What's your number 1 feminist ishoo?

Lemme see

Erm

.....

Or physical health either Morrigu. Another man telling women what they should be doing. Bodily autonomy - massive issue.

I agree with basghetti word for word but it's really positive that so many other issues are being focused on. The personal is definitely the political.

At the moment after listening to the rubbish our newly appointed health minister in Northern Ireland was spouting on a radio interview, abortion rights. It enrages and sickens me that this man believes women shouldn't have the option of abortion even if a woman is raped, as he says, should carry the child to give it up for adoption when born. Some health minister not considering the mental health of the consequences of this.

Jenny, I am very sorry to hear about the situation with your daughter. It must be incredibly upsetting for you.

What Basgetti said: Male violence against women and the widespread reluctance to notice there's a pattern to it.

Interpersonal behaviour within relationships with men and the abusive elements of relationships which affect so many.

Lots of other issues too clearly, but this most basic level is perhaps also key to much else that needs changing.

I guess it's about respect and then equality.

For me, it is about control of women's bodies, so this includes abortion rights, pregnancy rules (see that thread on Foetal Alcohol Syndrome) and a general sense of entitlement over women's sexual availability in any situation. Basic human rights IMO.

It is nice to see that everyone has a different focus though, covering all bases and that.

As the mother of mixed race DDs (half Iranian), intersectional feminism is very important to me. I'm aware of the expectations people have of women purely because of their race. A lol of white feminism excludes women of colour. Similarly, forced marriage and honour killings are both significant concerns to me. My DDs have family (their father) in a country where a woman who has been raped will be killed .

Also, the 'smash her' kind of sexual attitude is a huge concern to me. I hate how sex is seen as a chance to show male dominance and to 'own' a woman. I've heard a man (in a pub, he was probably around the age of 19-ish) say that a woman couldn't argue with him because he had ejaculated on her. This kind of attitude isn't uncommon and I fear for when my DDs are of an age to encounter this kind of attitude.

I need two, too.

Internet pornography terrified me with its impact on kids. I cannot see things improving for my daughters until more is done to tackle this. I am astonished at the violent, degrading material that is "legal".

And also, yes, equal pay. We still don't receive equal pay. And I don't think we will until there is a huge shift in terms of the role of women in the workplace.

But Petula, it's you that's doing that.

Asking what the Number 1 issue is necessitates some weighing up doesn't it??! I think you're just being difficult.

For me personally, women/girls in unhealthy relationships, be it emotional, verbal or physical/sexual abuse.

So many women go through hellish situations, because they don't feel strong enough to get out of them. It makes me so sad and angry at the same time.

i understand perfectly what you mean

but please let women share what really makes them angry and sad and frustrated, rather than turning this into a discussion about how and why we might put certain things ahead of others

Ok, re-phrase:

I find it a problem. I struggle that my car windscreen being iced up in the mornings is more annoying to me than - say - the rail strike in Germany, because me being delayed by five minutes is more important to me than a bunch of folk I don't know being seriously disrupted.

I probably should have picked a better example, but hopefully I'll have communicated what I meant.... I won't hold my breath though.

My last gripe is that we seem fixed on Mrs and Ms. The real question is why do we still need titles at all? There should be no need for Mrs, Ms, Mr or Miss.
The question of women change of surname upon marriage and children given paternal surnames challenges patriarchy more so than whether a woman is known as a Mrs or Miss.
If Mrs and Miss were to be abolished, I doubt many women would have a problem. But would men be happy if titles where no longer required, for example, given the unspoken privilege a Mr will still have over Ms?

damsili, this isn't an argument, there is no "problem". this is women talking about what bothers them most

And despite the horrors that women face in other parts of the world, it also makes me very angry when Western women are told they should shut and be grateful because women elsewhere have it so much worse.

The fact that rape and domestic violence against women is seen as just a criminal case and not also hate crime.

That the burden of proof in rape and domestic violence rests with women in court

That rape is now called sexual violence. It is increasingly easier for men and wider society to talk about rape if they substitute rape for sexual violence. I also think it is because we all know that rape is force and power used by men on women whereas sexual violence does not have the same connotation

The problem here is the dichotomy between issues that affect us personally and those that affect a larger group to which we don't belong. Feminism, by its very nature, is about women as a class.

So, as a class 800 women a DAY die from pregnancy are big fucking headlines. There's obviously a whole range of issues there: healthcare, women's status being related to children in a way men's isn't... But sex is a major factor. Patrirachy is set up such that men feel they have a right to intrude upon women and women's lives for purposes of sex. This intrusion and entitlement stretches from rape to cat-calling. Ok, so we can largely deal with cat-calling... but that same dynamic surely sits as an integral part of what leads to that figure almond quoted.

800 women a day die from pregnancy

It should become the norm for men to be equally responsible for housework and childcare, because I believe this effects more women than the more serious issues like domestic violence, rape, prostitution.

In a lot of homes there is the expectation that housework and childcare is solely or primarily 'womens' work' and that men that do their share are unusual, or 'under the thumb'.

The above also extends to the workplace - it is assumed that men can work long hours, travel etc as they have a wife at home to keep all the domestic balls in the air on her own. This then affects what the wife can do, because any work or other activities she wants to do come second and has to fit round her DHs.

YY to those posters that sexism is still seen as 'acceptable' and not as bad as racism or homophobia.

I know we're only supposed to say one issue, but also it should become the norm to address adult women by a single title, removing the convention and widely held perception that Mrs = married and Ms = lesbian man hating trouble causer. I don't care whether Mrs or Ms is used, but it's an indignity that women have to suffer every time they are addressed in a formal setting or complete a form.

The fact that women have had such a number done on them that they can't see their own oppression, that when you point out blatant inequality they shy away and deny it, or minimise it, the way we are so ground down, so fearful, so lacking in agency that we collude in our own oppression.