Wednesday 3rd May

This was apparently a bumper sticker seen in the Seventies in America.  It is so apt and to the point that it made me take notice.  On the face of it, of course Women are People.  But the whole point of Feminism is not only to grant Women the same rights and opportunities and pay as Men; which it seems to have descended into, important as that is.  I think the wider point is that the female perspective, which has always been ignored or put down by men is just as valid as the male one.  In fact in most cases it is a better ideal.  Sadly, one of the consequences of the Women’s Lib. Movement has been that some women felt they had to behave as badly as some men did in order to obtain parity.  It really has to be men who change; their laws, their attitudes, their privileges – women do not have to adapt to men’s ways of thinking in order to be ‘as good’ as men.  They have always been as good as men, if not better.  It is men who have not been as good as women.  Almost all Wars have been started by men, almost all Slavery was conducted by men, almost all Religious persecution has been at the hands of men.  Whereas almost all the nurturing of children has been done by women, almost all the caring for the sick has been done by women, and most of the educating is still done by women.

And it is only by education that things will change.  I, like all men, have had to learn how to understand the gender imbalance, and how to try to re-dress it.  And yet we still give little boys toy guns and swords, and little girls Princess outfits and dollies to play with.  We have, so far, had two Women Prime Minister’s – and sadly they have done nothing to promote real equality – in fact by many measures they have been worse than the men they beat to the top job.  The world will only improve when Women’s values are taken at least as seriously as Men’s.  (make-up and handbags excepted, please).