When I was a lower-level manager at an undisclosed federal agency, we discussed women’s attrition at a particularly contentious staff meeting. The new Director made it her highest priority to find out why women were leaving in droves (you know, instead of actually focusing on the work we were supposed to be doing), and spent an inordinate amount of time and resources interviewing women about their experiences at said agency. I later found out this Director had a community-wide reputation for social justice warfare, and “womyn empowerment” was her raison d’etre, so to speak. Thankfully, Clitler seems to have vanished since her last stint at this agency, so I’m hoping she finally retired to some underground bunker to plan her femtastic world domination, but while she was there, we had to genuflect in front of the vagoo and work to retain as many women as possible.

The results of the Director’s effort to find out why women were leaving a mainly male-dominated, military-focused field (DUH!) were filtered to every office in report form. Women felt marginalized. Women felt harassed by their supervisors’ criticism. Women felt they weren’t treated with respect. There were apparently even instances of sexual harassment, although we weren’t informed whether this was ass-grabbing or merely “offensive” cartoons hanging in someone’s cubicle that got female employees’ frilly panties in a twist. I can tell you that in my years in the military and as a federal civilian, I have never experienced incidents of true harassment. There was an incident I discussed previously in which a (married) supervisor made a pass at me during a deployment, but I shut him down so hard, he literally wilted in front of my eyes, apologized profusely the next day, and never again tried that crap with me.

I guess I’m either unattractive, or scary because I give off a “don’t mess with me, or I will eviscerate you” vibe.

So, back to the staff meeting… we focused on the other problems the delicate snowflakes complained about. They felt marginalized. They had few briefing opportunities. They didn’t like criticism. But at the same time, my female employees tended to need more guidance, spent less time at the office and more time at home with their families, took months at a time off after having kids, and were generally more timid in briefings and meetings. A number of them claimed they felt harangued, because supervisors didn’t see their brilliance and perfection, and saw it fit to edit their work. Now, when I edit written production from anyone on my staff, I generally leave notes and comments in the margins, explaining why I made the correction. Those are called “teaching moments.” Using the “review” function in Word generally makes it look like I bleed all over the paper when I am merely trying to explain my reasoning for the change, and apparently some snowflakes felt I was too tough on them; there were a lot of edits, and they didn’t like that. After all, they were perfect, and how could I not see that?

I waited for a lull in the conversation and said, “Look, I treat all my staff the same. I provide the same kind of feedback for their work, regardless of gender. I don’t give a damn what they have between their legs. My focus is the mission, not their precious feelings, and they’ll just have to put on their big girl pants and deal with it.”

Silence…

Then, cautious laughter…

Then, raucous “attagirls!”

Did I mention I was the only female in the room?

Fast forward several years, and we have sextremists once again demanding equal special treatment of women in the workplace. They don’t care about the obvious differences between men and women. They don’t care that women many times physically cannot match men in the manual labor department. They don’t care that women are more apt to take time off from work for family issues, tend to take months off at a time for pregnancies, and are less likely to work overtime. They don’t even care that women tend to focus their education on soft sciences, music, arts, etc. No, they want equality of outcome at any cost.

You know what happened when a company hired a female with a music degree as chief of security? Equifax.

Today’s Washington Post is a perfect example of a sniveling femorrhoid whining that it will take more than two centuries to close the “workplace equality gap.” According to the World Economic Forum, things are getting “worse” for women. Fewer women are participating in the workforce than in the past, and salaries are growing less equal.

It’s not simply of matter of women making less than men in the same field. Instead, the report’s authors blame the fact that women are more likely than men to do unpaid work at home, and more likely to work in industries with lower average pay. The cherry on top of the inequality ice cream sundae: women are much less likely than men to hold high-paid senior positions worldwide.

Here’s a clue muffragettes: same field =\= same effort or skill.

Let me repeat that. Just because you work in the same field as a man, does not automatically mean your level of effort, your abilities, and your knowledge are equal.

This is not to say that women CANNOT be as skilled and dedicated as men at their jobs. They certainly can and many times are, but this pearl-clutching grievance simply glosses over the fact that for the most part, women’s own choices lead to the alleged inequalities in the workplace. Yes, inequalities exist, but they’re not driven by sexism or discrimination. They’re driven by choices, and that’s what the muff mafia, who persistently push for their version of equality (which really means special treatment for gyno-Americans) don’t seem to understand.

Women choose to stay home with the kids, and for obvious reasons take maternity leave, which leaves employers trying to fill the gap with temporary labor.

Women choose to work in fields with lower average pay. They’re more likely to be teachers, counselors and psychologists, social workers, and artists. Sorry, but those jobs pay very little compared to engineering careers, which are generally dominated by men. Hell, even the ultra-leftist Daily Beast published an article debunking the gender pay gap myth several years ago.

Women are more likely to treasure a work-life balance and are more willing to adjust their careers for family life. That means it’s the men who work longer hours to get the job done.

Are there certain social pressures that discourage girls and women from going into higher paid science, technology, and engineering fields? Probably. Most women I know tend to major in social sciences, rather than math and engineering. This is not a bad thing if this is what interests them, but again, it’s a choice.

American women are some of the most informed and educated people in the world! We have access to technology and opportunities that many others do not. We are individuals. We are strong and determined, and the choices we make are our own. I invite the rainbow-haired Tumblrinas out there to femsplain how intelligent, strong women who are just as good as men, are still manipulated by old-world stereotypes into shunning education in higher paying fields. Go ahead. I’m waiting.

The Post quotes the World Economic Forum report, claiming the United States still boasts big gaps in workforce participation and wages, without delving into the deeper economic and social issues involved, and it makes it sound like the United States is somehow preventing women from achieving parity in the workplace.

The World Economic Forum estimates that the U.S. could add $1.75 trillion to its economy by reaching parity. “The world as a whole could increase global GDP by $5.3 trillion by 2025 if it closed the gender gap in economic participation by 25 percent  over the same period,” the report’s authors conclude.

Yeah, it would be great, but we’re a free country, and we offer women opportunities to choose. That’s what so great about the United States: we value our freedom to choose to work as hard or as little as we want, we have the option of staying home and raising families, or diving balls deep into our careers.

The opportunities for women are there. They just have to CHOOSE to take advantage of them