Candace Bushnell, you've a lot to answer for
Some women really need their more educated sisters to guide them away from equality that is found at the bottom of a Brown Thomas shopping bag. "I look so good that I'll be treated as an equal, right?" Wrong. Not that looking good is a crime, but it's no substitute for using that bleached brain of yours.
Not too offended yet? Good, keep reading.
There are few things that have done more for women's lib than Sex and the City. Wait a second, I completely made that up. In fact, ah Candace Bushnell, you've a lot to answer for. You've managed to convince many women that you're a nobody unless you have those Manolo shoes. You're not sexually liberated unless you can talk out loud in public with confidence about your sex life. And you most certainly cannot convene for lunch over a flask of tea and cornbeef sandwiches in the canteen. It has to be a (insert fancy lunch item here) with your girlfriends in the nearest bistro.
Only last week, we heard that it was indeed women who spent most on clothes and entertainment. Men are no match for the ladies when it comes to stretching the plastic from one end of Grafton Street to the other. If you need any further proof, just compare male and female wardrobe contents. It is fair to say that shopping does preoccupy a lot of women who are fortunate enough to have money to spend.
Are you ready for another big shocker? Yes, I'm in top form today. Few women, when compared with men, take interest in current affairs (I have no figures to back this up - an observation). This really annoys me. Obviously, knowing about the latest political scandal does not infer any extra braininess.
But when it comes to election time, I would like to think my fellow voters are informed about the issues of the day in order to elect the best candidate. Of course, I'll be told that I need to get female friends who do pay attention to debates on women's rights, that I'm making sweeping generalisations, and that I'm misogynistic.
So to balance, a lot of men's interests can also be trivial. Everyone knows, when you break it down, that watching 22 men chasing after a leather sphere is pointless. But I love football. However, men do talk about the issues of the day more than women. If someone can answer this why this is, they deserve a medal.
Gender inequality still exists in various shapes and forms. Women are less likely to be put forward by male-dominated political parties as election candidates, hence the introduction of quotas in the near future. Women still don't receive equal treatment when it comes to recruitment and job promotion. However, nothing could be simpler than keeping abreast of what is said in the broadsheets. Nothing bars women from watching the news. Nothing stops them from holding educated views on matters of the day and from expressing those beliefs.
For women to achieve total equality requires an effort on the part of all women to take an interest in what goes on around them on a macro level. Ultimately, this would lead to more women being involved in politics and more women in power. This to me is girl power, not that shite the Spice Girls tried to spin in the late nineties.
EDIT: Here are some surveys/polls that back up what I've been trying to say in this post ...
1. From statistics.gov.uk ...
"In 1999 a third of men surveyed in the British Social Attitudes Survey said that they were interested in politics 'a great deal' or 'quite a lot', compared with under a quarter of women."
2. From the National Review ...
"Women's lack of knowledge is in part due to their lack of interest in politics. According to the National Opinion Research Center, 53 per cent of college-educated men under the age of 30 read a newspaper daily, compared to only 34 per cent of their female counterparts. And the gap opens at an early age. A national survey of schoolchildren found that boys are significantly more knowledgeable about politics than girls, even after controlling for background and curriculum. Quite simply, it may not be in women's nature to care very much about politics."
Published by Colm.
Not too offended yet? Good, keep reading.
There are few things that have done more for women's lib than Sex and the City. Wait a second, I completely made that up. In fact, ah Candace Bushnell, you've a lot to answer for. You've managed to convince many women that you're a nobody unless you have those Manolo shoes. You're not sexually liberated unless you can talk out loud in public with confidence about your sex life. And you most certainly cannot convene for lunch over a flask of tea and cornbeef sandwiches in the canteen. It has to be a (insert fancy lunch item here) with your girlfriends in the nearest bistro.
Only last week, we heard that it was indeed women who spent most on clothes and entertainment. Men are no match for the ladies when it comes to stretching the plastic from one end of Grafton Street to the other. If you need any further proof, just compare male and female wardrobe contents. It is fair to say that shopping does preoccupy a lot of women who are fortunate enough to have money to spend.
Are you ready for another big shocker? Yes, I'm in top form today. Few women, when compared with men, take interest in current affairs (I have no figures to back this up - an observation). This really annoys me. Obviously, knowing about the latest political scandal does not infer any extra braininess.
But when it comes to election time, I would like to think my fellow voters are informed about the issues of the day in order to elect the best candidate. Of course, I'll be told that I need to get female friends who do pay attention to debates on women's rights, that I'm making sweeping generalisations, and that I'm misogynistic.
So to balance, a lot of men's interests can also be trivial. Everyone knows, when you break it down, that watching 22 men chasing after a leather sphere is pointless. But I love football. However, men do talk about the issues of the day more than women. If someone can answer this why this is, they deserve a medal.
Gender inequality still exists in various shapes and forms. Women are less likely to be put forward by male-dominated political parties as election candidates, hence the introduction of quotas in the near future. Women still don't receive equal treatment when it comes to recruitment and job promotion. However, nothing could be simpler than keeping abreast of what is said in the broadsheets. Nothing bars women from watching the news. Nothing stops them from holding educated views on matters of the day and from expressing those beliefs.
For women to achieve total equality requires an effort on the part of all women to take an interest in what goes on around them on a macro level. Ultimately, this would lead to more women being involved in politics and more women in power. This to me is girl power, not that shite the Spice Girls tried to spin in the late nineties.
EDIT: Here are some surveys/polls that back up what I've been trying to say in this post ...
1. From statistics.gov.uk ...
"In 1999 a third of men surveyed in the British Social Attitudes Survey said that they were interested in politics 'a great deal' or 'quite a lot', compared with under a quarter of women."
2. From the National Review ...
"Women's lack of knowledge is in part due to their lack of interest in politics. According to the National Opinion Research Center, 53 per cent of college-educated men under the age of 30 read a newspaper daily, compared to only 34 per cent of their female counterparts. And the gap opens at an early age. A national survey of schoolchildren found that boys are significantly more knowledgeable about politics than girls, even after controlling for background and curriculum. Quite simply, it may not be in women's nature to care very much about politics."
Published by Colm.
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