Vicky’s Work Area 2006 (Photo credit: Vicky TGAW)
Lets be clear on International Women’s Day. Flexibility is not gender diversity, nor is it equality. Nursing rooms, flexible hours and acknowledging the needs of returning mothers is also not equality, it is merely a fact of life. Gender diversity means that women have the same opportunities and choices as men do, and men can have the freedom to choose roles that we have traditionally attributed to women
25 January 2013 Last updated at 00:45 GMT
Why did men stop wearing high heels?By William Kremer BBC World Service
“For generations they have signified femininity and glamour – but a pair of high heels was once an essential accessory for men.
Beautiful, provocative, sexy – high heels may be all these things and more, but even their most ardent fans wouldn’t claim they were practical.
They’re no good for hiking or driving. They get stuck in things. Women in heels are advised to stay off the grass – and also ice, cobbled streets and posh floors.
And high heels don’t tend to be very comfortable. It is almost as though they just weren’t designed for walking in.
Originally, they weren’t.” READ MORE
Here are some magnificent women, with real bodies enjoying the sunshine recently at some sea baths in Sydney, October 2012. Every single body is different, each so beautiful, each with its own tale to tell, each just the outward expression of that person’s inner beauty. Reject the perfect image constantly promoted in the media, embrace life’s journey and the changes that it brings to your beautiful body.
Embrace your shape, your inner strength and beauty!
A men’s movement in India that has come out in protest about a range of issues where they think that they are unfairly treated with women receiving preferential treatment, often blaming these issues on feminism. Some of the comments on Men’s Rights Facebook pages promoting ‘anti-feminist’ sentiment can be pretty harsh with Wikipedia defining this men’s rights movement (MRM) as;
“a subset of the larger men’s movement, is focused on addressing discrimination against men in areas such as reproductive rights, divorce settlements, domestic violence laws, and sexual harassment laws.[1] It branched off from the men’s liberation movement in the early 1970′s, differing from that movement in its focus and rejection of pro-feminist principles.”
Whilst I don’t believe feminism advocates women’s rights at the expense of men’s rights, it is a little concerning. However I think that the best way to address this is to engage thoughtfully as a Changing Women, without criticism, anger or judgement.
In some cases we still see the mistreatment of women through control and deprivation through laws and cultures that are grossly inhumane and without equality and it is this history that I think has been lost on this movement. That is not to say that many of their issues are not warranted. For example, men should have equal opportunities to be a sole care giver, they should not be physically or mentally abused by their partners and they should not suffer sexual harassment at the hands of either sex. But it is not a simple issue.
Here is a post about the a new law that has been passed in New Delhi to protect women from sexual harassment. The article is well written and reasonably balanced, but I think that the bigger issues that come from centuries of patriarchy have been overlooked.
“Men’s rights organisations have come out strongly against the decision of the Lok Sabha which cleared the Sexual harassment of women at workplace bill without any discussion.
Men’s Rights Association, a men’s rights organization, creating awareness about abuse of men by society registered a strong protest against the proposed anti-male legislation titled “Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment Bill”.
On the September 3, the Lok Sabha cleared this bill without any discussion. When over 35 countries have this law Gender neutral, why is it anti male only in India? Why is it being passed without any debate in Loksabha, they asked.”
READ THE REST OF VICKY NANJAPPA’S ARTICLE HERE
This is my response via a comment on his blog site;
“It is a shame that the law was not made gender neutral as you say as all people can be subject to sexual harassment. I guess that historically it has been worst for women since men have been the leaders in most organisations over many centuries, however for true equality the law must protect all. These laws were instigated in the west and many decades ago and took some time to take effect so sometimes the early days are difficult. Sexual harassment still happens regardless of the laws, but at least it is more understood. I wouldn’t say that feminism is the issue here as feminism doesn’t advocate equality for women over equality for men, it merely asks that women have equal choice and have equity in ownership, decisions over their body, to be able to choose a life path and to have self determination. These are things that everyone should have regardless of gender, race, status or age.
I certainly understand the issues that you have outlined, but many laws are still heavily weighted towards men and against women, so are many cultural practices such as dowries and forced marriages. This is a much broader issue and stems from the patriarchal system that has been created over many centuries, where men have been in control and have determined the life of women. You only need to look at the right for women to vote which did not come into force until the late 1800′s in the western world to know that many laws were made by men for men. Often these laws were extremely detrimental to women and some still are so this could be why you are seeing so much activism in your country at the moment around women’s rights. These may seem to be eroding those of men, but this is just a phase in the change and balance will return over time. Instead of blaming feminism, why not work with those groups more closely so that laws are crafted that benefit everyone?”
“OUR VISION
We envision a world in which women help reestablish the skewed balance, by fully integrating yin and yang.
Kimberly Seabrooks
Welcome to our latest Changing Women. Kimberly Seabrooks. Kimberly is another inspirational Woman of Change! She runs a fantastic blog called the LadyRomp Inspiration Network with a similar message and vision to changingwomen.org. It is so great to see women all over the world embracing their shape, their inner beauty, their strength and using their inner power to change the world one women at a time!
Kimberly is 47 years old and holds a Bachelors degree in business from Northwood University in Midland, Michigan. She also has a 30 year old son who graduated from Yale University in 2004. Kimberly is the oldest of 3.
Kimberly says;
LadyRomp is an inspirational blog for the empowerment of women. My name is Kim Seabrooks and I have truly come to the conclusion that my purpose in life is to http://ladyromp.com/about-2/” target=”_blank”>help women find their way in this big old world that we live in. I want women to embrace their power, beauty and knowledge to turn the world upside down. We have so much to give and when we are supporting and guiding each other that makes all of our power resonate.
I have a segment on my blog that I call, “Inspirational Woman Of The Day”, and on that segment I am highlighting more well known women, but my ultimate goal is to use women who are not so well known. I want all women to see that if it happened for her, it can happen for me too.
So what I would like you to do is tell me your stories, so we can inspire women from all walks of life and let them know that making it happen is possible for you too. Send me your stories to my blog at: www.ladyromp.com. It’s the place where women meet.
Lady Romp http://ladyromp.com/
Playing Soccer
Just watched a couple of adult mixed touch football games, (men and women). Interestingly, from the sidelines in the stands the men and women all looked the same. They were all wearing the same uniform and it makes such a difference in perception. You suddenly don’t think about ‘he’ or ‘she’ and how they are playing based on their sex or gender stereotype. They all looked the same, all equal so you have to just judge them on how they play and not how the played according to them being male or female. The women ran just as fast as the men, they kicked and tackled just the same, in fact everyone looked the same. Closer to the action, you could see who was who, but even then some of the women were just as tall as the men and some of the men were just as short as the women. It was so refreshing to just see ‘people’ playing on a level playing field. All being competitive, yet having fun at the same time.
As women, have we purposely differentiated ourselves so much, that it makes us seem so different to men? Could this be one of the things that results in such different treatment to men? Interesting.
Can you imagine a different world where some of the images that we see all the time being turned on their head with another model being presented to us?
I was just watching the television and an advertisement came on for a new children’s talent show. This show has been on in the past and was one of the family mainstay entertainments twenty years ago so the advertisement showed a ‘family’ of four from the 1980′s sitting in the lounge room watching the original show before the new host bursts onto the scene and all the latest generation of children come dancing in. At this point, the ‘family’ jumps up and starts joining in. So far, there is nothing strange in this picture. Except that the ‘father’ or husband figure was so much older than the ‘mother’ or wife figure in the family, to the point that I wondered if she was in fact supposed to be his daughter until I realised that if that were the case, there were more problems with this commercial than I first thought.
We so readily accept this picture of an older male with a much younger wife, but imagine if you were watching the exact opposite. A 50 plus year old women with a 24-year-old man representing the ‘father’ of the primary school aged children. Would you so readily accept this picture or would you automatically start calculating the ages of the children in relation to the age of the man and decide that it just was not possible for him to be the father.
How many times do we see an advertisement, television show or movie where there is a slightly overweight, fairly plain looking man and a much younger sexy woman who make up a couple? Even as I write this, I know that there is judgement in my question. What makes the ‘younger sexy women‘ more sexy and attractive than the man? Why do I assume that the man isn’t sexy? In fact, many women will associate readily with the male in the advertisement as a realistic man – maybe similar to their own partner. They may likely find them attractive anyway, or at least feel comfortable that this is a normal picture of couple-dom. Would men find the women just as attractive if the roles were reversed and instead the advertisement portrayed an older slightly overweight, fairly plain looking women with a sexy younger man as the couple?
Maybe, maybe not. How many women would be asking, “What is that woman doing with that hot young guy?” We easily accept that older men marry younger women, and that younger women are attracted to older men so we readily accept these images. Sure sometimes, like in my earlier example the difference is just so great that you really need to question its validity. More than likely you will be like me and put it down to the media company being full of marketing ‘men’ who just think that this type of image sells – and currently it does. It is commonly believed that men like to see beautiful young women, and women associate with and want to be like the young women being portrayed in the relationship with the older man – young and sexy, even powerful. But is this correct or is it another model that we have become to believe is acceptable? Why isn’t it around the other way?
What a different world we would have if these images were portrayed differently.
Make Every Woman Count – Promoting the Empowerment of Women and Girls in Africa
About: (from the website http://www.makeeverywomancount.org)
“The Empowerment of African Women & girls is vital to the continent growth and development. We can’t develop Africa if half of its population is left out”. Rainatou Sow Founder & Executive Director of MEWC
Founded in December 2010 two months after the launch of the African Women’s Decade, Make Every Woman Count is a young women-led organisation committed to actively promoting and advocating for the empowerment and rights of African women and girls and to raise awareness of the African women’s Decade. The MEWC website aims to be a comprehensive online resource to support the empowerment of African women and girls.
Make Every Woman Count focuses on 6 priority areas that are vital to women’s rights and gender equality: Human Rights of Women, Women, Peace & Security, Violence Against Women, Political Participation & Leadership, Economic Empowerment, HIV/AIDS & Reproductives Health.
Mission
Make Every Woman Count’s mission is to provide accessible, timely and accurate information, resources and tools to support and strengthen the work of African women’s rights advocates, grassroots, and activists to effectively promote the economic, political and social rights of African women and girls; and to inspire and support young African women to be agents of social change in Africa. [see more]
December 01 Madrid & Central Spain
Globiles Spotlight is the feature where we give our most interesting and vocal members a stage on which to shine.
This month’s member, Susanne Moore, is “ a global citizen, consultant and entrepreneur “ she also manages the blog- http://changingwomen.org.
Here, she talks to us about gender roles in today’s professional environment.
- Interview by Andrea Maltman
G: You created the website “Changing Women” – can you summarize what exactly you feel needs changing regarding the image of modern women?
S: the questions around gender equality and gender change are big subjects and the approach for Changing Women is to keep it simple, focusing on “the changing woman”.
The aim is to promote positive images of real women whose bodies and minds change during the course of their life experiences.
G: Why do you feel you are the one to do this shifting?
S: Probably the best answer here would be because I can. I am an observer and strategist, so I have observed a great many things over the years.
I have more tolerance for people and I think that will help me to be a change agent on a global scale.
I have seen and done what works and what doesn’t work and I have begun to understand why society is the way that it is.
G: Globiles is about professional life and social mobility on a global/international scale. Do you think men and women truly enjoy equal access to these two experiences?
S: I think the degree of equality here varies depending on a couple of factors: First, what country or cultural restrictions are imposed on you, what restrictions you impose on yourself and finally, what restrictions are imposed on you by others.
In short, I don’t think that we can yet say that men and women enjoy equal access to professional achievement or social mobility.
G: In your blog you discuss the term of gender economics, what role does this concept play in business and professional life?
S: Gender Economics is a term that I am using to describe economies built around gender consumption.
It is an important aspect of our social and business climate today and certainly very important as we move into the future.
In the gender economy, we have reduced portions of the population to passive consumers, making indirect economic input rather than direct input. Stabilising the balance between indirect and direct impact has a role developing our economic future.
G: What advice would you give to women who want to scale the heights of their corporate or business environment?
S: Be true to yourself and try to do the work that you want to do. Once you are in the corporate environment, learn how the game is played. Understand the politics of climbing the ladder and be wary of people that want you to fail.
Above all, don’t apologise for being a female! But do try to harness some of the traits that assist men in business-promoting yourself, speaking in solutions not complaints and not taking business dealings personally.
G: Once there, do you believe there is camaraderie amongst the ‘sisterhood’, or a tendency to join the boys club, as it were.
S: Unfortunately I don’t think that this is the norm in the same way as it is for men. Men build strong networks, and compete head to head for promotion using the traditional “old boys” network, whereas in my experience, women seem to spend time competing against each other instead of working together.
It is such a shame because if they used their “woman-ness” they would know that the greatest assets that they have is compassion, intuition, the ability to work as a team and support each other.
The good news is that I think this trend is slowly changing, but it really needs to be addressed at school while girls are developing. Teach them to be happy with the self instead of looking outside of themselves for validation, working on self esteem will help them later in the workplace.
G: In your experience, have you found professional dealings to be easier with women or men?
S: I have mostly worked in male environments, construction and then Information Technology so I am used to working with men and find them to be easier than women.
I think that men are less complicated in the workplace and, as I said in the previous question, once you understand the game you know how to deal with it.
The absolute worst scenario is when another female tries to manipulate the men around you. Men are, in my experience, easily distracted by a beautiful woman, and often don’t pick up on the subtle manipulations and put downs of other women
I would say that every time I have seen this behaviour, the company, or the men in question have come off second best because they have made decisions that are not based on sound judgement.
G: As well as your writing and commentary on your website and blog, you are also an entrepreneur. Tell us about you business ventures and projects.
S: Since closing my consulting company in 2010 I have been doing lots of different projects. I helped my eldest daughter develop her range of beauty products, Alli’s Stuff, and sell these through my lifestyle portal http://inthebushatthebeach.com
I am also consolidating my Integrity Management Methodology which I wrote in 1997, http://integritymanagementmethodology.wordpress.com
I hope to work within a specific niche, which will look at imbedding integrity and improving business performance by linking environmental responsibility, cultural sensitivity, gender, and the development of new paradigms for business management.
G: You are also an accomplished public speaker, which subjects are you most passionate about?
S: I love talking about equality and integrity in business. I have also spoken on subjects like outsourcing, project management, leadership and managing diversity.
I have been well known as a International Leader in the field of project management and have spoken many times on that subject.
Lastly my most recent passion is about Changing Women and speaking about the ways that the Changing Woman can help to change the world by harnessing their own inner power and strength. This is just so important and something that I am extremely passionate about.
If you’d like to know more about Susanne, contact her on Globiles or check out her websites:
http://susannemoore.wordpress.com
Globiles is “A community of the global and mobile, sharing insights and contacts online and offline”
