The Female Privilege Checklist

by Karen Straughan

If you truly disagree with the fact that women are more privileged than men, please give substantial reasoning…

1) People are likely to assume I am a warm and empathetic person.

2) People are likely to assist me when I must perform a physically arduous task.

3) If my car breaks down or I am otherwise in distress, people will be more likely to stop and help me.

4) If I am being physically assaulted, no matter the gender of my assailant, it is more likely that passersby will intervene.

5) People are likely to assume I am a competent parent, unless and until I prove otherwise.

6) People are more likely to respect my right to be offended by inappropriate or impolite behavior.

7) If I yell, people are not likely to believe I am going to hurt them.

8) Dress codes in the workplace and in leisure contexts are more likely to allow me to choose clothing that emphasize my most attractive features and minimize those I am unhappy with.

9) I am allowed by society to wear make-up to make myself more attractive without anyone questioning my sexual orientation. I am given a large social leeway in the kinds of hairstyles I can choose that will flatter my facial features.

10) If I work in a profession that is dominated by the opposite gender, people are likely to see it as “heroic”, or a sign of social progress, rather than that I am deficient in some way.

11) If I show weakness, the first response of most people will be to console or help me, not criticize me, ignore me, or dismiss me as pathetic.

12) I am not expected to make the “first move” when meeting members of the opposite sex for the purposes of dating.

13) Members of the opposite gender are expected to make the first move; therefore, it is less likely I will be sexually rejected by those I come into close contact with in a dating context.

14) I am not expected to spend a significant portion of my yearly income on a token that accompanies a marriage proposal.

15) I am less likely to be expected to spend a significant amount of money on gifts, tokens, and activities during courtship and dating.

16) If I am having dinner with a member of the opposite gender in a dating context, and I do not reach for the check, people are unlikely to assume I am cheap.

17) If I am having dinner with a member of the opposite gender in a non-dating context, and I do not reach for the check, people are still unlikely to assume I am cheap.

18) If I earn less than my partner, no one will look at me funny.

19) If I earn nothing and my partner supports me, no one will look at me funny.

20) If I am unemployed and my partner is supporting me, people other than my partner are unlikely to pressure me because I am “not trying hard enough” to find employment.

21) If I earn less than my partner, people are unlikely to expect me to contribute equally to our living expenses.

22) If I am skilled in activities/hobbies that are commonly attributed to the opposite gender (kick boxing, operating power tools, shingling a roof, knitting, scrap-booking, floral arranging), people will see me as admirable. No one is likely to think I am a weirdo or wonder if I’m gay.

23) If I am completing a task with a member of the opposite gender, it will be expected that they take the greater physical burden–such as carrying the heavier boxes.

24) If I cry or am hurt, men and women are unlikely to tell me to “suck it up”.

25) If I choose to stay at home with my children while my partner works, people are unlikely to think I am a deadbeat, unskilled, or avoiding my responsibility to my family.

26) If I choose discontinue, temporarily leave, or reduce my participation in a high-status career in order to spend time at home caring for children, people are likely to consider it a “noble sacrifice” rather than a waste of my talents.

27) If I work and have a family, my employer will be less likely to require me to work overtime or bring work home with me. This will be the case even if I equally share domestic duties with my partner, or have outside domestic help (housekeeper, nanny).

28) If an employer claims to have “non-sexist” hiring policies, I can assume this to mean that members of my gender will be more likely to be hired, rather than less.

29) If I choose a career in early childhood or elementary level education, or volunteer to work with youth, no one will wonder if it’s because I am a pedophile. They will trust me, even if they are aware that members of my own gender can and sometimes do use these positions to facilitate their sexual abuse of children.

30) If I commit a crime against children, even before details come out, people are likely to want to believe I have been falsely accused, was “failed by the system”, or was somehow “driven to it” by factors outside my control (such as mental illness, poverty, lack of social services, childhood abuse), because members of my gender “just don’t do stuff like that”. It is unlikely they will automatically attribute my actions to unprovoked aggression or hold me entirely responsible for them.

31) If I am a victim of domestic violence, there are many services in my community that will help people of my gender. It is unlikely I will be denied services based on my gender.

32) If my partner physically abuses me, I will be believed by the authorities. Their belief will not depend on whether I have physical signs of injury.

33) If I physically abuse my partner, people–including the authorities and victim’s services personnel–are likely to assume it was in self defence. Even if I tell them I hit first and my partner is non-violent, they are likely to wonder if my partner did something to instigate the assault, like cheating on me, yelling at me, or otherwise provoking me to lose control.

34) If I physically abuse my partner, and they reciprocate, they are as likely or more likely to be the one arrested as I am, even if my partner’s reciprocation was in self-defence.

35) If my partner physically abuses me, and I reciprocate–even if I admit my reciprocation was not in self-defence but out of anger–it is unlikely that I will be arrested.

36) At a time of war I will never be drafted and ripped from my employment, home, and family and forced to become a military slave.

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Karen Straughan is a 45 year old divorced mother of three who’s been writing on gender issues and pissing off feminists since 2010.