#gender discrimination
In all of my workspaces I have been gendered as a woman, and all of these things have happened to me. . I find the more ‘technical’ or corporate the teams are, the more likely that the responsibility of ‘non essential labour’ in the office falls on women and femmefolk (my current office is actually very good in this respect, which is really refreshing).
For more information on this phenomenon, read through this excellent metafilter thread on emotional labour.
What is this comic about? Well, generally things like keeping the office tidy day to day, setting up for and cleaning up after meetings, organizing gifts and social events, fundraising, congratulations and condolences 'from the office’, and administrative work like minutes-taking… pretty much everything that is 'volunteer’ is likely to fall to women.
Sometimes when people argue that this work is non-essential, and that women only do it because they want to do it (and that, by extension, these just aren’t things that men care about). The thing is, community building is essential work. People who talk about having great work environments talk about things like hanging out with colleagues after work, having summer sport leagues, lottery groups, that time everyone pitched in vacation time during a family illness, that gift card that appeared on your desk on your birthday…that’s all stuff someone thinks about and plans and organizes, and it’s non-billable work, so they often do it for free, and that person is more often than not a woman. And that’s important, vital work, it makes people feel like they can come to work every day and at least not hate it all the time.
It’s completely devalued labour, and it falls in the laps of women to maintain. Sometimes guys think they’re participating by having the idea of the work: “Jim’s mother passed away - maybe we should get a card to pass around for him” - but the idea is as far as that participation goes. The organizing and execution of that 'nice idea’ falls on someone else entirely.
Stuff like this totally undercuts women at work. For example, any time it’s assumed that I’ll take meeting minutes, my ability to participate fully in that meeting is compromised because I’m taking notes instead of concentrating on my own contributions.
And not doing this work has consequences too. There was a workspace where I was totally watching this happen, so I resolved to act like the men on my team did. I left rooms when they left them (in the condition they left them in), I used the kitchen in the same way, I left my desk in the same condition, but guess who got called out on failing to contribute to the office environment? It wasn’t the guys.
If you’re a guytype and you want to be a good ally in your worplace, be the person who volunteers. I mean it. Look around, see who’s doing the work that isn’t in their job descriptions, and pitch in. Take notes, buy cards, organize drinks, and for goodness sake, tidy the kitchen. And it’s ok if this social stuff really isn’t important to you, but don’t you dare be the person who says that it’s not important work, and then feels slighted when no one remembers their birthday.
If you’re already doing this, awesome. Keep up the good work.
Post link
Source:Feminism Is For Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks
Image description: In a classroom, Screech sits behind Lisa. He’s looking at her with a soft expression and a small smile. Lisa is looking toward her left with an expression of frustration and wondering. A Do Not Enter sign is leaning against the wall behind them. The caption reads “In all spheres of literary writing and academic scholarship, works by women had historically received little or no attention as a consequence of gender discrimination.”
(Happy three year anniversary, Tumblr bugs.)
Post link
Newly passed Gender Expression, Gender Identity Protection Bill will amend the New York State’s Human Rights Law to protect all binary gender, nonconforming employees, and transgender employees from discriminatory treatment. And the law also amends the New York penal law to protect gender identity and expression in the list of statuses that are protected under the New York’s hate crime laws.
More here - https://womensrightsny.com/gender-expression-gender-identity-protection-bill/
Post link
If you want to understand why the new Lego female scientist kits are such a big step forward, compare them to earlier Lego efforts to capture the little-girls-who-like-to-build-things demographic. The absence of princess-y pastels and pixie preciousness (not to mention boobs, as in the “rock star” Lego figure above) is awesome.
For more on how the “Research Institute” line came to be, mentalfloss has the scoop here.
(All images via Lego)
Post link
A new report by the advocacy group Stop Street Harassment looks at how often women and GBT men are sexually harassed when they’re out and about, minding their own business. (Hint: a lot.)
Among women, street harassment most commonly took the form of sexualized commentary like whistles, “pssssst” sounds, animal noises, and statements like “mmm, sexy”—51 percent of women reported these incidents, compared to 6 percent of men. But harassment against men often took on a different sexual element. The most frequent type of harassment reported by men came in the form of homophobic or transphobic slurs (which had been experienced by 9 percent of men in the survey).
Gay, bisexual, and trans men were much more likely than straight men to report experiencing harassment, and to experience it frequently. (Meanwhile, heterosexual men were the most likely of any group to say they had been harassed just once in their lives.)
Post link
#LawNeedsFeminismBecause the law impacts our health.
This project is out of the University of British Columbia.
Post link
The Girls in the Band | Official Trailer
The history of the all-girl bands and the talented female jazz and big band instrumentalists who continue to struggle for recognition in a man’s world.
4 years ago I’ve worked as a babysitter in my spare time and I’ve never had trouble finding work. I guess the main reason was that I already had 2 years of work experience and was therefore trustworthy and qualified.
Because of T and my insecurities I stopped working as one and focused on school and studies.
Now I am trying to find work again and even though I texted countless families, I’m still jobless, you could argue that it is because of Corona but my sister looked as well for babysitter jobs and already has 3 children to look after (our work experience is almost the same).
And now comes the funny part about all this. In these past 4 years there is just one thing that changed about me.
My gender.
My experience didn’t vanish, my character stayed the same and my overall competence too.
It is not the first time that I hear about men having difficulties to work as a nursery nurse because of parents. Apparently parents think that because of their gender they are pedophiles, so everytime they carry a child they get a weird look from them. But now it is the first time that I experience something like this on my own and it really sucks.
2 years ago we discussed adoption in the religious study classe and my RE Teacher asked us why gay couples have so much trouble finding a child to adopt and the answer was not because of a long waiting list but because of parents who often say that they don’t want two men taking care of their child in fear of pedophilia. And isn’t that a really ridiculous thing.
My main point is that this whole gender thing is absurd. Testosterone doesn’t turn a person into a pedophile. I am still me. And I wanna work as a babysitter because I wanna earn money and have experince and confidence in this work field and not because I wanna touch little children. So let’s stop this gender discrimination let’s start seeing people as individuals with their own characteristics and mentality.
Feminismmeans:
1. Acknowledging that women are people.
2. Acknowledging that gender inequality exists.
3. Acknowledging that though gender inequality negatively affects all genders, women are on the losing side in the patriarchal society in which we live.
4. Wanting to change that current situation by improving conditions for women (and by doing so also improving the conditions for everone.)
But you call yourself ahumanist,equalist,everybodyist, because feminism is just too strong a word for you. You believe in equality, but why does it all have to be about the ladies?
So, why has feminist become a bad word?
1. Because it sounds like it has to do with women, and everything women do is kind of crap. (Your ideas about women haven’t been coloured by a misoynistic society at all, have they?)
2. Women who are angry, annoyed, upset, politically aware and well-informed are annoying. And bitchy. And screechy. Women who express negative opinions are just annoying. (Your ideas about women haven’t been coloured by a misoynistic society at all, havethey?)
3. You don’t believe women suffer gender discrimination. You haven’t seen it. (Oh, but you have! Or you’ve never questioned the world in which you live. Or it’s just easier to brush it off when it doesn’t happen to you. Or it’s easier to brush it off than to fight against it.)
4. You just don’t care about women that much. (Your ideas about women haven’t been coloured by a misoynistic society at all, have they?)
5. You’re afraid that giving women power (time/a voice/ opportunities) will mean that men will lose theirs.(Probably some, yes. Equality will never happen if some people keep all the power and won’t let go of it.)
6. Some feminists, whose names you do not know, hate men. And because of these individuals who expressed some hatred towards men, you don’t want to identify with this word.
You will happily define yourself as Communist, because what Stalin did has nothing to do with Marx. Or you’ll happily say that capitalism is a great system, despite 7-year-olds in Cambodia stitching your H&M t-shirts together. You will call yourself a Roman Polanski fan, minus the child raping bit. But feminism well, you just can’t get over that one girl at that one party who said she hated men.
Misandry (hatred of men) might fuel a satirical play, a song that includes the line Men are pigs! or a an aggressive statement at a campus party. But misogyny(hatred of women) kills more women than war, pays women less for their work, uses women’s bodies as objects in advertising and denies millions of women the right to an education. But feminism is just a bit too strong a word for you.
The hatred of the word feminist is one of the reasons we need feminism in the 21st century.
The banning of face covering has become a hot topic in recent years. And in 2011France placed a ban on face covering, which specifically targeted the approximately 2000 Muslim women in France who wear burqas or niqabs. The ban was the result of an inquiry that occured after president Nicolas Sarkozystated:
“The full veil is not welcome in France because it runs contrary to our values and contrary to the idea we have of a woman’s dignity,” he said, while cautioning against an extreme move that would further alienate a section of society. Let us undertake not to give opponents of democracy, dignity and sexual equality the chance for a victory which would put our society in a very difficult situation,“ he said, adding it was "essential that no one felt stigmatised”.
So, apart from this ban being fueled by Islamophobia, what is the problem here?
1. France bans women from covering their faces in public.
2. The former Taliban regime in Afghanistan banned women from showing their faces in public.
They are both examples of patriarchal leaders limiting women’s freedoms.
Yeah, but isn’t France’s ban on face covering empowering Muslim women?
No, it’s still removing their freedom to choose. Though the burqa, niqab or hijab can be part of an oppression, they are not necessarily so. They can (OMG, really?) even be a manifestation of a woman’s freedom, because she has made the active choice to wear a Muslim veil as part of her cultural and religious identity. However, it has become a symbol of oppression, partly because of the women who have been forced to wear it,but also because non-Muslims have decided to define the Muslim woman’s liberation. .
(Finally, does it even sound probable that the sudden removal of an item of clothing would instantly free a woman from oppression in her community? If women’s rights, and not Islamophobia, was the real problem here, the French government would probably not have approached issue in this way.)
“For decades, in books, op-eds, and lectures, I stood firmly and unquestioningly against the veil and the hijab, the Islamic headscarf, viewing them as signs of women’s disempowerment. To me, and to my fellow Arab feminists, being told what to wear was just another form of tyranny. But in the course of researching and writing a new book on the history of the veil’s improbable comeback, I’ve had to radically rethink my assumptions. Where I once saw the veil as a symbol of intolerance, I now understand that for many women, it is a badge of individuality and justice.”
- Leila Ahmed
We need feminism to end all laws that dictate what a woman should or should not wear. We need feminism so Muslim women’s voices are heard.
Watch the full video and learn more about the complexities of domestic violence: Violent Relationships with Dr Leelia Franck - Moving Forward #4.
Note:The Michigan Women’s Justice & Clemency Projectreport similar statistics.
Last week Swedish Radio News revealed that Stockholm Police had kept a secret database with names and details of 2000-3000 female victims of domestic violence. The illegal database, named Kvinnoregistret(Women’s Register) by the press, has been used for about 10 years and an estimated 20 police officers have contributed towards it. Though officially labelled a register over suspected abusers, the database contains details such as the victim’s name, age, ethnicity, country of birth, religion, history of abuse and hobbies, as well as details about their family members. Police officers have also made notes about possible psychiatric diagnoses and the credibility of the victim’s story. Many of the women have been brandedtricky,difficultandparticular.
Here are some excerpts from the database:
- Claimant sometimes socialises with drug addicts. Has difficulty keeping her story together. Has a daughter with intellectual disability.
- Claimant has visited inappropriate places.
- Claimant’s half-brother has a dodgy background.
- In my personal opinion, the claimant seems to have mental health issues.
- Claimant has, according to her sister, problems with alcohol abuse and mental health issues.
- She is very frightened and the fear is not in proportion to the assesed risk.
- Louise is a little girl with issues. Not our problem.
- Both parties give credible stories, however, the woman’s story is a bit “embroidered”
- Claimant has been here for 10 years, from Iraq. Fled Saddam Hussein’s regime, politically active. Member of Iraqi Artists Association in Sweden. Gives same old story about ex husband recently finding her. Social services believe she might have mental health issues, delusional.
- Claimant is a mentally retarded Roma.
- The greatest victim in this situation is the man himself.
Anna-Karin Rybeck, the head of the Sisters’ Shelter Somaya for women and girls, told Swedish Radio News:
“I am really surprised and am really upset, because the information that is registered here, is not interesting at all. The only thing it reveals is discrimination and racism and it reveals an antiquated view of women. I can, of course, understand that the police want to register indicators for arresting an offender, or if they want to minimize further acts of violence, but the information that is registered in this register is really just horrible. It also reveals lack of knowledge within the police force about the whole situation of violence against women.”
Women’s rights in Saudi Arabia were briefly mentioned in this post. And though they have been allowed to vote since 2011, they won’t actually vote until 2015.2015. 2015. Women voting for the first time in 2015.
And while we celebrate that late, but big, step towards equality, we must also examine other aspects of women’s lives in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi women are not allowed to:
- Attend a football match.(A woman was recently arrested in Riyadh for doing this.)
- Try on clothes when shopping.
- Go for a swim.
- Enter a cemetery.
- Read an uncensored fashion magazine.
- Travel without permission from their male guardian.
- Drive. (Though this may soon change!)
We are far from living in a gender equal world, but we’ll get there! Women’s rights are slowly improving in Saudi Arabia. The appearance of new technology and social media allow the citizens to discuss women’s rights and protest against gender inequality in a way that they couldn’t do before.
