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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to think women should collectively down tools to demand change?

182 replies

ZoeHS · 12/03/2026 12:13

Reflecting on current news such as the Epstein files and wars which are started by men in which women (and children) are adversely affected. We live in a time where women’s rights are being eroded even more and misogyny is increasing. It feels like being a female means we’re in constant danger despite being the reason for the human race existing. We’re exploited in so many ways. I know it isn’t just men who are the perpetrators, but the vast majority of those doing the exploiting are men.

Do those of us who can strike and down tools collectively?

By downing tools I mean not working, not having sex, not looking after children (or perhaps we take the children with us), not producing, not buying anything. We just sit down and say no. I know on one level that it’s bonkers but I also feel like we need a real disruptive movement to challenge the status quo.

OP posts:
MauvePombear · 14/03/2026 07:33

FreshInks · 14/03/2026 02:58

Are you doing okay? You sound a little depressed. I genuinely don't mean that as an insult, it comes from a place of kindness.

Yikes, please rethink posts like this. It's possible to have depression and still function ok -and it's an intrusive question. Particularly from a total stranger online.

MyrtlethePurpleTurtle · 14/03/2026 16:56

MauvePombear · 12/03/2026 14:07

Are they? What percentage of women are MPs for example? Surgeons like someone else said. How many women occupy roles such as mechanic, plumber, engineer.
There's still a gender pay gap.
Many women occupy part time roles -insecure -particularly women from the BAME community.

There are women who get dismissed when pregnant. I read a news article this morning where a woman was smacked and injured (for life)because she turned down someones advances -he got 21 months in jail

What percentage of women are MPs? The answer is 40.5%.

MyrtlethePurpleTurtle · 14/03/2026 17:01

MauvePombear · 12/03/2026 15:10

How is it better than ever? Look at these boards -the number of women posting about being in awful co ercive relationships is sad.

Whereas before women suffered in silence,,,

TwoTuesday · 14/03/2026 17:16

You realise that women were also implicated in the Epstein abuse, like Maxwell who encouraged girls she had picked up to bring their friends along too in return for a cash payment. Not to mention Fergie and her daughters fawning over him in return for money. How many others turned a blind eye because it suited them?
It's not as simple as men bad, women good.

FreshInks · 14/03/2026 19:52

MauvePombear · 14/03/2026 07:33

Yikes, please rethink posts like this. It's possible to have depression and still function ok -and it's an intrusive question. Particularly from a total stranger online.

That’s a fair point. I genuinely felt a little worried for her based on this thread and posts she has made on other threads. But I can see that it probably wasn’t an appropriate thing to say.

PollyBell · 14/03/2026 20:17

If men are so terrible why have relationships or children with them in the first place or be so desperate for them need to go out and date one

FreshInks · 14/03/2026 20:32

PollyBell · 14/03/2026 20:17

If men are so terrible why have relationships or children with them in the first place or be so desperate for them need to go out and date one

Edited

Because lots of men aren’t terrible.

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