A Little Less Conversation...

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

...a little more action?

Spurred on by the past couple of days of threads, I really think it would be good if we did a list of things that need to change in this country/the world WRT gender/women's rights. Could be laws or the pay gap or attitudes etc. What do you think is the most urgent thing that needs to change? Post it, and then maybe we can come up with some practical ideas/steps of how to get there.

It's late so hope this makes sense. There are so manny brilliant posters on this section, and on MN in general that I want to see if we can actually effect some changes.

So:

Post your idea for what the priorities should be.

Other posters come up with ideas for how to make those changes happen. In practical terms, so e.g. target a corporation, write to a minister, chain ourselves to Jonathan Ross, knit a cosy for the Houses of Parliament with "Votes for Women" on it :o

xenia, how would you get round the backlash against positive discrimination in that manner? (genuinely curious - and don't know about the historical situation in other countries)

i have to say i've always been rampantly against positive discrimination (cos i think i'm better than everyone else ) but i'm beginning to wonder if something along these lines might have interesting possiblities...

Thank-yoa:) i'll take your word for it on the ads as I don't watch tv really. I meant in schools though as well. How should we teach boundaries, and aren't they "taught" at the moment? Please excuse my ignorance, I was living abroad, so I don't know how it is dealt with - I have visions of "boundaries education" being the US virginity certificate thing.

Skint, I think most of us are thick skinned enough to cope with any backlash and there are huge numbers of women who are very qualified for these posts and not just non exec ones but are overlooked and people don't look in the right places/clubs etc It's working fine in Norway and Spain.

"When Norway introduced tough new laws back at the beginning of 2004 aimed at increasing the number of women on company boards, the naysayers said it would lead to disaster. Companies would be forced to appoint less-qualified people as board members just because of their gender, and there would be widespread resentment among male colleagues and business owners.

Six years after the introduction of the 40 percent quota, the great debate the law unleashed has died down completely. The quota has been successful and has gained broad acceptance. What is more, the caliber of women on company boards is just as high if not higher than their male counterparts. But this has only been achieved because, after a period of voluntary compliance that yielded few results, the government introduced tough sanctions for companies that failed to implement the quota.

That is the conclusion of a study published earlier this week in Berlin by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, a research foundation with links to Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD). Authors Aagoth Storvik and Mari Teigen, both senior researchers at the Institute for Social Research in Oslo, argue that without both the compulsory quotas and the accompanying sanctions for non-compliance, it would be next to impossible to increase the number of female board members. "
freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=26208

Also this one issue is one the current Government have been looking at so it's not a useless one to encourage by any means. When young women can see other women in their 40s holding down senior posts and having children and working full time they better realise this is a possibility. It's the only reason I ever mention I went back to work when the babies were 2 weeks from choice because I don't think women are presented with that as a perfectly viable and often best option. Not something all women may went to do but it does work for many and those worried about income dropping when they have babies always have that option although if you work in factories you haev to wait by law for 4 weeks I think rather than two and those who votyed with their feet to work for themselves and eat what they kill and better men that way can do what they like. There is little as much fun as the power of being your own boss.

thanks xenia, that's relly interesting. as i said, i was completely anti, but am becoming persuaded by the idea...