Women's History Month

[Melusine]

LOL, you bastard.

Anyway, I just looked in my diary and I realised I'd written this post on International Women's Day. Well, I don't have a problem with an International day for women since there are still so many places in the world were women ARE living in terrible circumstances caused solely by the fact that they're women. Amnesty International in fact is launching a new campaign for women's rights and I cannot agree with them more on the necessity of it.

[Barry the Sprout]

Just as an aside...

International womens day is more about raising awareness of women's exploitation in the work place than it is about the weird "balance redressing" kind of exercise that is women's history month. And yes, before anyone asks, I have been on a protest about it! [shameless plug] I'm in an organisation campaiging against sweatshop labour and we do an event on International Women's Day every year. [/shameless plug]

www.nosweat.org.uk

Errr... I might write something more actually relevant to the topic at hand later on. At present I have another protest to go to... (no, I'm not making this up)

[Timber Loftis]

Make sure you grab the right picket signs, Barry. I'd hate to see you show up at a WTO protest sporting the wrong attire.

[Donut]

This is the 20th anniversay of the start on the Miners Strike in the UK. There's one woman I'd very much like to erase from our history!

[Stratos]

Isn't she just a man in drag?

[Thoran]

I'm not so sure a Womans History month is needed anymore. There's been a concerted effort over the last 30 years to increase the visibility of womens contributions to history. Textbooks now are very careful to cover womens contributions in the arts and sciences throughout history. Women in the sciences today (I see a lot of this area since I work there) are routinely singled out for their accomplishments based on their gender.

I'm not a fan of praising someone based on irrelevant characteristics (like gender) but I also understand that there was a need to establish that women did and do accomplish a lot in society. The question is... once the visibility is there does the pushing need to continue?

With regards to the international status of women I'm a bit more cynical, A.I. seems to be just one more organization jumping on the P.C. "crusade of the month" bandwagon. What I've seen is that in societies where women have it bad men have it bad
too. What disturbs me is that often reports that seek to justify biased assistance for women never even explore what the men in those regions are facing (sweatshops, forced conscription, violence, etc...), almost like we don't count. International aid is a zero sum game, there's not an unlimited supply and I worry the men of these areas are suffering simply because they don't fit into the right demographic.

[ 03-08-2004, 01:53 PM: Message edited by: Thoran ]

[Timber Loftis]

Originally posted by Donut: This is the 20th anniversay of the start on the Miners Strike in the UK. There's one woman I'd very much like to erase from our history!

Old money pit mines that aren't making money should be kept in business why?

If so, wouldn't you support the tarriffs Bush raised in effort to save the floundering US Steel industry?

If not, Why one and not the other?

[Chewbacca]

Well, like with black history month, I learned some stuff about women in history I didn't know before.

I don't see either as a way to address past greivances, but as a reminder that once not very long ago, these humans were not treated as equal to other humans due to what amounts to superficial differences.

All in all, I see them both as tributes to the human spirit and our ability to progress, evolve, and grow better in ways that are not rooted merely in technology, politics, or religion.

[Barry the Sprout]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: quote: Originally posted by Donut: This is the 20th anniversay of the start on the Miners Strike in the UK. There's one woman I'd very much like to erase from our history!

Old money pit mines that aren't making money should be kept in business why?

If so, wouldn't you support the tarriffs Bush raised in effort to save the floundering US Steel industry?

If not, Why one and not the other? [/QUOTE]The pits were closed as the mining industry couldn't keep up with other energy sources - but why couldn't it? It couldn't keep up because of a complete failure by management to attempt to update working practices or invest at all in the processes. You also have to remember that the mines were at least partially state owned at the time I believe. It was government incompetance that required the mines to be closed. In doing so communities were completely destroyed and Thatcher made some total 3 million people unemployed across the country.

This came on top of her other policies which effectively told the unemployed that it was their fault (I'm thinking of Tebbit's "on your bike" speech in particular). Thatcher at one and the same time declared that her government wasn't going to take care of people who couldn't find work and then removed the only source of work for miles around for a large number of people.

Also, even if you support the pits closing then I find it hard to understand anyone supporting the police action against the miners. Soldiers were dressed up as policeman and used as the first wave to charge the miners with - no attempts at arrests were made, they were just there to kick the crap out of them. And around this time Thatcher outlawed secondary striking, so that solidarity with the miners became illegal, and reduced the size of a legal picket so that picketing was completely pointless. Thatcher basically used her time in office to give a huge "**** you!" to the working class, she was not just making economic decisions she was obsessed...

[ 03-09-2004, 05:16 AM: Message edited by: Barry the Sprout ]

[Night Stalker]

I have a slight problem with this sentiment Barry, in that it implies that people are owed a living based on your skill set. If work dries up, it is no one elses responsibility to provide you work or sustanence. If your skill set is no longer relevant, develop a new skill set that is relevant and find new work, or move to an area where your skills are needed.

The working class often get very angry when circumstances beyond their control remove the safety and security of a steady job from them. They then rail against government and corporations for not taking care of them, when they should be angry with themselves for not taking measures to take care of themselves.