I will hang up my feminist beret when...

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Wondering what it would take for all the women on here to think "that's it, the work of feminism is complete!"

For me it would be:

...when 50% of MPs are women (worldwide )

...when I can walk the streets at night feeling safe

...when no-one tries to give me any crap about being evolved to like pink etc

When women have at least 50% say in what goes on in international politics i.e enough power to stop nonsensical wars, third world exploitation of women and children and the power to change laws to protect women and children.

YOu have to be careful though, sometimes 'patriarchy' puts token women up ( in businesses and such) when the real power is hidden somewhere else.

So I doubt we'll ever be able to really hang it up!!

Lynne Featherstone, for example.
Our new equalities minister. I've read her blog, it's like something out of OKay magazine.

...when misogynist remarks are met with the same furore as racist ones (e.g. Mel Gibson, he's a sinner for saying the N word, but not for saying that his girlfriend deserves to be gang-raped?)

When women receive equal pay for equal work.
When I can bring my daughter up in a society where she isn't bombarded with images is sex objects/pornified Barbie dolls.
When our parliament, courts, HE institutions, and general leadership roles across society cease to look like an old boys club and actually reflect the fact that there are a fair few of us women in society at large.
I could go on but DD's bedtime beckons....

When we have 50% of the world's wealth, representatives and power and where the expression of sexism is received the same way as the expression of racism.

twopeople I think you'd be better off starting a new thread about that, getting into a discusssion about that here would de-rail this thread.

When a woman who runs a space station/is an entrepreneur/builds motor racing cars finds herself being interviewed without the phrase "as a woman" being used in any question.

"How do you find it running the Hadron collider, as a woman?" - how are you supposed to answer that?

I suppose a possible alternative is to have "as a man" inserted into all the other interviews. "So, David Milliband, as a man, what did you think of the rise in VAT?"

When it's not unusual for half, or more than half, of the characters in quality TV dramas to be women.

dittany,
I think Japan is very safe for women wrt walking the streets at night, but it doesn't follow that women are more powerful on the whole.
I think the fact there is no class divide is a big factor. I think men (and women obv) feel degraded by poverty, but men feel "de-manned" by it, and my theory is that this might contribute to violence against women.
ALso, and more scarily, the fact that men have a strong grip on power, in politics and as the breadwinners, means that there are less male subcultures and less "need" to frighten women to affirm their masculinity i.e they already feel masculine.

But there are lots and LOTS of positives from living in a culture where the streets are safe for women at night. I could go on and on about those...I just think it doesn't end there IYSWIM

And that it's common knowledge that the equalities minister is very stupid. I mean, they must have known that beforehand, surely...?

In fact, I'm pretty sure they did know.

I don't know anything about Lynne Featherstone, but a load of blokes calling her Featherhead still gets my goat.

If she was clever they'd probably call her speccy FFS

When an article or profile about a woman in business/politics/fil/any subject under the sun does not reference her marital status and children (or when all articles about men DO - I'm not fussy either way).

When a woman at work can be annoyed or frustrated about something without being accused (directly or indirectly) of being a hysterical bitch.

When it's equally okay for men to choose to leave the office at 5pm to go home for childcare arrangements and when women who do it are not penalised for it.

I agree Elephants. There was a very good article a while back (can't remember for the life of me who wrote it but it will come to me) about how vile and misogynistic much of the coverage was re. Theresa May. Now I'm no fan of Theresa May but that doesn't mean I think she should be derided for her appearance or her intelligence or her qualifications for the job when she's better qualified for the job than many of the Bullingdon boys in the cabinet.

When people, starting with friends and family, do not tell me I should be MrsDH instead of MsBlingLovin' and when my choices about how I choose to work, live, play, and name myself are respected in the same way that DH's are.

And I think DH would add, "when it is not assumed that the man will be the main breadwinner and that its okay to make jokes about wives being let loose with DHs credit cards"

When the discussion streams on Mumsnet stop descending into mindless debates about how often some people hoover their carpets, or exactly how many items to put in a party bag.

Posts on the working mums survey recently were really quite harrowing.

Keep it high brow.

Actually drymartini, I kind of disagree on that one. Have you heard how mindlessly men talk a lot of the time? . I have no issue with people being mindless, but I resent it if my desire to talk about recipes is seen as less valid than DH's talk about football.

Ah yes, it always gets to me when they publish an article about a woman and go "Blah, mother of three", but never do it for men - on two levels. 1. A woman is not necessarily just a wife or mother and 2. erm, men are parents as well, why don't they ever say "Bob, father of three".

When men no longer think it's appropriate to sit and discuss (in public - see my previous thread) about what birds they banged, going to strip clubs and what not.

When either all men in music videos start prancing about in tiny underwear/swimwear or women can appear in a music video dressed normally.

When men no longer feel that it is appropriate for them to dictate what women wear and how they appear in public.

I'm not talking about what men do, I'm talking about what we do. I love recipes! and I am partially interested in hoovering, but not right in the middle of a cracking debate about the value of women in the workplace and how work impacts childhood development (for example).

We are only as good as our collective selves.

Ooh, yes, okay - I get it now. It's not hoovering per se that's the issue, it's the appropriateness and irrelevance of hooverig in the context of something else?

I had never thought of that, but agree completely. It's a very good point.

I'm adding - when romantic novels are no longer dismissed as chicklit (while badly written detective stories are considered just fine).

Sadly, until threads like this actually get people thinking/contributing none of the things we are flagging here are likely to happen.

When the default suggestion for any young woman's career stops being "primary school teacher". Yes I like kids, no I don't want to spend my time teaching people to count thanks.

When it becomes as socially unacceptable for fathers to desert their children as it is for mothers to do so.

When Question Time stops being an interruption fest any time a woman begins to speak.

When sexual purity is eradicated as an idea.

When career choice is unaffected by what childcare/flexibility provision is offered, because that is provided as the norm.