Author: fem4admin39

The Handmaid’s Tale on TV: too disturbing even for Margaret Atwood

Even for those who have read the book, there is something raw and new in seeing Atwood’s tale on screen. Even when you know it is coming, it is hard to witness Offred – played marvellously by Elisabeth Moss – silently being raped by the commander, her head gently banging into his wife’s lap as she holds her arms down. It is tough to watch the handmaids hurry past lines of bodies hanging from walls, variously damned for being gay, Catholic, an abortion clinic worker. Women have eyes plucked from their heads, endure clitoridectomies as punishment. We are shown exactly how bad such a future would be, if it ever happened.

The novelist famously constructed her dystopian world using only historical precedents . . . Some have even praised the show for the timeliness of its adaptation, falling as it has so soon after the election of President Donald Trump. When before has America needed to take such a hard look at itself, and consider the hypocritical, misogynist prurience that seems to drive so many of its political figures? Tellingly, since the show started being promoted in America, women have been attending marches and protests dressed in the red robe and white bonnet made iconic by Atwood’s handmaids.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/may/25/the-handmaids-tale-on-tv-too-disturbing-even-for-margaret-atwood?

The 22 women on this year’s Rich List, including eight billionaires

There are now eight, billionaire women in Australia as reported by the annual Financial Review Rich List yesterday. It may sound like a huge figure, but this year 60 Aussie billionaires made the list – the highest number in the report’s 34-year history. If you can do quick maths, this means that just thirteen percent of the highest earners were female.

An honourable mention goes to Nicole Kidman for emerging as the highest earning Australian entertainer. She currently sits on a fortune of $347 million. (Not bad for a girl who started out on Aussie TV soap, ‘A Country Practice’.

https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/22-women-years-rich-list-including-eight-billionaires/

There’s still a huge gender gap in NZ’s equity partner ranks

There’s still a wide gender disparity at the most senior ranks of law firms in New Zealand. At the equity partner level, 81% are male while only 19% are female, according to a study conducted by the Australasian Legal Practice Management Association (ALPMA) and McLeod Duminy.

“There are considerably more women than men working in private practice – yet, women make up less than a fifth of equity partners and only 43% of salaried partners,” said Kirsty Spears, McLeod Duminy legal recruitment consultant. “It seems that despite women making up 63% of lawyers and solicitors, and 64% of senior management, the top position of partner is still dominated by males.”

http://www.nzlawyermagazine.co.nz/news/theres-still-a-huge-gender-gap-in-nzs-equity-partner-ranks–study-236803.aspx

Domestic violence fight: A mother’s crusade

She said despite pleas for assistance, the Australian government provided no support and left her to shoulder more than $100,000 for legal fees and support services.

“There’s financial and legal assistance available for people arrested or assaulted abroad,” Merinda said.

“But there’s an artificial boundary for vulnerable women and children on their own in another country.”

Despite multiple compelling and official reports backing Merinda’s claims of abuse at the hand of her former spouse, she said her bid for custody was denied.

After a 22-year struggle in Canada, Merinda returned home alone, “poor” and suffering from trauma-induced PTSD.

Since her homecoming, Merinda has made it her mission to prevent other innocent and vulnerable women and children from experiencing the “family, judicial and systemic abuse” that plagued her for more than two decades.

http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/story/4674972/domestic-violence-fight-a-mothers-crusade/

‘Stay-at-home Mum’: An archaic term ripe for extinction?

. . . the opportunity and financial cost of spending time raising children and managing a household, instead of working for pay is a huge drain on a family’s finances. So because what we do is unpaid, society in general inherently, and often subconsciously, looks down on ‘Stay-at-home Mums’ as not providing value.

But we are all painstakingly aware, both from statistics, economic modelling and experience, that this work is so hugely valuable and fundamentally important. Yet, still today, the term ‘Stay-at-home Mum’ is full of negative connotations and stigma. It implies inactivity and masks the many roles a mother actually fulfils. No other job description is so multi-dimensional. In my view, the term ‘Stay-at-home Mum’ undermines the very work we do and belies the real nature of this all consuming role. So no, I was not going to write ‘Stay-at-home Mum’ on that form.

A close friend, who has the same immigration form dilemma, shared with me her struggle with the term. “It implies that you stay at home….and do…well…not much. It has symbolised the totally undervalued, horrifically hard role that I took on for a period without properly understanding the job description.

https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/soapbox/stay-home-mum-archaic-term-ripe-extinction/

“Ask Treasury”: The Office for Women’s response to the Budget’s impact on women.

On Monday the Minister for Women and the Office for Women were asked a number of questions about this in Senate estimates. They were specifically asked about what modelling for women had been undertaken. They were also asked to articulate the Office’s efforts to meet the G20 objective of boosting women’s workforce participation.

The responses seem to reinforce the NFAW conclusion that no “gender aware” analysis of the budget took place.

https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/ask-treasury-office-womens-response-diabolical-tax-situation-women-will-face/

End the system that fosters misogyny

Today, women occupy 65% of the paid workforce, but still perform 66% of the unpaid caring work in Australia. Despite these victories, there is something fundamentally wrong with this system. Capitalism can live with women in the workforce just as long as we know our place and continue to accept the double standard and the double burden.

Imagine if quality child-care was free, there was free health, dental and hospital care for all, community restaurants provided cheap and nutritious meals, education was free and domestic chores were paid for by the state. Life for families, and especially women, would be very different. But this sort of arrangement would mean that a proportion of the profits currently pocketed by the ruling class would have to be spent on providing such services.

Neoliberalism is moving society in the exact opposite direction to this vision. We are seeing attacks on welfare, the dismantling of universal health and free education. This is putting huge strain on families and, by extension, on women. We cannot take the gains that working women have won for granted. But they are limited and temporary — just look at the attacks on penalty rates, on the right to organise in a union, the fight for equal pay.

https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/end-system-fosters-misogyny

Damning Budget analysis: Some women will be hit with an effective marginal tax rate of 100%

One of the key findings in the NFAW 2017-18 Gender Lens report, released today, is that the combination of various policy changes this year could lead to an effective marginal tax rates of 100% or higher for some women.

The “stacking together” of changes to the medicare levy, HECS and government benefits and different income tests, can create a very different effective tax rate.

Changes in this Budget mean a graduate earning $51,000 could have less disposable income than someone earning $32,000. Because women are overrepresented at lower income levels, changes to government benefits and increases in taxes have a disproportionate effect on women.

https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/some-women-to-be-hit-with-an-effective-marginal-tax-rate-of-100/
http://www.nfaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FINAL-Gender-Lens-2017.pdf

What women should (but won’t) get in the 2017 Budget

From the mid-1980s until 2014 Australia published a Women’s Budget Statement each year which analysed the impact of a particular budget and its policies on women. This was groundbreaking when it was introduced and has been adopted by many other countries.

Since 2014, when the Federal government ceased publishing the statement, the National Foundation for Australian Women has worked with experts from a range of organisations, to undertake analysis of the implications of the budget through a gender lens.

This is critical because the consequences of some policies, whether intended or unintended, affect men and women differently. As the NFAW writes: “The impacts of public expenditure, revenue raising, and deficit reduction strategies are not gender neutral. Government expenditure and taxes don’t impact equally because men and women occupy different economic and social positions.”

https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/eds-blog/what-women-should-but-wont-get-in-the-2017-budget/

Terrifying Report Reveals That Sexual Violence At School Begins Long Before College

According to the AP’s findings, approximately one in five students reported experiencing rape, sodomy or being penetrated with a foreign object. Rape victims skewed older at an average age of 14 1/2 years old, while sodomy victims were younger at 12 1/2 years old.

Boys made up the majority of the perpetrators in all these offenses. The peak age of reported female victims was 14 and 95 percent of cases with female victims were perpetrated by males.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/terrifying-report-reveals-that-sexual-violence-at-school-begins-long-before-college_us_59135384e4b050bdca61c720