government has implemented effective, well-liked policies.

However, despite NOW’s simultaneous endorsement of both the CEDAW Treaty and French maternity and childcare policies, the Treaty harshly condemns societies like France for allowing sex roles to persist.  If more women are working, but working and making less than men in order to be at home with the children, the UN Treaty monitors will demand a “solution.”

CEDAW does not take into account that the majority of women would prefer standards enjoyed by French women, rather than the egalitarian feminist standards proposed by the Treaty.

In a misguided attempt to promote equality, the UN Women’s Treaty calls for the complete elimination of sex roles, and all policies – no matter how effective – recognizing gender differences.  According to feminist author Christina Hoff Sommers, if implemented in the United States, CEDAW “would be a weapon for hard-line feminists in groups like NOW to wield against the rest of us.”  The Treaty’s egalitarian feminist provisions threaten both the advancement of women and “the privacy, well-being, and basic freedoms of Americans.”