Women want a say, and men must listen
If equality is a serious goal, we have to demand change and men must be part of the solution, writes
ASYSTEM where men are the gatekeepers of the world of work is the very essence of a woman’s problem in the 2020 marketplace.
Last week the focus was on male privilege and emotional abuse in the grubby bars and on the greasy carpets of the comedy circuit. It has been alleged under the Twitter hashtags #BelieveSurvivors and #IBelieveHer that a culture of abusive, exploitative and predatory behaviour towards women pervades this macho world.
The end result is that women are being shut out and deprived of the oxygen that is performance time. It amounts to an abuse of power.
The CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) Noeline Blackwell took to Twitter herself last week to voice her support. She reminded survivors of abuse that the services of DRCC are always available to them.
The next trending hashtag could relate to any field where the gig economy thrives. And that includes tech, theatre, finance, media, music, sport and the rest.
Due to the increasing casualisation of the workplace, the issue of the sexual exploitation of women is growing.
And it must be remembered that the news cycle is fast and furious. A couple of weeks ago Black Lives Matter dominated. Last week? Not so much.
That being said, there is nothing innately new about the proverbial ‘casting couch’.
But does hashtivism and the sharing of deeply personal information on social media deliver results and effect change?
I’m not so sure. Highlighting an issue on social media does just that. It can shine a spotlight and start the conversation. However, it doesn’t address the underlying causes or resolve the matter. And it doesn’t heal the victim.
The value of hashtivism is that it can bring you into the room where change can and does take place. Activism is a multistage process that extends beyond the realms of the keyboard.
While I have huge sympathy for women who have been sexually exploited in a work setting, I am uncomfortable with retrospective victimhood.
What happened in Hollywood was disingenuous. Stars stayed silent for years on the fact that sexual favours were standard currency for career advancement. They were rewarded with glittering multimillion dollar movie careers. Then the MeToo movement gathered pace and the big names jumped on the bandwagon to retrospectively lay claim to being victims too.
Now hold on a minute. You cannot decry the system, while simultaneously benefiting from it.
The online world can offer a tempting sense of community and an agreeable feeling of belonging. The downside is that it may foster a victim mentality.
We must also distinguish between serious sexual assault such as rape and some chancer placing his hand on your knee. They are not one and the same thing.
Learning to bat away such unwanted attention is part and parcel of many women’s lives. Most of us have honed our skills in this department over the years, but it is tiresome.
Howver, if the hiring and firing domain is predominately male, this puts women at a distinct disadvantage. Economically, this impacts negatively on our lives. This fact is often given scant attention.
Obtaining work, gaining a promotion or having a contract renewed should never depend on acquiescing to sexual advances or demands.
If a woman declines, this can adversely affect her ability to make a living. And this matters.
While it is utterly reprehensible behaviour for a man to use sex as leverage in a work setting, it is inevitable that some men will. Because they can.
Constant talk of how few women are involved in politics here often obscures another significant fact. Women are either absent or in scarce supply across many positions of influence in Irish life.
The odd exception or the occasional appointment of an establishment figure, doesn’t change this fact. If you head up an organisation that has a preference for men in suits, you need to ask why.
The same question has to be put to the predominantly female health sector, where those at the top are almost always men.
A similar tale prevails in academia where far too many women languish at the bottom of the hierarchy on short-term contracts.
The Gender Disparity Report published last week makes for grim reading. Looking at the airtime given to Irish female musicians, the report found that 28 music-playing stations feature women performers for just 5pc of the time.
Outrageous bias.
This is what ‘jobs for the boys’ looks like on the ground.
Dismantling the dominant ideology of patriarchy is the only satisfactory resolution. But it is complicated. Women also want a say in shaping the world that we live in. Is that too much to ask?
While toxic masculinity and male privilege underpin the system, men are also an essential part of the solution.
Why? Because there are good men, kind men and men who have women’s backs and we must bring them along with us. But there is one proviso. They must stop only appointing each other and stop turning a blind eye to other men behaving badly.
The current system is broken and open to abuse because power is unevenly distributed.
The US activist and feminist Angela Davis puts it best: “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept”.
Over and out.
‘The online world can offer a tempting sense of community and an agreeable feeling of belonging...’