Main idea of article and relates to the novel , character, situation.
This passage occurs later in the same discussion that followed McMurphy’s first Group Meeting in Part I. Here, Kesey begins to develop his misogynistic theory about modern society. Harding is talking to McMurphy, explaining that men’s one weapon against women is the penis, and that if men are unable to use rape effectively, they have no chance to regain power in society. Kesey believes that women have learned this, and they now know how to render men’s one weapon useless—in other words, they are all ball-cutters. Where rape is the male means to power, castration is the female way to domination.
These crude ideas are given substance throughout the novel. Kesey uses McMurphy’s fearless sexuality as a sign that he is sane. McMurphy goads Ratched sexually by wearing just a towel, pinching her rear, remarking on her breasts, and eventually tearing her shirt open. Most of the male patients have stories about damaging relationships with women, such as Bromden’s mother, Billy Bibbit’s mother and onetime girlfriend, and Harding’s wife. When McMurphy notices Bromden’s erection, a sign that he is “getting bigger already,” it signifies that Bromden is becoming more powerful and saner. Similarly, through sex with Candy, Billy briefly regains his confidence and his manhood, until Ratched takes it away and he commits suicide. Moreover, Ratched and the hospital supervisor, also a woman, wield all the power in the hospital: “We are victims of a matriarchy here,” says Harding. Women have worked long and hard to break through the glass ceiling, but progress has been slow, according to a recent McKinsey & Company survey, and men play an important role to help eliminate old mores.
The survey shows women make up just 14% of Fortune 500 executive committees and there are even less CEOs. Only about 7,000 of the nearly 140,000 women McKinsey interviewed have become vice presidents, senior vice presidents or made it to the C-suite
Diversity programs may espouse high ideals around gender parity, but unless these programs incite male leaders to action, unconscious bias and hidden mindsets will hold back women from participating fully in the corporate world, says Gary Namie, senior consultant at Work Doctor and author of The Bully-Free Workplace.
Only 30% of company human resources leaders say their gender diversity programs are well-implemented, the survey finds.
“White men were given the benefit of the doubt that they could do the job until they proved to me they couldn't,” Frank McCloskey, retired vice president of diversity at Georgia Power, says of his early career days. “Everyone else could not do the job until they proved to me they could.”
Now more 35 years later, McCloskey says he has a different understanding of what it means to be a strong man. “I don't have to satisfy a blind need to be in control and powerful at the expense of hurting others,” he says. “Has my personal and professional growth been easy and perfect? Heck no.”
Easy or not, experts agree men must personally be willing to engage as partners with women and to be educated that parity benefits the organization and, as important, that gender barriers are restrictions on men’s lives, says Rohini Anand, senior vice president and global chief diversity officer at Sodexo Inc.
Men should also be made to realize that the gender pay gap causing women to earn 81 cents on the dollar hurts them, claims Michael Kimmel, author of The Guy’s guide to Feminism. “Everyone’s Plan A is the dual career family. If Plan A does not work out, what is Plan B?”
Leadership sets the tone
Experts say senior male leaders must set the tone for gender parity, and communicate their message and reinforcing it with action. “The higher up the organization I went, these values became a 24/7 commitment,” claims McCloskey. “Just like safety.” CEOs need to reach out to get other