by LonelyPilgrim on Mon Nov 01, 2010 4:29 am
The battle is over? Only skirmishes are left?
What about the Pay Gap? What about allowing women in combat roles? What about every little thing that makes it clear that raising children is a woman's job and not a man's, ie. maternity leave (which, in itself, is rare enough in the US) and not paternity leave?
One of the things that struck me when I first arrived in the UK and which I could never get used to and which just set my teeth on edge, was what seemed like the standard practice of having a female radio show host for the sole purpose of being the but of sexist jokes by the male hosts.
Or how about the whole damn ad campaign for Yorkie bars?? (unless it is for girls, too, now)
Granted, I'm an American, and I have no doubt that I viewed a lot of things through an American 'lens' during my four years there, and therefore misinterpreted some things. I am also aware that, in some spheres, British women are traditionally granted more equality than American women. For instance, I have a copy of a handbook that went out to American servicemen stationed in Britain in preparation for the D-Day invasions that goes to some lengths to explain that British women are permitted to be more romantically aggressive than American women by custom and that this does mean that all British women are shameless hussies. By comparison, an American women who did anything but demurely wait for a man to chat her up in that era was a wanton slut.
To some extent, that difference still exists, I think. Certainly, from what I, and some other Americans I knew at St Andrews noticed and discussed, British women are still permitted by your society to be more sexually aggressive than American women. Not that American women aren't now allowed, encouraged, and even pressured at times into being explicitly sexual... but the 'aggressive' part is still considered a derogatory term to apply to a woman over here.
But despite all of that, I've read guides on international business practices and etiquette (for my last employment) that have said that women are still heavily discriminated against in British companies, especially at higher levels. One guide went so far as to suggest not sending women over to conduct sales pitches or any other type of meeting with British counterparts as she would likely be ignored and her ability to speak with authority for her employer would be naturally questioned. Since I'm not a businesswoman, I sort of have to take this on faith, of course, but it rings true. I left the UK with the impression that women had more legal rights than in the US, and more sexual freedoms, but that taking society as a whole, women were largely patronised to if they dared to get into 'serious' (ie. man's) business.
Of course, in many ways its much worse here in the US (despite a more, but not entirely, equal economic playing field), and I don't want to be an accusatory pot.
Man is free; yet we must not suppose that he is at liberty to do everything he pleases, for he becomes a slave the moment he allows his actions to be ruled by passion. --Giacomo Casanova