And so you thought women had achieved equal opportunity, feminism was dead and you could drop your copy of The Female Eunuch in the Lifeline bin? You may need to think again.
An Essential Research poll has found that on some indicators, many people think women are worse off than they used to be. Almost half those polled — 49% — thought women faced more pressure over their behaviour and appearance than 20 years ago, compared with just 30% who thought this kind of pressure had reduced. A whopping 58% of women thought pressure was higher; more than a third of the women polled thought that pressure was “a lot” higher.
Men were less convinced women were facing more pressure over the way they looked, splitting evenly at 39% who thought there was more pressure compared to 37% who thought pressure had dropped.
One in five of the more than 1000 people polled had either been subject to s-xism at work (7%) over the past year, or had witnessed s-xism at work (13%).
And while the media is sometimes blamed for s-xism, it’s not the main culprit in the public’s mind. The advertising world was fingered as the most s-xist institution, with 31% of people thinking there was “a lot” of s-xism at work. Second came politics — a quarter of those polled thought there was “a lot” of s-xism. That’s hardly surprising in a week where Prime Minister Julia Gillard made world news while brokering a new uranium deal and bolstering bilateral relations in India — because she fell over in high heels. (The poll was taken late last week).
The third most s-xist institution was deemed to be sport (24% thought there was “a lot” of s-xism), while the media was in the middle of the pack on 19%. The institution deemed the least s-xist was the school system — but even there, more than three-quarters thought there was some degree of s-xism at play.
The poll found those who think s-xism is not a factor in women’s lives may be experiencing a utopian fantasy. Less than 15% of those polled thought there was no s-xism at work at all in each of our major institutions.
While women have reached the political and business elites in Australia and are closing the gap on income and superannuation, the Essential findings appear to indicate that women are feeling increasingly under the spotlight over their physical appearances, as demonstrated by the perception that advertising (with its parade of beautiful, slim wonder women) is highly s-xist.
Questions of gender aside, the poll asked which organisations people trusted. People had a high level of trust in the High Court (63% trusted it), the ABC (59%) and charities (53%). The RBA may be hated every time it fails to drop interest rates on demand, but it’s still fairly well-trusted (53%).
On the other side of the ledger, political parties are the least-trusted body (42% said they had “no trust” in them), edging out trade unions (36% had no trust) in the public’s bad books. Religious organisations and Parliaments also scored poorly. The public was a little kinder to media organisations and business groups, but their trust levels were still mediocre.
The poll showed federal voting intention was stuck on a two-party preferred of 53-47 to the Coalition, as it has been for three weeks by Essential’s reckoning.
Women can where high heels without falling over. bogans just can’t.
Women can wear high heels without falling over. Bogans just can’t.
As I’ve said before -equality for women is a long way off. In Australia, we don’t have equal pay; physical and sexual violence towards women is shamefully high; a woman is murdered by her husband/partner every 7 – 10 days in this country. 3 out of 4 girls will experience some form of sexual abuse before they turn 16 – the stats for boys aren’t much better! Sexist jokes and attitudes are rife; as are racist and ageist jokes. Older women are not safe from being abused, The greatest threat to the health and safety of women under 40 is domestic violence! There’s no room to crow or ‘drop the ball’? Rape is still a horrible road for women, particularly if they make up an all too small percentage who go to court. While it’s not quite as common as years gone by, we still hear the most ridiculous and sexist comments from the bench. Women are still complaining about their treatment from police – even though there have been huge gains in their education and therefore attitude/s!
Then, people may recall the newspaper’s response to past accusations re sexual abuse and footballers? The media’s response has been disgraceful – blaming the woman; digging up any ‘dirt’ on her or her family. Just appalling! Ever year there’s at least one ‘incident’ of these young men, collectively or singly acting in a gross manner towards women and/or girls! We still have a long way to go. We have to look at how boys are raised? Expectations of boys are often ingrained prior to their birth? The same applies to girls? There’s something very wrong in how much influence is in the home, and how it can be changed towards violence and ‘sexual manners’, basic human rights. Abuse of women and girls is a human rights issue, and that’s how it should be perceived!
My late sister spent a couple of months training a young man, who after only a short time was paid at a higher rate than she, and had a car thrown in as well. My sister left soon after in disgust! This was in the 80’s, but in this area, not a lot has changed.
On a world basis, crimes against women, including sexual violence as another ‘weapon’ in war is on the rise – to alarming levels. In recent times, we’ve also learned of the same actions against men and boys. There are over 20 million slaves in the world, mostly women and kids. Women are still being forced into prostitution, even in Australia(thousands I hear?) and the abuse of children is world wide! Women walk about 200 million miles per day for water, and hunger and poverty is rife still for millions of people.
Even in western countries, women own only a tiny part of the wealth. On a world stage, the numbers are staggering.
So, instead of people fobbing women off with the blase and ridiculous comment that there’s no need for feminists or feminist attitudes, they should educate themselves to the real picture facing too many women and their families around the world!
Re the PM’s sohes? I read a letter in the SMH about the little plastic ‘covers’ to put over heels – they protect the heels from damage, and add some security for the feet. When I saw the footage of the PM’s fall I was shocked – it looked really serious, and I bet she had more than a few aches the next day – in need of a chiropractor I’d say!
I fell in my garden a year of so ago – I tripped over the hose, and instead of falling onto the soft garden I went down on the concrete – it hurt like hell, and I aggravated my neck and spinal problems. I went to my chiropractor but ended up really doing damage that resulted in a cortisone injection into my right side neck to relieve the pain and restore mobility! Not pleasant at all!
Stick to the concrete Julia, or check out the lawn? before you walk on it – unless with flat heeled shoes? I was wearing flat sandals!
Ginger Rogers – did everything Fred did backwards and in highheels – love that saying!!
It’s not obvious to me why overblown coverage of Julia Gillard falling over has anything to do with sexism. Australia has form in saturation exposure of prime ministerial physical faux pas on the subcontinent. Everyone remembers John Howard’s offspinner that stuck in the hand and landed at his feet, but no one remembers why he was there. I don’t think that’s down to sexism.