The playing field, in and of itself, is fair. It’s just a field, after all; there’s nothing particularly special about it.
The problems begin as soon as you start adding players.
Each player on a field has their own strengths and weaknesses, the unique combination of which make them a great team.
How do they get those strengths and weaknesses? That uniqueness? Its not just because everyone is a super special unicorn snowflake; no, there’s a ton of factors that go into it that are out of the direct control of the players.
Things that can affect each person’s ability on the “field” are:
- Current socioeconomic status
- Parent’s socioeconomic status
- Current geographic region
- Former geographic regions
- Educational status
- Parent’s educational status
- Ethnicity
- Gender
The more closely matched each person is to each other in each class, like in wrestling, the more “fair” it will be. Otherwise, the farther away you get down the list the larger the gap will be.
Realistically, there are always going to be people who care more about where you were raised, who raised you, how well educated you and your parents are and how much money you have than what gender or race you are. And there are always going to be the people who can’t get past your gender or your race.
Then there are the extreme few who can see past all of that, and just see you, the person, and they want you on their team – those are the people you should cling to.
So yes, the playing field is even in 2016. And it was in 2015, and 1900, and always has been.
But a lot of the players cheat.
Originally Posted: https://www.quora.com/Are-professional-women-competing-on-a-fair-playing-field-with-men-in-2016-Why-or-why-not
Originally Posted On: 2016-01-14