The female privilege checklist.(THE LAST LAUGH)(Column)

When I first heard Wellesley Professor Peggy McIntosh discuss her 1989 essay on "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack," at a conference, I was moved.

As the editor and publisher of Women in Higher Education, I immediately wondered whether there was a similar checklist having to do with gender. Returning to her original essay, I reread the first paragraph, and learned that it was inspired by her noting a ubiquitous male privilege.

"Through the work to bring materials from Women's Studies into the rest of the curriculum, I have often noticed men's unwillingness to grant that they are over-privileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged," she wrote.

Male privileges

As usual, I was about 10 years ahead of my time. I recently became aware of "The Male Privilege Checklist," subtitled "An Unabashed Imitation of an Article by Peggy McIntosh." It was written by Barry Deutsch, a cartoonist and humorist on the staff of the online Expository Magazine, a source of feminist thought and expression, where it appeared in the September 2004 issue. The whole article and great comments on it are at www.expositorymagazine.net/2004/september/maleprivilege_checklist.php

Listed are 43 items of male privilege, which include males being more likely to be hired, promoted, elected, free of fear of harassment and rape, not expected to do the "most dirty, repetitive and unrewarding tasks" of home-making and childrearing. Item 43 is, "I have the privilege of being unaware of my male privilege."

Of course, the author gave short shrift to men's few disadvantages, like being drafted and expected to suppress emotions.