Is it just a coincidence that the insular institutions involved in the alleged Penn State child sex scandal and those involving the Roman Catholic Church were both male-dominated?
I don’t think so.
You want a case for diversity? Just look at those two scandals.
Yes, women also could have drunk the Kool-Aid, but the presence of women in both institutions would have made it much less likely that the crimes would continue for so long.
Why? Because women are different than men: Their relationship to children is fundamentally shaped by the fact that they conceive, carry, give birth to and are physiologically equipped to nurture and sustain children.
Not all women, certainly, but most. And that difference is a good thing. Evidence of that is being played out in makeshift battlefields across the globe as women assume crucial roles in sustaining not only their children but civil society as their communities and countries collapse.
The lack of diversity in the university and religious hierarchies in question meant they both lost sight of the real victims and could think only of themselves. That led both Penn State and the Catholic Church to delay focusing on the real victims – It’s the kids, stupid! Instead Penn State’s first response was to announce its “unconditional” support for its men.
The first move in crisis control is to acknowledge the victims and to make sure everything possible is being done to help them. This is not admitting guilt – the jury’s still out on that in the Penn State case. It’s simply acknowledging the indisputable fact that the sexual abuse of children is a grave human violation that will not be tolerated.
Your mother could have told you that.
