Gender equality
A thorny issue in modern times arising from the cultural wars of the 60s is the one involving feminism and the push for gender equality. Today ABC radio had a morning interview (on Fran Kelly's Breakfast show) with a relatively new department of the Federal Government dealing with gender equality and this always seems to mean (ultimately demeaning to women) feminist ideas that women are inferior and need a helping hand to make them more equal with men. I'm certain that many behind this idea would sacrifice merit for the ultimate goal of simply having more women in managerial jobs.
The argument went along the lines of encouraging organisations to set targets for women employed in managerial positions and this was with the implicit threat that if it wasn't voluntary then it would set in train motions to legislate mandatory quotas!
The interviewee Helen Conway (director of the newly created Workplace Gender Equality Agency) made sure that she mentioned that they were happy to work with organisations in consultation to assist them in setting targets and goals etc. I understood this to be a form of advertising for their services and seeking to find some sort of justification to exist and continue sucking on taxpayer funds.
Anyhow she ended the interview by saying that the goal of gender equality movements was to achieve "gender blindness" so that gender did not play a part in employment decisions.
The way I see it, feminists like her are the complete antithesis of gender blind - choosing to see and frame everything in terms of gender! In fact if they were truly gender blind then they wouldn't need to exist since it wouldn't matter if a job was being done by a man or a woman. As long as the job was done. That's what matters in the end after all. Nevertheless I am sure that she was unlikely to have thought of how contrary her stated goal of gender blindness is to her underlying agenda.