Gender gap alive and well

Written By: - Date published: 4:51 pm, March 4th, 2010 - 6 comments
Categories: feminism, Social issues - Tags: ,

Next Monday is International Women’s Day (8 March). I know a few readers will ask Do we still still need to worry? According to Asha-Rose Migiro, UN Deputy Secretary-General, the answer is yes. Among the areas where progress has lagged is in tackling the scourge of violence against women, said Ms. Migiro:

‘Violence is the most blatant manifestation of discrimination against women, but it is not the only one. Injustice and inequality persist in developing and developed countries and in all regions.’ In addition, she also noted that women still outnumber men among the world’s poorest people, and that two-thirds of illiterate adults are women a statistic that has not changed in 20 years.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his address:

‘Until women and girls are liberated from poverty and injustice, all our goals peace, security, sustainable development stand in jeopardy.’

Yet the rumour mill suggests the days of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs are limited, with talk of their amalgamation into the Ministry of Social Development.  Well, we certainly know that they are not held in high regard by Cabinet Minister Judith Collins, who once upon a time said:

Of all the politically correct organisations littering our Capital, the big Mother of them all is the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoW).

Let’s watch how the government mark Women’s Day next week shall we?

6 comments on “Gender gap alive and well ”

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  1. grumpy 1
    4 March 2010 at 8:22 pm

    No there’s a good idea – lets hold it in Pakistan or Iran!

  2. a human 2
    5 March 2010 at 8:06 am

    and today we have Theresa Gattung promoting her new book saying the Telcom boss is getting off lightly because he is a man.
    What fortuitous timing.

    • A Nonny Moose 2.1
      5 March 2010 at 10:15 am

      As much as I didn’t like what she did, I’d have to agree with her. Have you seen any little ‘shoot/drop the Telecom head’ flash games making the meme rounds of late?

      • Tigger 2.1.1
        5 March 2010 at 10:52 am

        Gattung was quite capable of dishing out loads of sexism against women herself (I had two female friends who worked for her while she was on her way up).

        • A Nonny Moose 2.1.1.1
          5 March 2010 at 12:52 pm

          Yeah, there’s that too – playing the boys rules to get it done. I didn’t say she was the perfect shining example of women in business, and any intersection of women and business is fraught with society’s view of business women and their actually achievements/failures.

  3. A Nonny Moose 3
    5 March 2010 at 10:20 am

    I can not understand how National ministers/parliamentarians can stand up and tell us there’s no need to fuss over the Pay Gap, or that the MoW is useless. How the feck do they think they got to their position in the first place? By the predeccessors scratching tooth and nail. They’re an embarressment to our nation’s women, and nothing remotely feminist about them at all. They’re simply playing along with the kyriachy to get where they’re going, not helping women at all.

    /ragequit

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