EQUAL GENDER?

I was recently asked to write something about gender equality.  As I am interested in 'words' at the moment, as in how they limit thinking, and how they are used for the purpose of so doing, the issue of gender equality, defining what it is, the implications, read a bit like the last few lines of that comedy series Soap, which was a parody of Soap operas. It always ended with about ten unanswered questions which the following episode would hopefully answer. 

Example,  when men were men and women were women, the gender equality issue meant women should get equal pay to men, commensurate with their skills and workloads.   There should be no wage differentiation.  There should be maternity care - childcare and - menopausal care. For those men out there who say this is actually more than men receive, I think it should be taken as a back pay for all the decades when women were earning less than men.   Either we take the pay that way, or we earn more than men in order to earn back the back pay.  I quite like that idea. 

Now, gender equality is a tad more complicated.   Now if someone is a she, they could be a he, does that that mean a he, who starts off as a she, would earn what a man earns or would they still earn what a woman earns even though they are now a man?   Does that mean they have achieved gender equality by changing sex, or they have not changed gender equality they have just changed gender and the only way to attain gender equality is to change gender – on paper anyway.  Does that mean that men who change to the gender of women, will receive less pay or will they still receive the same pay they did as a man, even though they put themselves forward as a woman? So, they also benefit from gender equality, bringing the female pay to the same level as the male pay, or will they receive less pay they are now a female and consequently fight for equal pay because they received higher pay for the same job as a man than they do as a woman?   And then you have those who don’t define themselves as a man or woman, so what pay do they get?  Are they somewhere in limbo land or are they aligned to male or female pay dependent on their born gender. 

My belief is the government - both of them actually - will play about with the genders and say gender equality has been achieved, when it has not.  Nothing has changed, only the words, limiting not just our thinking but now also the ability of women to achieve equal pay.