Pareto's Principles as they apply at the societal level

After commenting on Evan's post, Feminist Jurisprudence vs. Economic Analysis of Law, I continued to think about using the ideas of Pareto efficiency on the societal level. When I talk about the societal level, I do not mean the economic conditions of a society, but the actual social structure and conditions within the society. For many years, especially during the third wave of feminism movement, still continuing today, there has been a push towards the complete equality of the sexes, at all levels within a society and within all areas of that society. From my understand of the Pareto efficiency principles, the principles mainly deal with the concept that it is not possible to redistribute wealth or money to some weaker group, without harming another group or reducing the efficiency in another area. If we can apply this to the societal level, and by now I am sure that many of those reading this are going to be upset by the following, it seems that it would be impossible to alter the balance, in this case status and power of the sexes, between men and women in an attempt to aid one without harming the other. This is not meant to be a sexist or gender biased claim for the promotion or continuation of one sex's apparent elevated status over the other, but merely an attempt to use established principles in an area where they were not originally intended to be used, but may be very applicable. I cannot imagine that the comment will be very positive to this, but I hope that those reading will be able to look past the example I used and look at the actual application of the principles of Pareto.