12th December 2008, 10:58 AM
To set up any organisation ostensibly working for equality on foundations of inequality is hypocritical and doomed to failure. To quote Schlesinger (taken from the wikipedia article on identity politics): basing politics on group marginalization fractures the civil polity, and therefore works against creating real opportunities for ending marginalization. My first reaction when reading this thread was to leave well alone: better not get involved as I'll get pilloried if I say anything contentious, because I'm a man, aren't I. There you go: identity politics; my genes above my ideas. It doesn't have to be that way though.
freeburmarangers.org
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As was said by Anne above, there is nothing in BWAs website or ethos that says that men can't join and have a say. In fact, many of the problems that women face are also faced by men, although possibly not to the same extent. However, the response to the formation of the group (both on Facebook and now out of it) demonstrates that there are many women that feel that they need to talk about these issues with other women and that they have not had the opportunity to do so previously.
With regard to the 'toilets' thing, those that have commented that this should be done for men and women are right. There are, however, 'rights' and then there are realities. Maternity leave is a right, but the reality is that if you need to earn your wage (and not the much lower level maternity allowance) then you have to go back to work before your child is fully weaned. Expressing breast milk on just about any site I can think of would be interesting.....
As to 'away working' and the 'desire' to be near home. A single Mum HAS to be within reach of school/doctors/childcare in case her child is sick. e.g. you're on your way to nursery to drop your baby off, it throws up all over you. You are a. now dealing with a distressed child b. now covered in puke and have to go and get changed and change the child c. now already late for work and d. you can't leave your child at nursery/school/childcare as they all have a 24 or 48hr exclusion rule about stomach upsets. There are also single Dads out there, but they are less common.
So, men aren't being excluded from the organisation. But some women would like the opportunity to discuss their problems and share solutions with other women. men will get their say too. And then hopefully BWA can pass some suggestions/solutions on to organisations in order to help everyone work more effectively and happily. Communication isn't a bad thing!
Edited to add - and as I'm also on the Facebook site, and quite a few people already know who I am anyway .....
Clare
freeburmarangers.org
[/quote]
As was said by Anne above, there is nothing in BWAs website or ethos that says that men can't join and have a say. In fact, many of the problems that women face are also faced by men, although possibly not to the same extent. However, the response to the formation of the group (both on Facebook and now out of it) demonstrates that there are many women that feel that they need to talk about these issues with other women and that they have not had the opportunity to do so previously.
With regard to the 'toilets' thing, those that have commented that this should be done for men and women are right. There are, however, 'rights' and then there are realities. Maternity leave is a right, but the reality is that if you need to earn your wage (and not the much lower level maternity allowance) then you have to go back to work before your child is fully weaned. Expressing breast milk on just about any site I can think of would be interesting.....
As to 'away working' and the 'desire' to be near home. A single Mum HAS to be within reach of school/doctors/childcare in case her child is sick. e.g. you're on your way to nursery to drop your baby off, it throws up all over you. You are a. now dealing with a distressed child b. now covered in puke and have to go and get changed and change the child c. now already late for work and d. you can't leave your child at nursery/school/childcare as they all have a 24 or 48hr exclusion rule about stomach upsets. There are also single Dads out there, but they are less common.
So, men aren't being excluded from the organisation. But some women would like the opportunity to discuss their problems and share solutions with other women. men will get their say too. And then hopefully BWA can pass some suggestions/solutions on to organisations in order to help everyone work more effectively and happily. Communication isn't a bad thing!
Edited to add - and as I'm also on the Facebook site, and quite a few people already know who I am anyway .....
Clare