Getting a tiny bit feminist on the teacher's ass!

[SolidGoldBrass]

I didn't raise my voice. I didn't unshave my legs or anything.
It just so happened that DS and I bumped into his class teacher at the playground this afternoon and we had a pleasant chat; the teacher turns out to have DC of her own, of a similar age to DS. She mentioned something about girls being very different to boys. I very very gently said that this was in fact rubbish and suggested she read Delusions of Gender, and added that I thought every teacher should read it as a lot of the stuff about gender difference you hear these days was not only wrong but dangerous...

I'm going to be 'one of THOSE mothers' forever, aren't I?

Handbag

So if there are no differences between men and women , and gender is irrelevant why do you promote the idea that only men fund and set up male refugees? I thought gender shouldn't matter so why should it this case?

'And for those men who have children and life changes not a jot... Who carries them? Oh yeah...women'

Again, this is a choice. This is the choice my DH and I have made.

'Women don't want it? Evidence?'

There are 4 women in the cabinet.

A choice for you, not for everyone

I'm going to assume you've not studied logic Sigmund.

Pff. So your evidence that women don't want something is that they are under-represented?

I hope you're not planning on doing a phd any time soon.

Its a bit sad people are resorting to personally attacking SF for not holding the same views as them.

No I haven't. Have you studied 'real life'?

Haha sadly yes.
My logic point was "there are 4 female cabinet members = therefore women do not want it" ... Not a personal attack.

Bingo! Bingo! It's It's like a form of Godwin's Law. At some point during a 'discussion' with me, feminists will begin to sneeringly comment on my education of lack thereof. It's happened so many times now.

Thanks Angel btw...

It has nothing to do with your education and everything to do with your faulty thinking. I'm sorry that you took it as a slight on your education, it wasn't meant like that and I would never slam someone for their lack of education (I'm not particularly well-educated myself and certainly don't have a phd.)

It's like saying "women don't have the vote = women don't want the vote".

Just because something doesn't happen doesn't mean that people don't want it.

If slaves really wanted to be free.......

Re. maternity leave. All employers are legally obliged to provide is statutory maternity pay. They can recover this from the government. That some employers choose to pay occupational maternity benefit suggests to me that they've done some sort of cost-benefit analysis and decided that the benefits of retaining a highly educated, highly trained woman's services outweigh the costs of the occupational maternity pay.

MT - thanks for your explanation, I understand.

Thank you for being so gracious, SF. I'm a bit mortified reading my post back, because I can see how it looks.

Angel, women's refuges are for women to flee from dv. As most women are in heterosexual relationships then logic tells us the violence perpetrated upon them will have been done by a man. I can fully support that a women's refuge should just be for women (and their children of either sex) as it is a refuge. I would also fully support men's refuges where men and their children can flee violence perpetrated by their female partners. I can see why dv refuges would be gendered and why we would support this. It was women that set up women's refuges though because they saw the need and put the effort in to make it happen. I would want men to be involved in the setting up of men's refuges. How can I as a woman understand truly what a male victim of dv would need from a refuge? Why would I expect a man fleeing to a refuge to stay in a place run by and set up for women?

Sigmund, it is only recently that females have overtaken males in the world of education, prior to this males outperformed females. If this was still the case, what would you think? If we put things back how they were and boys still outperformed girls at school and university, would that be ok?

No, don't be, it's fine...really

Sigmund said wayback "Violence is totally gendered, men by far experience the most violence." Yes I know. I was being sarcastic. Of course violence is gendered. But in a different way to the way you portrayed. Men are far more likely to be the perpetrators and women are far more likely to be the victims of violence.

Lurcio, you've summed my point up perfectly there about mat leave. It is the LONG game for employers, not all about short term gains

What about the women who have been abused by another woman?

Why couldn't a woman work behind the scenes or even fund a mens refuge? (I do know two man effected by dv, I don't see why my empathy should run any shorter due to their gender).

'it is only recently that females have overtaken males in the world of education, prior to this males outperformed females. If this was still the case, what would you think? If we put things back how they were and boys still outperformed girls at school and university, would that be ok?'

If it was still the case, then that would be as unacceptable as girls outperforming boys now.

'Men are far more likely to be the perpetrators and women are far more likely to be the victims of violence.'

I would say that men are more likely to be both the perpetrators AND the victims.

Just to clarify I meant women are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrator.

Why do you think it's unacceptable for girls to outperform boys in education, but not for men to outperform women in the world of work?

ONe of the reasons girls now outperform boys in education (in terms of exam results) is that they have stopped marking girls' work down. GIrls' exam results used to be downgraded because it was WRONG for girls to do better than boys and would mean the end of the world.