more reasons not to rush into marriage (yes I'm talking to you)

Found this on Malaysia Today just now. A forum on women's issues organised by Sisters In Islam, whose panelists comprised of representatives of women's groups and religious scholars, put forth several ideas to 'compel fathers to pay alimony (nafkah)'. These include:

# SETTING UP a child support agency that empowers the authorities to go after fathers who fail to pay up;

# GETTING enforcement agencies, like the Road Transport and Immigration departments, to withhold documents like driving licences or passports of errant fathers; and

# OBTAINING the current address of the men or their workplace so that they can be easily traced.

and IMHO, the one that hits it hardest

# DISALLOWING men from marrying again as long as they have not settled the alimony;

In this regard, I support SIS's initiative.

are women stealing our jobs?

Men seem to be in short supply these days. In the workplace and in classrooms, the number of women steadily increase and the number of men seem to fall with each passing day. In some universities in Malaysia the number of female students are reported to be as high as 70%. So the question is, where are the boys? What happened to them?

Some friends of mine seem to be of the opinion that the emancipation of women that has taken place over the previous century is to be blamed for the current situation. Not a thought that I share, but hear them out. They say that women have taken over positions that have traditionally been male-dominated positions. These would include semi-skilled and unskilled works i.e. in factories etc. This leaves the males who are without a higher education in an precarious situation and unable to find work.

In academia, they feel that the current education system in Malaysia favours women. Since women are no longer confined by society to home economics, they now conquer the sciences. The way the education system is structured, with its heavy emphasis on rote learning and examinations are said to be more in tune with the way the female mind operates (though on what this claim is based on, I have no idea). School-age girls are said to more mature and more hardworking than their male counterparts thus they are the ones who end up gaining spectacular results. For the past few years, none of the SPM top-scorers have been male.

I feel that this is a rather simplistic take on the issue. Granted, the current situation is the way they presented it to be, but to say the cause of this is due to a generation of empowered women, is as if saying that that is a bad thing. What is wrong with having many smart, hardworking woman around?

Will it detriment the family unit? I don't think so. Families are not the sole responsibility of women anyway. Fathers share the blame for broken homes too.

Is it then the fault of us guys? Have we failed to make ourselves competitive? Or are they really just encroaching on our territory, which they should not be doing because it will only cause destruction of the society.

Share your thoughts.