So, What’s good for the goose is good for the gander sounds like a rallying cry for gender equality. Not exactly. In its current use it speaks to issues other than gender. Instead, the proverb can urge that different people be held to the same standards.

For instance: If high school students are being told it’s rude to be on their cell phones while a speaker is giving a presentation, and that they have to put them away, adult teachers should have to as well. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

The proverb is commonly used as a commentary said or written after a summary of a situation, such as we see in the above example. The expression is pretty common in informal speech and writing. In American English, occasionally people cite just the first part of the phrase, What’s good for the goose, which gets the point across without having to say the whole thing.

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander is frequently seen in political and social contexts, especially where there are perceived power imbalances or significant differences between people, as between genders, employers and workers, conservatives and liberals. Here, the phrase acts as a call to make sure everyone has to face the same consequences or scrutiny.

Women also saying they hate broke men, we also hate broke women. What's good for the goose is good for the gander

— sifiso (@sifisol) June 19, 2018

Managers who want quality from their workforce need to hold themselves to the same high standards of quality. To borrow an old saying, ?What?s good for the goose, is good for the gander? – or it should be. https://t.co/RTl4rTjhAq pic.twitter.com/dXN1lX6QuA

— TPI UK, Europe & Middle East (@TPI_UK) August 23, 2019

Fair is fair. If we must dig in @realDonaldTrump affairs @IlhanMN should have the same treatment when campaign funds are involved. What's good for the goose is good for the gander https://t.co/EEka0O5EK0

— Casaundra Blackmon (@beautybothways1) August 29, 2019