5 Laws in Western Nations That Discriminate Against Men

We often here of “discrimination against women” but never “discrimination against men.” This is ironic since nearly all legal discrimination in the Western world is against men, meaning laws that treat men and women differently by statute. Interestingly, this is the original definition of privilege, so the following five examples are simultaneously examples of female privilege.

A fun game is to ask a feminist to name an example of legal discrimination against women. While I’ve yet to get an answer, I’m still open-minded. If you know of any laws discriminating against women—or others that discriminate against men—please leave them in the comments.

Selective Service and Conscription

The best-known law in Western nations that discriminates against men is conscription. Conscription is the practice of mandatory military service for citizens, usually for a period of a year or two, with little to no pay. In almost all countries that have conscription, it is only applied to men, usually required upon reaching the age of majority. Western nations with active military conscription systems that discriminate against men include:

• Finland
• Austria
• Switzerland
• Greece
• Ukraine
• Denmark
• Russia
• Belarus
• Estonia
• Lithuania
• Cuba
• Mexico
• Colombia
• Venezuela
• Brazil
• Bolivia
• Chile
• Paraguay

Additionally, the United States operates the “Selective Service” system. While there is no active draft and men do not normally have to report for active military duty, they do have to register to be called up for service if the draft is ever activated. Those who don’t register are denied services such as loans and grants and can even be denied identification documents and their right to vote. Again, the law specifies men, making it discriminatory.

Only two Western countries, Norway and Sweden, statutorily conscript both men and women, but in practice, men are conscripted at far higher rates: 68 percent and 76 percent respectively. It’s also worth noting that feminists were openly against these two nations’ recent inclusion of women in their drafts, as they are when it’s proposed in other countries.

Genital Integrity

Male genital mutiliation, erroneously referred to as “circumcision,” is one of the most severe human-rights travesties of our times. As if to pour salt on the wound, legislators in Western nations have outlawed female genital mutilation and taken the time to specify in their laws that they only apply to girls. Seemingly, they could have simply not referrenced gender and given boys the same protection but actively chose not to. Consider the US federal law (USC 18.116) that bans FGM:

(a)Except as provided in subsection (b), whoever, in any circumstance described in subsection (d), knowingly—
(1)performs, attempts to perform, or conspires to perform female genital mutilation on another person who has not attained the age of 18 years;
(2)being the parent, guardian, or caretaker of a person who has not attained the age of 18 years facilitates or consents to the female genital mutilation of such person; or
(3)transports a person who has not attained the age of 18 years for the purpose of the performance of female genital mutilation on such person,
shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.

They could have just left the word “female” out of the law and protected boys too. But they didn’t, and the US MGM rate remains about 64 percent. Rates in other Western nations are much lower, but in none of them—indeed, in no country on Earth—is it illegal, while nearly all ban FGM. Even in a nation like Finland that only has a 0.82-percent MGM rate, that’s around 45,000 men, 45,000 too many.

Default Child Custody

Though it varies by jurisdiction, in most of the West, custody of a child defaults to the mother by law. That means that if the father and mother aren’t married, the father does not receive any legal rights automatically. Instead, he must sue for them, which can then be challenged by the mother if she wishes.

Ironically, this was one of the primary functions of the marrital instituation historically—giving men a legal right to their children. Feminists have been major force in the war on marriage, so this is another clear example of how feminism fights for female privilege, not gender equality.

This legal discrimination is especially nonsenical in the modern age when DNA tests are cheap and easily accessible. Hospitals could perform such a test at birth (or earlier, as is an increasingly common part of pregnancy screenings). The biological father could then have automatic custody rights, the same as the mother. Anything else is discrimination against men.

Gender-Based Tax Codes

The West has a long history of discriminating against men in the tax code, bachelor taxes being a notable example. However, it usually suprises people that many countries’ tax codes still do. This is most commonly done under the guise of promoting female entrepreneurship.

For example, the Spanish government’s self-employment tax is discounted for “young” entrepreneurs, but the law discriminates by gender. Women receive the discount until age 35 while men only receive it until age 30. In other words, some 1.3 million men are subject to a higher tax rate than their female counterparts right now, and any Spanish man would face that discrimination over the course of his life.

Naturally, tax codes are complex, and I cannot analyze the tax code of every Western country. I imagine that similar discrimination happens in a lot of places, so if you are aware of any case, please leave it in the comments.

Discrepencies in Social Security

The majority of Western nations discriminate against men in their social security systems, parental leave and retirement benefits being the two most common.

Most Western nations provide pensions their elderly citizens once they reach a certain age, but many put the age of retirement for men higher than that of women. This discrimination is exacerbated by the fact that men die earlier on average, meaning most men must work more of their lives while receiving fewer total benefits (part of the reason they die earlier).

Country	Female Retirement Age	Male Retirement Age
Albania	61	65
Argentina	60	65
Austria	60	65
Belarus	58	63
Brazil	62	65
Bulgaria	61	64
Chile	60	65
Colombia	57	62
Croatia	63	65
Cuba	60	65
Czech Republic	62	63
Georgia	60	65
Lithuania	63	64
Moldova	60	63
Poland	60	65
Romania	62	65
Russia	57	62
Serbia	64	65
Venezuela	55	60

The rest of countries in the West have the same retirement age for men and women.

In parental leave, the social security system pays benefits to new parents for a certain period of time while they care for newborn babies. Nearly all Western countries provide longer time periods for mothers.

Country	Maternity Leave Time	Maternity Leave Pay	Paternity Leave Time	Paternity Leave Pay
Albania	52 weeks	80%	None	None
Andorra	20 weeks	100%	Four weeks	None
Austria	16 weeks	100%	None	None
Belarus	18 weeks	100%	None	None
Belgium	15 weeks	82%	Two weeks	100%
Bulgaria	58 weeks	90%	One week	100%*
Croatia	58 weeks	100%	Two weeks	100%*
Cyprus	18 weeks	75%	Two weeks	75%
Czech Republic	28 weeks	70%	None	None
Denmark	18 weeks	100%	Two weeks	100%
Estonia	14 weeks	100%	Four weeks	100%
Finland	18 weeks	70%	11 weeks	70%
France	16 weeks	100%	Two weeks	100%
Georgia	18 weeks	100%	None	None
Germany	14 weeks	100%	None	None
Greece	17 weeks	100%	Two weeks	100%*
Hungary	24 weeks	70%	One week	100%
Iceland	13 weeks	80%	12 weeks	80%
Ireland	42 weeks	80%	Two weeks	Flat rate
Italy	22 weeks	80%	10 days	100%
Latvia	16 weeks	80%	Two weeks	80%
Lithuania	18 weeks	100%	Four weeks	100%
Malta	18 weeks	100%	None	None
Moldova	18 weeks	100%	None	None
Netherlands	16 weeks	100%	Six weeks	100%*
Poland	26 weeks	100%	Two weeks	100%
Portugal	17 weeks	100%	Three weeks	100%
Romania	18 weeks	85%	Five days	100%
Russia	20 weeks	100%	None	None
Serbia	20 weeks	100%	One week	100%
Slovakia	34 weeks	65%	None	None
Slovenia	15 weekks	100%	Four weeks	100%
Switzerland	14 weeks	80%	Two weeks	80%
Ukraine	18 weeks	100%	None	None
United Kingdom	52 weeks	90%	Two weeks	90%
Australia	18 weeks	Flat rate	Five weeks	Flat rate
New Zealand	26 weeks	Flat rate	Two weeks	None
Argentina	13 weeks	100%	Two days	100%*
Bahamas	13 weeks	100%	One week	None
Barbados	12 weeks	100%	None	None
Belize	14 weeks	100%	None	None
Bolivia	13 weeks	95%	None	None
Brazil	17 weeks	100%	Max four weeks	100%*
Canada	15 weeks	55%	None	None
Chile	24 weeks	100%	One week	100%
Colombia	14 weeks	1005%	One week	100%
Costa Rica	17 weeks	100	None	None
Dominican Republic	12 weeks	100%	Two days	100%*
Ecuador	12 weeks	100%	Two weeks	100%*
El Salvador	12 weeks	75%	Three days	100%*
Guatemala	12 weeks	100%	Two days	100%
Guyana	13 weeks	70%	None	None
Honduras	12 weeks	100%	None	None
Mexico	12 weeks	100%	One week	100%
Nicaragua	12 weeks	100%	None	None
Panama	14 weeks	100%	None	None
Paraguay	12 weeks	50%	Two weeks	100%*
Peru	13 weeks	100%	10 days	100%
Uruguay	14 weeks	100%	13 days	100%

The amount of time it took me to make that table really drove home how bad the problem is and how little fatherhood is valued in the West. In fact, the only Western nations that have equal maternity and paternity leave are Norway, Sweden, Spain and, interestingly, the US. While the US doesn’t have any parental leave at the federal level, a number of states mandate that employers provide it, but in all cases, it’s equal.

Note that there is not a single case regarding parental leave or retirement benefits where there is gender discrimination in men’s favor. Not one.