It's a man's world

It's a man's world? Given the history of the last 2000+ years where men have brutally repressed everyone that doesn't suit their world view and support their death grip on power, I suppose you could say that yes, it is indeed a man's world.

In March 2012, 29.2% of the Australian federal parliament was female. 

The recent US election made history because it resulted in a record breaking number of women in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House now has 80 women, out of 435 seats, equalling 18% of the house. In the Senate 20% of the seats are now women. 

That these numbers are record breaking gives credence to the statement that it's a man's world, given that women the world over (including me) screamed with joy over how well we did, but we still hold such a tiny portion of representation in significant government positions. 

Surely that representation would be higher in the private sector, with female representation on boards and in executive positions. Sadly not. The results of the 2012 survey into female board representation in ASX2000 companies showed another record breaking number of women had joined boards in 2012 giving the highest level of representation to date. What could that record breaking number be? 13.5%. Yes, seriously, 13.5%. 

That also supports the statement it's a man's world. 

And those statistics, bad as they are, are in two of the worlds leading nations and don't take into consideration the parts of the world where women can't drive, can't leave the house without an escort, have their genitals mutilated, are stoned to death when they're raped, or shot just for having the audacity to want an education. 

So yes, all evidence points to this being a man's world. A place where men lead and women trail behind and must push harder and be stronger, and do more in order to achieve the level of success that seems to just be conferred to men based on their genitals, their money, their privilege, education, or whatever got the to where they are. 

However, I reject the idea that this is a man's world. I flat out reject it and simply won't tolerate the statement as anything even close to correct. 

This is my world. 

This is your world too. 

This world, this giant blue ball floating in space doesn't belong to anyone, it belongs to everyone and you define what your world is like on this ball. 

I define my world as belonging to everyone, no matter how small, and I will fight every day for their right to own their world. 

I will fight for women in my workplace. I will teach them that how they dress, what size they are, is irrelevant to their worth in their job, and they should not tolerate anyone that implies or flat out says differently. 

I will fight for women in developing nations that want an education as best I can by giving time and money to organisations like Collective Shout. 

I will fight by making my voice heard, so that the combined voices of women all around the world are too loud to be ignored and we finally get the equal representation that we deserve. 

I will NOT, NOT EVER, treat men in my work place any differently than I treat women in the workplace. I will not, not ever, learn to work with men in particular, like they deserve some kind of special treatment. I will not, not ever, show more respect to men than women. I will not, not ever, define the way someone is acting in the workplace by their gender. I will not, not ever, blame the victim, by expecting women to learn to work with men, when in fact, it's quite the opposite that should be occurring. 

Men hold the balance of power in this world. There is no arguing that. Their responsibility, as the holders of the balance, is to recognise that there should be real balance and strive to develop a workplace culture that doesn't focus on gender but on skill, achievements and vision. They should work to find the most suitable candidate for a job, without being forced to by quotas. In a world that's 53% women, surely in an executive team of 6 people there's no real argument that there were no qualified women for the position and therefore the executive team had to be all men? 

Men have a responsibility to break down the barriers they built, women don't have the responsibility to hold their hands while they do it. 

So, it's a man's world? No, I don't accept that. I don't believe that's ever been true, despite evidence to the contrary. 

This world is defined by how you define it, and I refuse to define it is being dominated by one gender, one race, one economic group, because at the point I allow those words to be true, I have nothing left to fight for. 

The times, they really are changing.

This election showed clearly that people are ready for change. We want equality for everyone. Women should have choice in their bodies, decisions, future, the right to earn as much as men. We want people to marry who they love, gay or straight. We want people to be able to afford to go to the doctor without taking out a loan. We want a good economy and a fair chance at the future we dream about as children. 


And we want a government that can deliver that for us. 

Be proud, America, you're showing us the way forward.



And it's not just America that is moving forward. 

Locally we have a government that is moving forward with intentions to bring marriage equality to Canberra. We also have a greater representation of women in elected positions in the Legislative Assembly than we've seen before. We have a Chief Minister committed to making equality a reality. Which makes me incredibly proud to be a Canberran. 

We have a Prime Minister who is standing up and identifying misogynistic behavior from the Opposition and saying "enough", but is disappointingly not progressing marriage equality at a national level (I'm going to live in hope about that one). 

In Australian, and in the US, we are seeing a trend to reject entrenched hate and values that limit the rights of people based on their race, gender, sexual preference, education or economic position. 

This move forward gives me a long denied hope that we are getting better as humans. We are starting to see that love, passion, belief and community can beat out the lies, and negativity offered to us by the conservative agenda. 

I can finally believe that the children I'm yet to have will grow up in a world where it won't matter if they're boys or girls, gay or straight, they'll have the same opportunities regardless. I won't need to worry that when my daughter becomes prime minister, or president, that she'll be identified as "female" in articles about her, because her gender will be irrelevant, it will be on her performance and policy that she will be judged. 


When my daughters* are old enough, I will talk with them about how important it is to vote, because this time in 2012 women had to fight every single day just to keep the right to make their own medical decisions. I hope, so hard, that they'll look at me like I'm crazy, because in their future that concept is totally ridiculous, because we are truly all equal. 


*please note, I reject the possibility of having sons, not because it wouldn't be cool to have a boy, but because I'm pretty confident my punishment for giving my mum hell is ending up with a daughter just like me.