Perhaps my generation of sisters has had it too good

We never imagined we would need to fight for the right to call ourselves women, writes Gemma Tognini.

In 2023 we aren’t fighting for the right to stay at work after starting a family, to get a home loan in our own right, or to be seen as individuals rather than chattels or appendages of a husband or father.

We are defending terms such as mother, wife, breastfeeding, womanhood; for those terms to be acknowledged, accepted and not challenged.

[A]s an adult female human, there’s a quiet rage within me when people discount these terms as meaningless or try to write them off as functional rather than deeply rooted in who we are.

I’ve watched the Moira Deeming mess play out at a distance. I don’t know her. I’m not interested in buying into the conflict. I believe every person – gay, straight, trans, whatever – is worthy of love and respect, the right to live a life in peace, and to afford each other mutual respect. That last part, especially – mutual respect.

I am not invested beyond the fact I found myself asking: why is a woman being told not to speak about matters important to a group of Australian women, a group of women that is demonstrably a powerful cross-section of ages, faiths, sexualities and political persuasions?

And why was one woman made the lightning rod for the fact a rally was gatecrashed by a bunch of people whose intent was to turn the thing on its head? What then transpired, whether you believe Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto was right or wrong, was just another bloke telling a woman to sit down and shut up.

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