A friend asked me about an essay he just read by former President Jimmy Carter, entitled, "Losing my religion for equality". He read it on The Age website, which is an Australian news site, and it is dated April 27, 2017. However, he also read it before...in 2009. Here is a link to a reprint of the article dated 2009.
While it is a good essay that I recommend, when was it written?
According to this April 28, 2015 story from The Age:
An article penned by former US president Jimmy Carter titled Losing my religion for equality has been the highest rating story ever published on theage.com.au.Social media is the reason for the essay's spread, although I would offer an alternative reason: TRUTH may be slow, but it eventually gets out.
It has been viewed more than 1.9 million times.
Eighty-five per cent of the article's audience has been from North America – the US and Canada – with Australian readers accounting for only 5 per cent of the traffic.
At last count, the article - first written by Mr Carter for the Observer - had been shared on Facebook 877,000 times and on Twitter more than 1400 times. That's a record for an article on The Age website.
Why would we find this so puzzling?
Well, the article was first published on this website in July 2009. Earlier this month, it suddenly went viral, and is still attracting readers.
On the essay itself, it is nearly perfect in its defense of women's rights, until Carter says: "The same discriminatory thinking lies behind the continuing gender gap in pay..." While there are proven cases where Carter is correct, and a woman has been discriminated against in favor of a man, the primary reason for the gender gap in pay is painfully obvious: Maternity leave. Even in cases where countries have paid maternity leave, that still doesn't help the woman keep up with the men in the rat race. Being away from the office for weeks or months in order to care for a newborn still leaves the woman's male co-workers in the office, doing her job. Who do you think will get the promotions and raises?
There is no easy solution to the maternity leave problem. However, blaming it on discriminatory thinking is unfair to businesses.
That said, I am nitpicking over one line of a very good overall essay. Please read it.
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