International Womens Day

We can vote, work and get an education. We can give birth or make the considered choice not to. We can marry, get divorced, have a public voice and write under our own names.

Compared with the lives of many women that marched through the streets of New York City in 1908, planting the seeds for the first ever International Women’s Day, we’re living in another dimension. 

So what are we celebrating more than one hundred years later? And what are the real issues affecting the majority of Australian women today? Here’s what you, our readers, said yesterday.

Continue reading "What women said about International Women’s Day" »

The nation was stunned by the gruesome triple homicide in Kapunda last year. A husband, wife and their 16 year old daughter were each butchered by multiple stab wounds in their otherwise peaceful rural home. Also shocking was the neighbour who heard repeated screams of “help, help” and stated that he heard a woman who “sounded desperate to get away from someone” decided against calling the police. He believed it was probably just a domestic dispute.

On this, the 100th International Women’s Day, our country now has a female Prime Minister. We have a female Governor General. Three of the seven justices of the High Court are women.

These are some pretty good statistics. Here are some more: In Australia today one in three women experience physical violence after the age of fifteen. One in five experience sexual violence.

Continue reading "There’s no such thing as “just” a domestic dispute" »

Today marks the hundredth anniversary of International Women’s Day.  It is an occasion to celebrate the achievements of women, to reflect on how far women have progressed on the journey towards equality in the last century, but also to recognise that significant challenges remain, here and abroad. 

The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is “Female Leadership and Political Participation” and, on this score, Australia has much to celebrate.  One hundred years ago, we were one of only three countries in the world that could boast women’s suffrage.

The significance of this achievement is evident when one reflects that Kuwait’s Parliament extended suffrage to women in 2005 and only then by a 35-23 vote, and in Saudi Arabia women are still deprived of voting rights. 

Continue reading "Aussie women: You think you’ve got it bad?" »

I don’t think Germaine Greer would like my friends.

The woman who personifies the feminist movement of the 70s and makes every wife willing to iron her husband’s shirts feel like a feminist-traitor would certainly frown on my little circle of Mummy-friends.

Especially on International Women’s Day.

Continue reading "Women’s rights mean the right to choose" »

With today being International Women’s Day, there will be millions of men around the world thinking – “This is so sexist! Where is my International Man’s Day?”

Heck, I used to be one of those people. I used to think that all the affirmative discrimination was sexist, backward and downright wrong. For my male friends nodding your head in agreement, I challenge you to read on, and to watch the above clip.

It has only been in recent years that my stubborn mindset has changed. I happily admit that I am no expert on this issue, but you don’t need to be an expert to realise that things need to change.

Continue reading "Why there is no International Man’s Day" »