What is going on?

Yes .. I agree with all this and n a general pushback against women's rights but re the particularly example of Antionette Sandbach, whilst it's abhorrent that she is getting abusive texts of course, it may also be testimony to her current clout across a few different areas too.

She is awesome, does some brilliant campaigning and does not let up. She's presumably very inconvenient for some with vested interests.

Also, it's positive that she is speaking out about the abuse (she had deleted the texts when I heard about it - does anyone know what they said?)

Don't agree with OP. It's feeling like a tough time & there are still many equality battles to be won & plenty of mindless fools out there yrying to turn back clocks but we as women can
Vote
Pursue a career
Own/rent property in our own name
Have a bank account in our name
Access free contraception
Have the same minimum age to leave education
etc
Don't undervalue these rights. There is lots to strive for but there have been far worse times to be a woman.

I learned that my dd and her friends were interested online is someone called Milly Smith - I naturally assumed this was some Towie type person and yet more unrealistic shit for teenagers that they would need to talk to her about. Turns out , not so . Have body hair if you want, don't use aluminium packed antiperspirant, deodorant only is fine, be healthy but don't obsess about weight or shape, talking about mental health is important. I'm sure more knowledgeable women on here will tell me something about this young woman that I should be wary of but those sound like positives.

Excuse my ignorance, but what is Caliban and the Witch?
Secondly, witchunting was not a major thing. Compared to the number of unfortunate men and women killed as heretics, its minuscule and confined to a small period.
If you could give me hard evidence that they were respected it would be useful. Because I don't think it's true . These women were denounced by those they lived amongst -men and women - and as a result of personal dislike imo. The people judging them were men, but they were denounced and witnessed against by their neighbours.
The enclosures impacted men and women alike and it's incredibly sollipsistic to see them as an attack on women

The saddest thing about the witchcraze is that the women were tortured until they repented, but you can only repent if you've done something wrong. "Repent!" the men would shout. And they'd rather die than repent. A bit like those of us on here who will never repent by "admitting" men can change sex and become women

In Caliban and the witch I learned about how the commons were seized by the Gentry so that common people could no longer rely on them for food: foraging and hunting for small animals, which women would have done. What happened was, where previously women could obtain food through their wisdom and knowledge of the flora and fauna in the local area, a system was created where they had to depend on a wage ( and therefore on men) to gain access to food. What we see today is that food is entirely in the hands of men. My master's degree was in international Horticulture, where I learned about who controls food today. The only way women can get food in 2019 is through having money. It never used to be like this

Yes, witches were the older women who were experienced and knew things.

That is why some men wanted then hanged or burned.

Purely for knowing how society works.

@Gone2far Feminists refer to the industrial revolution in the UK as the industrial genocide and I think things have gotten progressively worse for women. I'm so grateful to the women who fought for the vote and some strides have been made but overall we are up shit creek without a paddle

@Gone2far I think they were respected, yes. As healers and as midwives and as wise women you would go to for advice.

But you were referring to a previous golden age before the medicalisation of childbirth, which never existed. Were witches powerful (and respected) women in their community? I doubt it.

@Gone2far "witches" were women who usually lived alone from what I've read. It's been a while since I read "Caliban and the witch" but that's what I remember.
As for childbirth, I read midwife Inna May Gaskin's book about what modern obstetrics does to women and how she's devoted her life offering women other options. It's also easy enough to compare the maternal death rate in countries that heavily medicalize birth, like Brazil and the US ( where C sections are common) and compare them to countries where women usually go for homebirth like the Netherlands. Homebirthing countries are a lot safer.

I've always enjoyed being a woman. Certainly wouldn't want to be a man.

And I'm sorry mummy but
'. So back then there would have been women who owned substantial pieces of land, and it strikes me that women lived more independent and separate lives than they could ever hope for now'
Is nonsense. The only independent women were rich widows, like Bess of Hardwick.

FWIW, I'm 60+, and womens lives are much much better now.
At my girls school, the choice of careers offered was nursing or teaching. You only have to look at comedies or films from a decade ago to see things that would be totally unacceptable now (thankfully).
My dh worked in engineering, in a company actively involved in promoting women's role in the industry .

I would strongly recommend anybody who agrees with the previous messages on childbirth read The History of Women's Bodies by E Shorter. It's a good read and opened my eyes on this. I, for one, would rather go through childbirth in the modern age.

And when men took over birth it was a total disaster for women. Male physicians would deal with corpses then "deliver" babies not even knowing they had to wash their hands. They caused so many unnecessary deaths

No obviously the actual witchcraze wasn't a high point for women.
But the catalyst for the witchcraze was for men to redress women's perceived power in society. Women monopolized healing ( after the witchcraze male physicians were able to move into fields like birth and other areas of healing). They also clearly owned a lot of property and land. Men weren't having it.

I don’t follow the logic that it was better when we burnt witches and killed midwives.

Things do seem to be worse than they ever have been. The witchcraze hundreds of years ago was partly a land grab. So back then there would have been women who owned substantial pieces of land, and it strikes me that women lived more independent and separate lives than they could ever hope for now. They killed quite a lot of midwives too so we know that birth used to be in the hands of women. Yes it's worse today than hundreds of years ago.

I hear what you say. But the great increase in the coverage of Womens Football

I got a sexist comment about Women's Football deleted off the BBC (of all woke places) earlier today. Literally within about 10 minutes. I was gobsmacked they took it seriously.

The Nike women’s football ad I saw at the cinema at the weekend was brilliant, to support Gone2far’s point, but we also need to see genuine, systemic improvements too if we are to move forwards.

It’s not just women feeling like this, by the way. DH read an article about an MRA organisation protesting outside one of Trump’s rallies in the Guardian yesterday and was horrified by the linked footage. He’s appalled by the behaviour of some men and the general coursening of public discourse. He is very supportive of current women’s activism and dismayed by the way things are going backwards.

I hear what you say. But the great increase in the coverage of Womens Football, and many more knowledgeable women sports presenters on the media is a plus imo.

That's really interesting - I was a single mother when Blair got into power and I had to stop listening to the radio as it felt like single mother's were the source of all evil.