I am woman, hear me roar...

This is probably less personal than the posts I usually write, but it is something that I feel very strongly about, so I guess that makes it personal. And there’s only so many times you can write about being fed up!

My husband, my best friend but above all, my equal

Yesterday saw the one hundred year anniversary of women getting the vote in the UK. It would be another ten years before they enjoyed that right on an equal footing with men. It astonishes me that, a century later, there are still institutions and companies that find it acceptable to pay women less than men, despite the fact that they are doing the same job. You only have to look at the machinations at the BBC to see that.

Gripping...

Coincidentally, yesterday was also the day that I went to see ‘The Post’, Stephen Spielberg’s latest film about the events leading up to the publication of the damning Pentagon Papers. Im a real sucker for a good journalism movie - All the President’s Men, It Happened One Night, Spotlight - and found The Post absorbing and thought provoking. The main thrust of the story, and the reason that the director rushed to make it, was the role of the press in shining a clear and rational light on things that administrations would prefer the public not to know, and the freedom to publish. It was truly gripping, and actually evoked a fist pump from me when the printing presses started to roll! But, as with all great films, there was an intriguing subplot - the role of women. 

I want to read this...

Katherine (Kay) Graham was the first female publisher of a major American newspaper, but only because her husband died. She has been quoted as saying that she was proud that her father ‘gave’ the paper to her beloved Phil, and that it never occurred to her that she would be considered suitable to take on such an important job. Astonishing! The Post is punctuated by scenes depicting how women were regarded in the early seventies - the male advisor taking over in a key meeting, the bankers assuming they know best, female clerks waiting outside the doors of the New York Stock Exchange and even Graham herself demanding more columns about fashion to please her female friends. Watching Meryl Streep portray Graham’s shift towards doing what she felt was right, in the face of all opposition and the possible loss of all she held dear was breathtaking.

Nearly an adult!

I was slowly emerging as an adult in the mid-seventies, and spent time railing against inequality in my youth. I never actually burnt a bra, but I flirted with Women’s Lib when I was at college. There is no doubt that since I waved a placard in 1975, major strides have been made, but there are still circumstances when women are discriminated against, purely because of their gender. 

My placard waving friends in 1975 - where are they now?

I never had to break through a glass ceiling in my career, but very few men worked in the Special Needs or Primary sector of education when I started out. I don’t think thats true anymore, but I’m willing to bet that its the females on the staff that get asked to do the more ‘pastoral’ or ‘care’ aspects of the job, while the men play football with the lads. I appreciate that’s a sweeping statement, but I’m sure there’s a grain of truth in it.

Looking forward, the #metoo campaign has served to shine a clear light on how people, largely female, have been exploited by those in power, Carrie Grace has fallen on her sword to demonstrate the inequalities at the BBC, and there is a heartening number of women in politics. And yet there are still clubs that refuse the admittance of woman (although, to be fair, would you really want to be a member?) and  young women who do nothing to promote the cause - if I hear one more say, ‘I didn’t bother to vote, I don’t get politics’ I will tie them down and make them watch the footage of Emily Davison being trampled by the King’s horse in 1913. 

On a stamp...must be important!

I’m sure that if they had to endure the lot of women in less enlightened times, they’d pretty soon see that ‘politics’ isn’t only about men (and women) in suits, Brexit and the budget, it’s what underpins the entire structure of our lives. You’ve got to be in it, to win it!