New here, don't kill me

im meaning quite the opposite Chickenshavenoeyes[impress]
ah i didnt put the word sparkly-im definatly not sparkly.

sparky

Had forgotten about that "burglary" thread

wonderful, that was

I am still concerned about rhubarb's parrot though...

well-i dont know where to start and i dont want to "impress"you with one of my long posts-so...........................
welcome Chickenshavenoeyebrows-glad you made the step.
we re not as scary as we sound.

sparky

Ooh, you're so unfeminist. Where are your dungarees? And are those shaved legs?

Welcome Pippaandpolly and thanks for the book recommendation. I'd not heard of it, although I have heard similar things about educating women and girls.

Hi, I've never posted in this section before but have read with interest...I think maternal mortality is one of the biggest problems, but maybe not in the western world. Hm. Education of girls likewise. (With the idea that education provides girls with the tools to protect themselves/change their own societies.) Has anyone read 'Half the sky: How to change the world'? It's about lots of things, but the basic premise is that educating girls worldwide is key to most problems! It's an amazing read.

For me, abortion rights because I live in Ireland, women have no bodily autonomy

I support quotas for all 'minority' groups. Too many female, non-heterosexual and non-white children just don't see People Like Them in enough places. Enforce it for long enough and it'll become normal

I support tax hikes as well - 'we'll leeeeeeeave the country!!'. Meh - call their bluff. No more mealy-mouthed tolerance of the widening gap between rich and poor.

They've been asked to share and they won't. Let's just take it.

Quotas? What 50/50 even when the work force is not 50/50?

Chickens! You came over! :o

And I agree with Alice about the route out being via cultural change. The less things make sense, the less they will happen the world over. But the status quo needs to be challenged, no matter how frustrating it might seem. And getting more women into positions of power. As Madeleine Albright says in this fascinating interview "Well I do think, when there are more women, that the tone of the conversation changes, and also the goals of the conversation change."

Male violence is a massive problem the world over. I believe it (or the threat of it) underpins and/or causes the vast majority of inequality, be that of sex, class, disability or other.

Male violence against women and children is my no. 1 priority as a feminist. There are many other issues that run hot on the heels, though.

I think that Overton window stuff is key to changing it.

I think cultural change is really important.

People often come along with regard to, say, lap dancing clubs or page 3, shouting about how feminists want to ban them. What I want is to live in a world where lap dancing and page 3 would not make sense. Where they would be seen as a really odd way of wanting to see women. If an alien came down to earth and saw that, what would she think about relationships between women and men on earth? So changing the way people think, what is seen as 'normal' etc is key.

That's not to say I wouldn't ban those things before cultural change happens, but cultural change is way more important. So its about challenging rape myths, making people more aware of domestic violence stats etc etc etc.

Other more day to day things matter too. But cultural change for me is where its at ultimately.

never giving up.

DV, rape and abortion are all very important, agreed.

I'd also like to throw in equal parenting in the UK and Europe. It is still the case that so many women are forced out of their careers due to career breaks to raise families, inflexible employers and the general perception that it is a woman's sole responsibility to stay at home and raise the child.

I know that we've come a long way and there are now a few sahds and we have the flexible working request, but it really doesn't go far enough.

Maternity rights and pay are poor, there's still the national insurance contributions gap for pensions, hugely expensive childcare and conversely poorly paid childcare staff.

There is also a definite glass ceiling and a lack of women in senior executive/company director or board roles and women are still paid less than men across the private sector.

I've always felt uncomfortable about positive discrimination of whatever flavour but I do think legislation needs to change, especially in employment law. Furthermore, the law needs to be applied; too often it isn't.

Without women having an equal voice and footing on the world stage whether in business or politics or any other field, it's very hard to achieve equality.

That is an excellent thread, MrsChemist.

Thanks MrsChemist!

Welcome chickens.

I'm another one who believes DV is one of the most pressing issues affecting women today in the UK. It affects women who haven't been a victim of it too, because of the effect DV has on the wider society.

75% of households where a child is abused has DV going on as well. Tackle DV and a significant proportion of child abuse will be dealt with also. Linked into this is the issue of children being made to continue contact with abusive NRPs.

The acceptability of 'low level' DV (financial abuse, emotional/psychological abuse, a shove here, hassling about sex) permeates society and affects all women because it reinforces the notion of male superiority. It also feeds into the rape myth culture.

DV is about entitlement. People who feel entitled to beat up women often feel entitled to behave in a superior manner in other areas of their lives too - whether it's parking in a disabled spot, dropping litter, fiddling benefits/taxes, etc.

DV is bad for society as a whole. I think that's an important point to make if we;re going to get the wider society on board with the campaign.

But it's particularly bad for women, of course. Said abuser will get fined for parking in a disabled bay (if caught), possibly imprisoned for fiddling benefits/taxes, but he probably won't even get a caution for giving his wife a black eye. What sort of message does that send?