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MNHQ

Guest panel: What are your hopes for women in 2016?

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MumsnetGuestPosts · 05/01/2016 15:12

My biggest hope for women in 2016 is that we look carefully at the standards we are holding them to – are they truly equal? Or do we expect women to be twice as good to get the same treatment as men?

In the American presidential race, Hillary Clinton is a great example of how much better a woman has to be in order to be considered anything near equal. Here's a woman with decades of experience in public life, including time as Secretary of State, and her challengers – in the Republican party – include a reality TV host, several unexceptional junior senators and various state governors. It's crazy.

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MNHQ

MumsnetGuestPosts · 05/01/2016 15:12

Can 2016 be the year in which we finally get a grip on the relationship between gender, power and wiping arses? Because I for one am sick of being a member of the class who cleans up everyone else’s mess and sticks it in a lightly fragranced bag so that no one ever need know that it was there.

We're more than halfway through the second decade of the twenty-first century and most caring work is still performed by women, for little or no pay. What's more, if we don't do anything about it now, the situation will only get worse. Austerity measures are increasing and it will be women – mothers, daughters, grandmothers, partners, low-paid care workers – who suffer the most. When male government ministers make cuts, they do so in the knowledge that cultural expectations placed on women will force them to fill the gaps.

Women's work has always been invisible. Even by those closest to them, women are treated as a resource. If we were to describe it properly, we would call it a form of exploitation and a form of theft.

There are some who insist on viewing care work as something mothers choose to take on. But with an ageing population and dwindling support networks, even childless women are faced with an increasingly heavy burden. Until we get men to do their fair share – or to hand over the resources we're owed for doing ours – gender equality will elude us. So let's do something about this in 2016. If we wait another year, we might all be too exhausted.

MNHQ

MumsnetGuestPosts · 05/01/2016 15:12

The thing I'd like most for women in 2016 would be the end of men's violence against women. Imagine that. No more rape, no more intimate partner violence, no more FGM, no more child marriage, no more prostitution, no more pornography – and no more men killing women. Imagine if, in 2016, the total number of UK women killed by men named in my Counting Dead Women campaign remained at zero.

The worldwide rates of women suffering intimate partner violence from their male partners vary between 4% of women in some countries, to up to 40% in others. The most important variables behind these differences are the economic wealth of the country, social norms around male dominance and control, and the level of acceptability of men's violence in intimate relationships. If we want to end men's violence against women, we need to end sex inequality. However, rebalancing economic inequality alone is not the answer; we need to end all forms of male dominance and the ways that it is created and maintained, such as socially constructed gender and the commodification and objectification of women.

It isn't going to happen, is it? Not in my lifetime of new years. For 2016, I'd settle for a greater understanding that men's violence against women, including fatal violence, goes beyond 'domestic violence'. In 2015 women were killed by their sons, rapists they'd never met before, men they worked with and their brothers – as well as partners and ex partners. It's time we stopping ignoring the deaths of women who aren't killed by their partners, so we can understand the scale of men's fatal violence against women. Finally, in 2016 I hope to never again hear the phrase 'isolated incident' to refer to any example of a man killing a woman.

MNHQ

MumsnetGuestPosts · 05/01/2016 15:12

2015 saw female politicians applauded for their impressive work: Angela Merkel was named Person of the Year by the Financial Times and Time Magazine, and Nicola Sturgeon topped the Woman's Hour Power List. During the general election, women were a powerful presence on the platform during the leaders' debates - but there is a still long way to go for women to be equally involved in politics.

There are currently 191 female MPs – but this accounts for only 29% of parliament. Worryingly, it's also a record high. Progress is painfully slow: there are still more men in the Commons than there have ever been women MPs, and there are 400 more male peers than female in the House of Lords. This impacts policy making – with the recent tampon tax debate being an example that is just the tip of the iceberg.

We also need a parliament that is inclusive - not least of parents - so that women are inclined and able to participate. There are proportionally fewer parents (relative to UK averages) at Westminster, but having children should not be seen as incompatible with a career in politics.

In 2016 I hope that people inside and outside Westminster will keep the pressure up in asking for solutions to get a more gender balanced, inclusive, modern parliament. 150 years after the Suffrage Petition of 1866 50:50 Parliament are calling upon all party leaders for solutions to get better gender balance at Westminster - and you can sign our petition here.

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