How have things improved in the past 20 years?

[LeslieKnopefan]

What changes do you see in the last 20 years?

For me the biggest positive is in football. 22 years ago aged 14 I played for an under 16 girls team. Whatever your age from 9 to 16 there was only an under 16 league locally and there was 6 teams in it. I had to travel 10 miles to my nearest team.

In my year at school there was may be 3 girls who liked football (for more than Ryan Giggs!) and even at games there weren’t that many women.

I see so many opportunities in football for girls and women now and of course more can always be done but playing or choosing to watch football is now seen as a normal activity for girls and women.

What else is better?

I suspect it's pretty similar for a lot of black people. On the surface things are profoundly better. But all you need are the right triggers and it comes up out of the woodwork.

I think a lot has improved legally. But a lot has got worse socially.

Maternity and paternity leave legislation is a great thing imo. But attitudes in many areas need to catch up.

It’s tenpting to think pay gap etc is awful but at least now we’re talking about it and most people say equal pay is a good thing.

Oh and 20 years ago there wasn’t a female director in my sector - now they’re pretty much normal.

It’s all about to go to actual shit legally, though, isn’t it.

Utter lunacy, with the inmates running every facet of the asylum. Legally, with the full force of the law behind them, and our voices as women completely silenced.

Riverside - I get your point..... It is unimaginable and hugely shocking that women in Switzerland didn't get to vote until 1971 BUT what is uplifting is how things since then have changed here and how women pulled together, crawled out of the kitchens and made a stand for something that some people really believed that by the law of God they didn't have the right to. People felt very threatened by the idea of women voting . It is now absolutely unimaginable for us - which is uplifting.
A bit of background - Switzerland is a true democracy (today) where everyone gets to vote on any changes in the law. Giving women the vote was put forward to be voted on several times before it was finally accepted. It was a huge thing. Every Swiss man got to cast there vote to make this decision for women. Unimaginable today so yes uplifting how far things have improved.

Other things that have improved (I go through a lot of gloom about this often so it's good to try to think of better things!):

Laws changing around the world making it better for women and children - laws around age of consent, sexual assault, age of marriage, DV and so on. FGM laws.
Now while a lot of this still goes on everywhere the statement from legislators that it is NOT acceptable, helps to drive the slower social change.

#metoo and all the historic sexual abuse convictions - things that weren't talked about , swept under the carpet, victims silenced ignored not believed. This coming out into the daylight and in some cases men being convicted is good. The idea that "good" men in high positions are well capable of being sexual predators and exploiting their position is well embedded in the public conscious now. Priests, boarding schools, sports coaches, celebrities, charity workers etc, hopefully we are now on a path where the abusive ones have nowhere to hide and their opportunities to abuse are severely limited.

Of course there is loads of awful going on but I'm not going to list it in an attempt to be more upbeat!

UK rape law is one of the strictest in the world.

i didn't know that before various things happened in other european countries and I realised that many still include force in the definition, many are not consent based.

Ours is actually VERY progressive.

Now I've not read every law in the world and this was a while ago so if it's no longer the case then please do post - this was what I thought when I looked into it ?3 years or so ago though.

Well I mean improved quality of contraception and an improved response to sexual violence and harassment sting to mind but sure football...

London recently, read an article pointing out the head of 3 main services - fire, ambulance, police, all women.

We have had more than 1 female PM (whatever you think of them) which is little in the scheme of things but still many countries have NEVER had this. Scotland has Nicola Sturgeon of course and generally when you see debates for Scottish / Welsh elections there are women prominent.

I think Sport is much better for women (as a total outsider!).

In the UK at least I have seen a massive shift in the amount of coverage of female sport and the style of the coverage. Watching the winter olympics, there is no suggestion that the women's competitions are a side-show / filler while we wait for the men to do something. The language used about them is about their sports prowess, words like bravery, strength, skill, determination. The 2 main commentators are women, and the pundits are often women as well. Across sport in general, women are now attracting more sponsorship, they are becoming as big stars as their male counterparts.

So there is TV time, interest, coverage, fame and MONEY.

And all of a sudden, another group of people are interested in competing in this arena...

I think that the success of women's sport in recent years is the REASON we are getting "TIMs" wanting to compete. Why should women have that stuff, epecially in sport, which is a man's domain.