All men are created equal - does it need revising?

What about women?

It doesn’t need revising. For one thing, it could mean ‘men’ as in ‘mankind’. For another, it’s pretty clear that men and women aren’t created equally. Just a basic anatomy class should teach you that. :wink:

Men and women are equal in the context that the phrase is used. Men and women are both sapient, feeling beings deserving of freedom, civil rights, etc.

Yes, I know…it was supposed to be a joke. :wink:

You’re going to want to flesh the debate topic out some more, Anonymous User. Right now you haven’t proposed any ideas and your OP reads like a bad joke.

In practice, yes, all men and women are created equal, and laws need to reflect that fact.

The actual phrase “all men are created equal” comes from the Declaration of Independence, a document addressed to one person at a specific point in history and therefore not subject to revision.

The Equal Rights Amendment is an attempt to codify the equality of women in U.S. law, but it has so far been unsuccessful. 21 states have some form of Equal Rights Amendment in their state constitutions. As a feminist, I would like to see the ERA adopted, but I think it’s far more important that women are now treated equally in so many areas (the right to military combat positions was added just last week).

We need to revise the Declaration of Independence, which has no force in law? Have the Brits snuck in and taken over again?

Why wasn’t I informed?

“Anybody who believes that all men were created equal has never taken a shower in the army with thirty other guys.”

As for the slogan, keep it as it is. It’s not linguistically “p.c.”, but women are part of “men.” The San Diego Museum of Man gets a lot of mail suggesting it should change its name; so far, tradition has kept them from taking the idea too seriously. They did a poll, and most of the museum membership didn’t see any need to change the name.

In philosophical use, the slogan has largely triumphed. You only rarely hear talk about “good breeding” or “good blood” or the like. The universality of human rights is an established premise.

Yes, there are a few hold-outs, such as the European royal families, and the hereditary nobility. (The only Baronet I ever met ran his own printing and photocopying shop, and was a productive member of society.)

And, obviously, world-wide, women’s rights have a HELL of a long way to go. The hideous backlash against women as seen in the “Islamicist” movements leaves me undecided whether to cry, or simply to vomit. I think we will, gradually, win this fight, but it will not be easy, pretty, or without a huge cost.

Marley, I request that you lock this because clearly, this has been answered and there is no real juice left in this thread.

OK. For a different but related topic, see this thread.