I belong to an organization where it’s common to hear a certain phrase. The phrase always receives a splattering of chuckles and I was once a chuckler as well. But this week when I heard the phrase I did not laugh, chuckle, or even grin. I’ve learned a bit since my last chuckle and now consider the joke all too true to be funny anymore. The standard phrase sounds something like, “That’s why I have my wife, to keep me on track and make sure things get done right.” I think I used to think this was funny because on the surface it built up my wife but at the same time gave me an out if I didn’t happen to get my responsibilities done. Too many men have blatantly not adhered to their responsibilities and worse, have inflicted so much damage on females and the world in general that I no longer think men have any sort of room to chuckle or grin at these comments. A lesson likely to be slowly learned here in the conservative western climes of the likes of Utah and Idaho.

Male leaders were the ones recently under so much fire for sexual harassment and abuse in government and business. Observers may think that unless they’re a part of these organizations there can’t be a problem in their local organizations but fail to realize that there are likely instances within their midst that they are unaware of or they don’t realize that these large scale cases erode trust and without trust, the societal foundations weaken. Society’s leaders need to be upstanding examples, mentors, unreproachable citizens, and role models. Males have degraded the strength of their positions of trust by breaking that trust far too often; such cases may cause many to have challenges placing their trust in critical governmental organizations at many levels. This is an undesirable societal challenge that could lead to more damaging events. Women are moving into positions of greater responsibility and trust at an increased rate it appears and the author is both thankful and a bit dismayed.

There are exemplary women that are standing up and calling out the wrongs taking place and are taking action themselves to remedy situations. They are running for office, becoming self-employed, attending college more, identifying and charging sexual abusers, and in general not putting up with crap. American society is lucky to have such brave and stalwart citizens willing to take many risks in the name of doing the right thing for themselves, their families, and their societies.

There may be a price for women standing up and assuming roles traditionally assumed by men, an important question comes to mind. As women rise in publicly seen influential roles, how are families affected? Are men picking up roles traditionally assumed by women at an increased rate? Are they good at it? If these duties are ignored, and attention to family life is neglected there will be societal costs. Family is the basis of all societies and if the family does not raise children of strong character and principles then society will overall be degraded. Perhaps we’re now in a world suffering from this. How much time do parents spend with their children compared to how much time children spend on their electronic devices and social media? We already know that social media is by design solely an attention grabber and degrades mental capability not to speak of other potential negative effects depending on the material they are exposed to.

After I didn’t laugh at the comment this last weekend there was more elaboration in the group. A gentleman noted that the group leader had definitely picked the right people to plan a large-scale event. The event would be put together properly and would surely be a success due to the fact that the women in the organization were the ones responsible for the planning, resourcing, and overall execution. While so many women’s efforts are laudable and demonstrative of such great capacity, there is no honor in men shirking their responsibilities and being happy with delegating as much work out as possible to women just for the sake of pushing an easy button. Men need to ensure they are carrying their portion of the load and leveraging their positive influence in the world to make good things happen. Their role is not to step aside and go on vacation as women rise to more and more occasions. The world needs men and women both at the decision-making table to ensure positive progress; may both find their seats and keep them warm for the next generation.

Saw this today and thought I’d park it here, good stuff: