To think woman don't have it better now?

We have it so much better than past generations of women. Rape probably happened more but it wouldn't even be reported and if it was it would not be taken seriously. Yes it's currently hard to get a conviction but at least it can get to court. It's just the nature of the charge (usually no witnesses) that makes it hard to get a conviction.

Women in the western world have so much more freedom now than they ever had previously. It's not perfect and we still largely live in a patriarchal world but we have the opportunity to challenge this now in a way that wasn't possible before. Our voices are getting louder. I wouldn't swap places with any man.

Well you can have your own money and keep it, divorce your husband (who legally cannot beat or rape you), you may have a job once married/a mother, you may take out a mortgage and have a credit card, you will not be shunned if pregnant outside of wedlock, it is commonplace to go to university or study stem…I think it’s better.

But for most of history in most cultures there was no real sense of women having any bodily autonomy! There was no concept at all of rape in marriage until really recently ( my lifetime) as it was just assumed the wife’s body was available to the husband. Where rape was condemned the focus was on the woman being ‘spoiled’ as the property of the husband/father. The OT actually requires women must marry their rapist as they are ‘spoilt’ for anyone other man.

Abortion was not legal for most of history either.

Your examples actually illustrate that things ARE better.

Though I do think we have not progressed anywhere near as much as we think. Misogyny is rife. Just look at how violent, misogynistic porn has proliferated. Rape may be illegal, but it’s rife and so many men love the idea of it. Look at how readily those in positions of power have been to give away women’s single sex spaces and services. No care for what these means for women.

We’ve had law changes but actually attitudes to women haven’t changed so much, annd our new ‘rights’ are easily given away and our dignity ignored.

Rape will never be a crime with much of a conviction rate sadly, one persons claim vs another, without anyone else around is almost impossible to convict, without evidence. And evidence has to be collected so quickly and can still be unreliable.

It's much better for woman now than its ever been but there's still a long long way to go.

To the poster upthread who suggested the 90s were better for women - I was a teen back then and NO, it's much better now than it was then.

1990s is very recent. I think life probably felt a bit more hopeful for most people then. Men and women.
OK since the 90s things that have probably improved are information technology allowing WFH and flexibility which particularly suits women. More openness about mental health. Less ‘slut shaming’. More openness about relationships and knowledge of coercive control.

It's better in a lot of ways but there's still a long long way to go.

It is much better than historically.
Women who married had no right to leave and if divorced could loose their children. Until recently rape in marriage wasn't recognised.
And it wasn't that long ago that it was very easy for "awkward" women to be locked up in mental institutions.

Well its not perfect no but today you can vote which many women in history have not been able to do. In Tudor england a female servant could be routinely raped and abused and could not speak out or lose their jobs. Other women were married to those they hardly knew for money. This is the way women have been treated over the centuries this is a tiny snapshot. So yes I feel luckier than them, i have more power than they did and more opportunity.

Morning OP. I am 46 and, from my point of view, I think prospects and general opportunities and fairness has massively improved for women.
But the issues you mention are major. Particularly the rape conviction rate that the UK has currently. There is a lot of work to do on this.

YABVU

1990’s?

No. Not in most of the West. We have much more freedom now. Give us a period in time you thought things were better?