Go ahead... call me a Feminist

Feminist
Does calling me that make you feel better?
Do you think I am insulted by that?

I read someone's post here, and I've heard it before, elsewhere: When did being called a Feminist become a slur?
Feminism is the strong belief that women are equal. That no one should be treated differently, for a job, for their house, or for life, no matter what gender they are. Being treated equally doesn't mean someone else has to lose.
Rights are not a ZERO sum game.

When someone advocates for women's rights, they are advocating for all.
Women's rights is the same as men's rights. As a human, I want the best for those around me.
For all, around me. If they are better than I am, too.

Being treated equally doesn't mean someone else has to lose.
I look at the women in my life:
My mom. My wife. My daughters. My friends.
They have to work twice as hard, to get paid half as much as men do.
It's not right. It's not fair. It's obscene.

Being treated equally doesn't mean someone else has to lose.
Mom raised two of us, while working. So did my dad. They were a partnership.
Mom didn't raise me to be a man's man. She didn't raise me to be anything other than good and decent (or so I like to think.) She taught me to cook and clean. She taught me to skate and play hockey.
So did dad, too! He taught me to cook as well.

Being treated equally doesn't mean someone else has to lose.
Mom worked well past time she needed to, because she wanted to.
It wasn't until much later I learned, she got less money for the same work as some of her male counterparts.
Mothers and fathers who want to make the world a better place need to raise their boys and girls to understand that they can both be and do anything they want.

Being treated equally doesn't mean someone else has to lose.
My daughters?
They went to the same schools as I did.
I had an awesome education, and for quite a while, so did they.
until, first year of high school, my oldest came home devastated. She had been told by a teacher that she didn't need to learn math or science, because she was a girl

Being treated equally doesn't mean someone else has to lose.
Time and again, I hear from my cousins, or my female friends, that they are getting less money than men, for the same work, or working even harder and getting less money.

Being treated equally doesn't mean someone else has to lose.
Well, call me a feminist, but, I'm tired of this.
I'm tired of hearing all this, and letting my male friends and colleagues know: it ends now!

For a pasty white guy, who grew up in a very privileged family and town, I could skate by in life, and not lift a finger to help.
Except, it only hurts me, in the end.
It hurts my daughters, and their friends.
It hurts those around me.

Being treated equally doesn't mean someone else has to lose.
One of the ways I have spent dealing with this, is my mentoring.
For a decade plus now, I have been working with kids, including young women, in STEM.
Science, Technology Engineering, and Math.

I have tons of contacts, and finding ways to get the kids I mentor on a few High School Robotics teams, connected with female leaders in STEM is important to me. I want the young of today to see leaders, superstars, and role models that look like them.

Being treated equally doesn't mean someone else has to lose.
Science, Technology, Engineering and Math is NOT about being male or female.
It's about nothing less than the very best, getting involved in making the future of our planet a better place.

...oh, and to my daughter's high school science teacher?
Screw You! She's enrolled at a major University in the Natural Sciences and Conservation Program.

Lookout world, the future is in their hands and the world's gonna be brighter than ever!