Last Friday, the 8th of March was international women?s day. Now could everyone here who is a feminist please put up there hands?right up high?.right. Just as I though. Now I know I?m certainly not a feminist?but the speakers at the women?s day breakfast I attended really got me thinking about why I wasn?t.
I know two feminists? they are both male. There is I think you would agree a certain stigma associated the word feminist. I know I believed that feminism was the only thing that was preventing woman from being seen as equals. That those whining, man-hating feminists were separating humans into two classes; male and female. I thought that feminism had become redundant, and that it was no longer an issue?but the more I thought about it, the more I could see that I was wrong.
In some places overseas, women are still seen as second class citizens.
Sojourner Truth, albumen silver print, circa 1870
English: The Austrian feminist Marie Lang, 1858-19...
Young Women (organization)In Indonesia, 80% of the people working in the sweatshops of Nike and Adidas are young women who live in a desperate cycle of poverty. In countries like Afghanistan, women are beaten, raped, abused and oppressed. Women can be stoned to death simply for showing an ankle in public. No education, no voting, no freedom, no LIFE. In places like these, feminism is still highly relevant.
But even here, in Australia, things are not equal between men and women. Despite the fact that women are still paid 16% less than their male counterparts and that 70% of women in the workforce don?t have access to paid maternity leave, I think the worst thing is the fact that we are beginning to treat women like a minority group. For example, in the labor party and on university boards, they are required to appoint a certain number of women in...