Enlighten Sexists?

The Lord Buddha is quoted as saying,” Because the ordination of women has occurred in this religion of the Tathagata, the holy life will not last long; the True Dharma will last for only 500 years“.
Gandhi whose public views supported equality compares the useless English Parliament to ” a sterile woman” in the Critique of modern civilization.
I’m not slamming these great men. After all, we can’t be sure how they honestly felt about women. But it has me wondering; can a person be enlighten and have sexist views? There are still Buddhists out there who believe a woman must work to be reincarnated into a man in the next life. Strange, since enlightenment 101 is letting go of the idea of dualism ( the I and the other). How can you be awaken if you see man and woman as being so different that one is considered inferior to the other.
We can argue that Buddha’s comments were due to the time he lived and that modern sexist gurus are a product of their culture. But really, what is the use of meditation if it doesn’t free you from traps like cultural conditioning ( Enlightenment 201).

In the Buddha’s defense here is an article arguing that he was not sexist:
http://americanbuddhist.net/node/1330

What is Social Marginalization?

Recently I was given the assignment to define Social Marginalization and its affects on Womyn. The only problem was a definition for Social Marginalization was almost impossible to find. This term is so obscure that when I wrote my paper my word processing program refused to recognize the word marginalization. Eventually, I did find a nice definition in Wikipedia. Yet it should be noted that the article implies that marginalization happens to minorities and ” to a certain degree women”. Is it really to a certain degree that womyn are considered marginal? Are womyn only sorta, kinda, a little tiny bit marginalized. For your enjoyment here’s a definition for marginalization and my list of ways women are marginalized ( I’m sure you can think of other ways).
Social Marginalization is when certain groups are excluded or face discrimination from society because they don’t fit into the society’s norms. Marginalization begins with a society defining itself and what is normal. In American’s society Christian white males are the norm therefore Minorities, non- Christians, women, the disable and the elderly are victims of Social marginalization. Social Marginalization is use to uphold the values and norms of a society but it can also be a means for the High status to retain their status ( sometimes wealth) on the backs of others.

A few Examples of how are women marginalization( just off the top of my head):

1. They have no status of their own. A womyn’s status is determined by whether she is married and whether she is a mother.
2. Single womyn over a certain age, childfree wives and lesbians are all treated as outcasts and stigmatized.
3. Advertisements and the media exploit and promoted the idea that Womyn are just objects( esp. sex objects). see loveyourbody.com
4. Womyn’s voices are not valued as much as men in interpersonal relationships or in politics or in other important areas of our society
5. Womyn are not represented equally in mental/psychology research.
6. Womyn are stigmatized if they don’t have sex and if they do.
7. The Wage gap and The glass Ceiling
8. Society’s inability to protect Women from domestic violence and sexual assaults.
9. Low Representation and opportunity in Government.
10. Womyn are often misdiagnosed and mistreated by the medical system (ie: diagnosed with stress instead of heart disease because of stereotypes like womyn are too emotional and Heart disease is a Men’s issue)