Who are more victimized in America, women or men? It’s the quintessential question to keep the conversation lively. Feminist and mainstream thought in the past has said that women have it worse, that “it’s a man’s world.” But in many ways, in today’s America, I’d say it’s more a woman’s world.

Who has it worse in American society, men or women? Who are the most victimized in life, men or women? Conventional wisdom says women.

But objectively speaking, I’d say, overall, that women have it better in America today. Perhaps not 20 or 30 years ago, but today, in America, I’d say that women do have it better than men. Women’s gender and clothing roles are much broader than men’s, for example. And note the following.

Men die sooner, are more often victims of violence (although most of it is by other men, it doesn’t make the (male) victim any less a victim), do worse in school (since the 80’s, I believe) are more hooked on drugs and more jailed. There are more women graduating from college now. Same for law school. Medical school, engineering and the hard sciences are still (academic) areas where there are more men. I think a 13 year old girl today in America may well have it better than her male counterpart.

There’s a scene at the end of the movie, “Grapes of Wrath” (starring Henry Fonda), where the mother is driving and describing men and women and their trajectory in life. She said something like “women keep pluggin’ along while men go in fits and starts.” I think this is true in many ways.

Men are actually more fragile if one thinks about it. More men are likely to be killed, thus women’s longer life expectancies. Men seem to hit the super highs and the super lows. Men take more risks, and suffer more injuries, workplace and otherwise.

More retail space is devoted to women’s items than men’s. Women, although possibly not owning more wealth, have more access to wealth than men. More men are homeless, by far. More men die in wars. Many men die defending their women. And I believe more men are raped, if you count prison violence.

The above being said, this idea that “women have it better nowadays” only applies to America (and maybe Canada and Western Europe/developed world), and not to many other nations.

Granted, in most of the world, women have it worse because their legal systems and cultures don’t respect women’s rights, but our legal system does. And, I’d submit, American culture does too.

Women may indeed have it worse in much of the world, but not in the good ole USA! And I think the objective facts prove it, and the equal protection clause guarantees it.

Jeff E. Jared is an attorney and political writer in Kirkland who writes from a libertarian and law-and-economics perspective.