Sorry if my use of tense was misleading. I meant they complained years ago, and we are now living with the consequnces of those - in many cases valid - complaints. In the 1960s and 1970s, women complained that the marital laws and the assumptions of society as to female roles were constraining. So they lobbied to have both the laws and the expectations changed. Do you really want me to cite documents proving that the women's liberation movement exists? Or that many state laws relating to marriage were changed?

I am not suggesting that the changes were entirely negative. There were many positive achievements. Still, the law of unintended consequences applies. I am confident that the proponents of the legal and social changes imagined they were an unadulterated "good thing". But to the extent they were taken to an extreme, as HHH says, the assertion that granting equal rights requires the law and public institutions to ignore any gender differences as logically impossible, they have burdened males in ways that were likely not forseen.

And HHH, we in some ways are simultaneously confronting and perpetuating the gender stereotypes. My D13 is good at math and science, so we are encouraging her to explore these areas. Everyone says colleges are hot to accept female scientists because there aren't enough of them. So in that sesnse we are breaking down gender stereotypes. On the other hand, we are warning her that if she does become a scientist, she may have to date outside her major. Perpetuating the stereotype that male science majors are not "manly" or "cool" enough to date her. What one hand giveth, the other takes away.