I've been lurking for years, esp on Feminism Chat. Hi everyone and thanks for all you do! So much awareness raising. Reading this board has had a profound impact on my life. :)
I am reading Invisible Women at the moment. And I have realised that I have my own example, which has occurred in the last couple of weeks. And I am really angry about it. It feels like no one is interested, and everyone has totally dismissed the idea that it is sexist.
A number of years ago I worked in a male dominated environment (single women engineer, about 300 men). Recently a health scandal has come to light, related to toxic materials we were all exposed to. A large number of cancer cases, and several deaths, have been linked to this. There is an enquiry (I'm not sure of the technical legal terms, so might be using the wrong ones) and information about the extent of health problems among workers/previous workers is being gathered.
I don't have any of the symptoms they are looking for. Yet...
But when I was working there, and was exposed to this toxic material every day, I experienced a miscarriage and later on, a stillbirth at full term (41 weeks). There was never a reason found. I think around half of stillbirths are never explained, understood, etc. So it is not unusual to have no reason for it happening.
But since reading about this toxic material, I have come across studies suggesting it can increase the risk of stillbirth by as much as 60%!
So, it is definitely possible that exposure to the material caused my stillbirth (or 'caused my daughter to die', as I feel like saying).
So I wanted to add this to the list of health problems that are being collated. But I can't. Because it isn't an option on the data collecting forms. So I got in touch with the people (men) doing this data collecting and they could not have been less interested. Basically refused to engage in a conversation with me at all, and then dismissed my stillbirth as a miscarriage (there was no mix up, I hadn't even mentioned the miscarriage at this point, just the stillbirth). And eventually I was told it was too late for me to do anything about it anyway as the time limit for a personal injury claim has passed.
I didn't want to make a personal injury claim ffs. (And is a stillbirth, ie, the death of a baby, a personal injury anyway?? ) I wanted to add my health issue to their data. I'm not even sure why to be honest. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Surely if the company's bad practise has caused health issues, and they are gathering data about the extent of those issues, they need to include ALL the data.
Obviously it has taken a few years for the men's health problems to be exposed. But that doesn't mean that my health issue that occurred at the time ought to be completely discounted.
And I feel like it is sexist because of this (a pregnancy loss was an instant health issue, couldn't happen to a man, the men's issues take longer to show) and even though this material is now known to be linked to issues around pregnancy loss, they STILL don't list that as a health issue.
And the other sexist angle is how fucking much the men in my life (who are generally pretty great - I know, I know - we all say that...) have a problem with me a) considering this a sexist issue and b) being angry about it.
I don't know why I am posting. I am just feeling angry and sad and I don't know if I ought to pursue it further. Does anyone have any advice?