A good job there aren't many men on MN

[Truckulent]

I think men would be shocked at the level of resentment leveled at them on MN. Almost a seething mass of contempt at times.

I'm a man, been on here for years. And I was surprised by it.

AIBU to think it's a good job there aren't many men on here, or would more men posting help men and women understand each other better?

queenlet, because these issues affect women they are not given the same resources. In China women in the country go into labour with a bucket of water by their side, this is for the newborn girl who gets drowned, the lucky ones make it to the dying rooms.

It's a sign of where a society's priorities lie in general. A recent UN publication the Gender Inequality Index makes it clear that "reproductive health is the largest contributor to gender inequality" -- Table 5.5 is a shocker, and identifies gender inequality even where progress is otherwise being made and even in places considered to be out of the woods development wise, as well as where conditions are dire overall.

Again, the "but men are miners" line is expressed in your post, Queenlet -- yes, in the least developed countries men and children are victims of the generally poor quality of healthcare, but women suffer disproportionately due to maternity.

ISNT, there are also places where you're lucky to be born at all if you're female.

Yes that was my "not even having to leave the womb" bit.

depressing.

Mind you, women and children also used to work down the mines.

In fact families would share cottages, sleeping and eating in one while the other family were toiling away.

As soon as you were 4 you were down there.

Are maternal death rates not more dependent on whether a country has universal healthcare and the quality of that healthcare. The US doesn't have universal healthcare so its almost inevitable that they are going to have a higher maternal death rate as many US citizens have little or no health provison.

Huddspare all pregnant American women who are uninsured have the right to medicare. Having worked in both US and UK hospitals I can't seriously believe those stats. UK hospitals are backwards death traps.

Why is the maternal death rate so high even among those with insurance policies SGM?

I see the thread has trundled on so I will briefly reply to various posters.

Beachcomber - we will have to agree to disagree on our mining discussion. I feel you misunderstood me and we should leave it at that.

I enjoyed your cartoon link though. They made me .

Leningrad - you asked whether I cared and what I do about inequity in the global capitalist system. Well, yes I DO care and take specific action. Me and DW invest in companies for a living and we will not invest in any company which treats staff or suppliers badly. We also routinely vote down unjustified executive pay awards - largely handed out to what you would call the patriachy. I believe in the ideals of capitalism but not what it has become.

mathanxiety - yes I did know that statistic about deaths in childbirth. The massive reduction in deaths in childbirth along with contraception surely has to be among the greatest contributer to the welfare of women of modern times.

I might add though that generally being born a bloke is a greater occupational hazard when it comes to life expectancy. We die earlier. Men commit suicide more often but have less funding for mental healthcare in the UK. Men have less funding for research, diagnosis and teatment of cancer. I dont blame women or even feminists for that but it is another example of an area were men fare less well.

Are you ignoring me deliberately BeenBeta?

BeenBeta......

Seriously? You come up with inequalities for men in a system designed by men???

But we know that women are more active in cancer awareness raising and fund raising for cancers which affect women, than men are for cancers which affect men.

If men want more funding for male cancers they will have to do what women did and campaign for it.

Prostate and testicular cancer are still taboo amongst men, and men are known to neither examine themselves as much as women, or go to the doctor with a concern as early as women.

I have no idea if this is anyone's fault or just one of those things - I don't really see what it has to do with feminism however.

I suspect, but don't know, that feminism or equality for women has nothing to do with male suicide rates either.

Again, if there are areas where men feel hard done by, there is nothing stopping them doing something about it.

Also men's lower life expectancy is patently not attributed to female domination of any nature so not sure what that has to do with the price of bread.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy#Sex_differences

Mental health services, statistically women are more likely to receive no treatment at all.

There are fewer women admitted into Mental health units, although specialist units show a slightly higher number of females.

Women's mental health.....you may be sorry you brought this up BB.
Depressive disorders account for close to 41.9% of the disability from neuropsychiatric disorders among women compared to 29.3% among men.
Leading mental health problems of the elderly are depression, organic brain syndromes and dementias. A majority are women.
An estimated 80% of 50 million people affected by violent conflicts, civil wars, disasters, and displacement are women and children.
Lifetime prevalence rate of violence against women ranges from 16% to 50%.
At least one in five women suffer rape or attempted rape in their lifetime.

Well exactly beachcomber.

The dismissal of all of those aborted female children in certain countries, female children being abandoned and killed, females being sold off, raped and murdered, made to cover from head to toe, beaten, executed and barred from public life, simply because they are female, on the basis that men die too

Really it's just so incredible that anyone can look around the world and say there is no gendered problem here.

BB....What are the examples? More boys are miscarried, more boys die before their first birthday, more boys (possibly) die before they're twenty, men die earlier. They have much longer to procreate, many more sperm are male, they are usually stronger (if we stick to siblings, all's fair and all that), taller, have bigger penises, hairier chests,...

But this has very little to do with feminism.

My family recently lost a member through prostate cancer. We were all fucking gutted because it was treatable in the beginning.

Nowt to do with women's rights though.

In Iran, death by stoning is carried out on a person who is buried in the ground. If they manage to get free before they are killed, they can go.

Men are buried up to their waists, women are buried up to their necks.

But there is no gendered problem there, no sirree.

Why are people just not interested in this stuff? Why do people tell us we mustn't care about this stuff, and must think about other things instead? Just because the people we are concerned for are women? Why does that upset people so much?

SGM...Why thanksx.

(WHO is my friend, bloody matriarchal organisation)

In Iran women are criminally responsible at nine (and that means they can be married off too) and boys at 15. Girls are not allowed to speak in public.

I think a 'patriarchy index' and the maternal death index are linked. In the case of the US, the fact that there is no universal healthcare, and that healthcare is not seen as a basic right for all is an indication of the dominant 'every man for himself' ideal that exists there. The hyper masculine, hyper capitalist ideal is alive and well in the US. I consider the US to be a very good example of a very patriarchal society.

BeenBeta, as the table I posted shows, across the board, improvements have been slow and there is still a hugely disproportionate toll on women due to maternity issues everywhere.

Lovesthechaos -- while pregnant women in the US in theory have access to free medical care, in practice the quality of care that is available is often very poor, availability is patchy (vast areas of rural America have virtually no doctors) and many go without pre natal visits as a result. Underlying health problems that happen as a result of poor diet (because of food deserts in inner cities) and lack of access to regular care (pregnant women with chronic blood pressure issues or asthma for instance) can contribute to many problems in pregnancy. Being poor and a woman of childbearing age in the US can be disastrous.