Feminist Pub 16: where the Bluestockings develop armoured stockings to deal with the thousand paper cuts

That sounds agonising, I'm sorry

I would getyourself over to the legal or employment section here and get some advice from the experts there (before backing up with RL expertise)

As it's affecting your ability to earn a living, it's the right thing to do, Puffins x

Yes, Petula, someone failed to report that a piece of equipment was leaking water, or clear up the water on the floor but put a mat over it instead. I stood on the mat, which aquaplaned and I landed flat on my sacrum. My sacroilliac joint is now naffed.

I spoke to ACAS, they are allowed to do this, it's within the letter, if not the spirit of the law. I now have to look at the distasteful step of a personal injury lawsuit.

Shit puffins what scary and upsetting news

Was the negligence on their part?

WTF Puffins? That's awful! Have you spoken to someone who knows legal stuff? Solicitor? Trade union?

I'm at a bit of a loss.

Had a meeting yesterday with occupational health who told me that if I couldn't go back to my management role immediately, my employers are going to demote me, and that there isn't any slack to create a job for me, so I will be unemployed. So, not only does someone's negligence cause me to damage my back in a lifelong way, but I now get to lose my job. The confirmation that no matter what physio I do, there's not a huge amount they can do for me has also made me think about the future. Who on earth is going to want to employ someone who's back could go ping again any time?

I know what they're doing is perfectly legal, but also a kick in the teeth really.

It's also making me seriously look at what I was planning to do at university. bugger.

the thing that is brilliant about that house is that it already pre-empts the comments that are going to appear below. no one can post them without looking like a (more of a) nob (than usual). not that that will stop them i'm sure

My godmother was Irish, and although not from a Catholic family, she was one of 13 children. The tragic thing is that her parents were first cousins, and this dreadful dementia ran in the family. All of them, one after another, ended up basically catatonic for years before they died. Not really a feminist issue, but if they'd known, if they'd been able to use birth control, so much sadness could have been avoided.

Ah I see what you mean, though the reduction in quality of life almost certainly isn't worth it and it is no justification (I know that's not what you're saying obviously)

My Grannie was a good catholic woman. Although she didn't have such a barbaric procedure, she now has severe osteoporosis as they couldn't afford for her to eat well enough during pregnancy with so many children to feed too, and her quality of life is not good

Absolutely, Petula - that attitude is indefensible. I'm thinking more of women in remote parts of Africa although they were mostly brainwashed by the church as well.

they wouldn't be doing their duty as good catholic women in that case amethyst, according to the doctor who "treated" one of the women

Symphysiotomy is just grotesque. The only, ONLY justification I have read for it that makes any kind of sense was when it was performed on women who lived in very remote rural areas and had no access to contraception and would be very unlikely to have access to medical care for subsequent births, in which case the alternative might well be death in childbirth.

But still, a better alternative would surely have been no subsequent pregnancies, ie no PIV sex for men? But then the woman would be stigmatised as barren...

I know, LordCopper - one of the points is "get a male buddy to support you by visibly nodding and paying good attention when you speak". Well there is nothing particularly or unusually obnoxious about the men I work with but if I were to say to one of them, "look. women have a problem with being disrespected when we speak. I want you to visibly support me when I speak" I would just get snorts. "I support everyone!" "Women are not disrespected, it's all in your head. We all have to push to speak and get airtime, you should just push harder" and so on. It would make me look a right eejit and really set me back.

I am actually (now, at the age of 43) really good at speaking in meetings. I have learnt how to get in there and speak engagingly and concisely and I have been congratulated on "when you speak, people listen". It has been hard, I didn't get there instantly and I spent a good 10 years saying practically nothing (while being full of thoughts), so I am not saying these problems are imagined, I am saying I am seasoned and I have learnt some strategies. HOWEVER it doesn't FUKCING HELP ME. It doesn't change the way that I am perceived as not promotion material. Something is holding me back - something in me or something systemic - but it is not that.

I read Ebear's link. A quick thought: it's all very sensible, but what we really need is that men buy into this - not because women are not bias, but because lots of us work in an environment where men are the majority. There are some men I know who understand this, but some of them ... well ...

Buffy Not a serious thing. You know how sometimes DC has some minor ailment and then everyone over-react and you succumb against your better judgement and take their advice and end up wasting a lot of time and getting no further along? That sort of debacle.

Good morning!

Marking place. Debacle GP visit yesterday evening and still pissed off. Harrumph. But must marshal the troops.

I think there are some useful bits in this doc, even if Sheryl Sandberg doesn't recognise her privilege at times.
time.com/3666135/sheryl-sandberg-talking-while-female-manterruptions/

Saw The Homesman tonight at the cinema. It was tough and harrowing but worth watching if you get the chance

I'd heard of it, but those stories are beyond hideous. Those poor women, and most of the doctors involved would be dead now, but what utter, utter bastards