WHATEVER YOU DO WILL BE WRONG: How are we supposed to treat women in the workplace?

Treating women differently than men in the workplace is bad; but now, treating women and men the same is also problematic, apparently.

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox suggested in an article for the Harvard Business Review that, after decades of being told to treat men and women the same in the workplace, such treatment is actually hurting women.

“Because differences are not recognized, women are too often simply judged as ‘not fitting’ the dominant group’s systems, styles and patterns,” Wittenberg-Cox wrote.

“In all the companies I work with, lack of recognition of basic differences like career cycles, communication styles, or attitudes to power is enough to eliminate one gender and prefer the other,” she added.

But women in the workplace are not the only ones potentially hurt by not fitting in to a “dominant group.” Boys in school suffer their own consequences, as the majority of U.S. teachers are women.

“Instead of adapting to boys’ differences (‘more physical energy, developmentally less mature, use language differently,’ as [child psychologist Michael Thompson] put it), we insist that both genders behave the same, and medicate our sons to calm them down,” Wittenberg-Cox wrote.

Of course, outside of a few scholars like Thompson and Christina Hoff Sommers, the issue of poorly-performing boys isn’t addressed — because they don’t belong to a victim class. Meanwhile, anything that could possibly help bolster the suggestion of a “war on women” and oppression at the hands of the patriarchy is elevated to a national crisis.

It’s as if it’s all about keeping a voting constituency agitated.