In the name of equality, give men a fair break

ANTHONY LEAVY (Irish Examiner letters, March 26) claims that in my letter headlined ‘Men also affected by gender inequalities’ (Irish Examiner, March 19), I “mixed up equality and difference”.

In my letter I pointed out that 80% of suicide victims are men; the majority of children with special needs are boys; men suffer serious discrimination in the family law and divorce courts, and less Government funding is provided for male healthcare, despite the fact that men die younger than women.

Mr Leavy ignored all these concerns and instead dismissed my statement that “the majority of industrial accidents and fatalities involve men because they do most of the high-risk jobs” as being “equivalent to saying women are involved in all of the child birth problems”.

While it is simply impossible for a man to give birth to a child, women freely choose to avoid high-risk industrial jobs. A matter of free choice can never be equated with a physical impossibility.

Mr Leavy goes on to say “the basic concept of a representative democracy, however, is that we are all equal despite our differences”.

Therefore I assume the inequalities I have highlighted are fully deserving of our attention.

Patrick McGinnity

Derrynoose

Keady

Co Armagh