The Place of Women in Europe

Surprisingly, despite what your liberal Euro-phile friends will tell, Europe is not the place to be despite their massive welfare state if you're a woman and want to be in a high position, whether in politics or business. "But what about the extended maternaity leave...big bad capitalist-pig America doesnt have that!" some will whine, but this and other aspects of the massive welfare state, which discourages women working by penalizing families with double incomes, actually hurt women's chances in the employment market because it makes them unattractive candidates for hire--which is certainly bad in a job market that is stagnant and resistent to growth anyway. According to this latest Newsweek article (and no, its not like I take them seriously all the time, but many good points are made here) the model of global gender equality, Sweden, has only about 29% of top decision-maker positions are held by women, compared to the Great Satan where 45% of these jobs are held by women.

It seems that the European welfare state in combination with die-hard sexist attitudes and a stagnant nay dying job market are conspiring to destroy the European women's chance at a career, keeping them instead second-class citizens, barefoot and pregnant in proverbial kitchen.