International Women's Day: how can we make the world more equal?

We will achieve equality when we decide that we actualy want it.

We expect to be equal in the Board Room, but want part time and flexible hours. We expect to be equal to our husbands around the house, but continue to pander to their needs. We expect to have equal pay with men, but don't put the hours in or think we can be a SAHM Mum for years and then walk into a well paid job. We expect to share the childcare, but don't put our foot down and ensure our 'men' do their share. We xpect our sons to do the same things as our daughters, but then we continur to do their waching and making their packed lunch until they leave home and get married.

I don't have any issue with equality. I decided a long time ago that this was not going to be an issue and I have stuck to it. I work hard and I have a good job (gender is irrelevant), I expected my Husband to take an equal share of child care and household tasks - he didn't, so he is no longer my husband. My DS, who is 5, is expected to help out around the house and he already understands that there are no such thing as 'girls' jobs and 'boys' jobs. He had a pram when he was younger and a play kitchen.

We all make choices in life and I chose to ensure I had equality in all things.

Back to the question, the only way we will ever achieve equality is if men bear and nurse babies. Until that staggering day we'll still be fighting i.e till hell freezes.

Yorkshire feminist groups for Aim4u2b

On a worldwide basis, I'd like every woman to have control over her own body - no rape, obviously, and no unwanted births due to unavailability of birth control or pressure from their men.

I'd also like no woman to be punished for the acts of men, as we read about regularly when a woman is raped and then punished - by men of course - for her "adultery".

No forced marriage.

No discrimination in education or opportunity.

"Every woman can be authentically herself and still be seen as equal to any man"

I've been authentically myself for many years now. It doesn't seem to be working. Can you explain how you have achieved this equality? I'd be interested to know

it's a personal message, you just click on 'message poster' on the top right of someone's post.

at the top left of the Mumsnet page you will see a little envelope, this turns red when you have got a message waiting for you - I'll send one to you.

thank you for that. Still getting into blogs & techy stuff (just not my dept!)what's a PM?

hi aim4u2b!

have you got in touch with a local feminist group? there are groups all over Yorkshire now; whereabouts are you? (You can send me a PM if you don't want to say on here.)

Hi, as a Yorks. biz woman I was shocked by the response in the last few days of a group of biz "men" claiming to be a biz "mafia" to my comments about the lack of females (i.e. none) in their publicity campaign. Their responses did intimidate me but then I got angry! I sent off a couple of press releases about this, no one has yet picked up the story. Perhaps if I had shown my breasts the story would have been published? If this had happened in a country known for opression of women that would have been bad, but it happened here in the UK. Today I shall be working on projects aimd at giving females & men confidence & self belief, I'm also looking out for a female journalist who might publish the real story, maybe you can help me to help women in the UK?

Every woman can be authentically herself and still be seen as equal to any man.

ie. We don't have to act like men to achieve equality, we can be ourselves.

Oh yes, worldwide education, safe drinking water and basic freely (or at least cheaply) available healthcare are vital.

The cessation of war would help hugely with all of the above, given the general destruction, lack of stability for development, wastage of resources as well as the directly negative affect on women (widespread rape and violence towards women being a standard in most of the longer running conflicts).

I think that some of SurreyDad's points are fine although perhaps a bit oddly worded (women need to understand that men need to do some housework for example, should just be men need to do housework). Part of feminism is about recognising that the stereotypes of men vs women are unhelpful to everyone, including men.

But some 'issues' are non existent - men can take their wives names if they choose (I know a couple that have) and there is a totally simple solution to the getting to know the GP better 'problem', just take your child to the doctor every now and then rather than (apparently) leaving it to your wife (visiting the doctor to have a smear is only once every three years and familiarises only with the procedure for having a smear, not something generally very useful for men, lucky them). Oh, and there is a gender neutral term for senior nurses previously known as 'Sister', it's Charge Nurse or more often Nurse Manager.

I think that all of the issues / required changes cited (with a few exceptions from the men and women are different and so equality is a bad thing posters) are valid. For myself I guess right now I'm just role modeling for my children (I work and dh looks after the children, so that I hope is fairly powerful, for my children and their friends too) and challenging misogyny and sexism where I encounter it.

The title of the thread is about the world.

How about starting with providing clean drinking water and basic sanitation to every settlement in the world, so girls can do something other than walk 10 hours a day to fetch water?

Provide immunisation and malaria deaths so mothers do not have to watch their children die so often?

Ensure education for all girls, at least to age 10?

I'll go along with a lot of what SurreyDad said.

The more fathers are involved with the raising of their children the better.
We need more SAHDs and more men doing flexible working to help towards equality.

I do flexible working and have worked part time and it's been brilliant.

I still think people are wary of changing the status quo. Dads can and want to more involved.

women want what men have - which almost admits that men are superior

That doesn't follow. Wanting what someone has only admits that they have something desirable. Having privilege doesn't connote superiority.

sakura - I'm not saying women aren't discriminated against - what I'm saying is they don't have a monopoly on it. And the opinion seems to be that women want what men have - which almost admits that men are superior - rather than trying to get men to want what women have!

when a 22 year old male doesn't have "Its international bitches day" as his Facebook status.

in the name of "research" or "health"

Treating healthy women for the disease of womanhood seems to be a key feature in the medical system

I have just finished reading about the house of horrors of the patriarchal medical system and its treatment of women, the torture it has meted out onto women in the name of "research" or "healthy" frequently without the women's consent.

It continues today. It was not a coincidence that Harold Shipman was a man and the hundred or so of his murder victims were women. Or that the introduction of smear tests have not decreased the incidences of cancer. Or that a hysterectomy carries more risk of death than cancer??? But that doesn't stop them whipping women's uteruses out, does it. Or the way women are treated in labour: often like pieces of meat resulting in birth trauma and PND. The unecessarily pills, HRT for menopausal women which can cause cancer, but who cares as long as it cures women of menopause

And these are some of the "lighter" subjects.

All meted out onto women by men

The NHS or medical system is hostile to men?

ROFLMAO

surreydad, are you seriously implying that men are discriminated against because they're men

Oh and don't get me started on smear tests. Whoop-id-doo, women have been the target of gynelogical experiments for the past 200 years. Hurrah!

Politixmum - if everyone had regular check-ups, then they would know how the health service worked. Women get smear tests / take kids to the GP ,so they know how the system works, and know the staff. The first men know how to use the NHS is when they collapse with a heart attck. The NHS is hostile towards men.

Of course, some people feel that it is only certain people that can be discriminated against - anyone who doesn't want to fit into the stereotype for their demographic make-up can be discriminated against.

when men stop using the term "equality" to get even more privilege for themselves than they already have if that is even possible

More men complain to the Equal Rights Commission than do women. It seem that a lot of white men feel that they are discriminated against on a daily basis

see surreydad's post for details

When this sentence
"I was raped by eight men, and they kidnapped my five month old baby"
is not relegated to a teensy little footnote at the end of a random news article in the Guardian, when same paper has two page spreads on some irrevevant (male) sporting "hero"