Men built this system by Ellie Mae O’Hagan

Una nova perspectiva del feminisme molt en línia amb La trampa de la diversidad de Daniel Bernabé.

Men built this system. No wonder gender equality remains as far off as ever

Ellie Mae O’Hagan

With not a single country on track to achieve gender parity by 2030, it’s clear that radical overhaul is required

Tue 4 Jun 2019 11.30 BST Last modified on Tue 4 Jun 2019 14.16 BST

I’m not going to lie; it’s annoying to start one’s week with the news that no country in the entire world is set to achieve gender equality by 2030. Given that our world leaders seem to continually miss targets on every measure put forward to improve things, from climate change to poverty, I’m starting to suspect they don’t really care about anything.

In any case, the UN reports that all but 10 countries have men as heads of government, so I’m tempted to paraphrase Greta Thunberg: we’re not here for you to tell us what you consider is politically possible in the society that you have created. The modern world was created by men, and it shows. The pay gap remains 23%; women are more likely to be in vulnerable work; we have less access to financial institutions; we’re less likely to have workplace protections and benefits; and we spend 2.5 times more of our time on unpaid work – in fact, women do so much unpaid work that if it were paid, it would account for between 10% and 39% of GDP.

The bottom line is that gender inequality is a choice countries are making, not an inevitability. And although a lack of women leaders isn’t helping, let’s not be shallow enough to think that simply putting women in charge of a broken system would fix the problem. Only deep economic change will provide the foundations for gender equality – and perhaps that’s why those who are doing just fine, thank you very much, are dragging their heels.

Britain currently ranks 17 out of 129 across the world, in a chart topped by Denmark. But since no country is set to meet the 2030 target at this point, there’s no reason why Britain can’t leapfrog over the 16 countries above it, achieve gender equality and act as a blueprint for other nations to follow. So how would we do it? Here are some ideas:

An end to austerity and massive investment in the welfare system

(…)

Invest in measures to keep women safe from male violence

(…)

Strengthen trade unions and improve working conditions

(…)

Improve women’s social status

(…)

Go internationalist

(…)

If you’re starting to suspect that these suggestions are less a manifesto and more a list of ways to undermine capitalism, you may be right. But what’s clear from this damning news is that attempting to tackle gender inequality within the current system simply isn’t working. Perhaps it’s time to create a new one.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/07/feminists-advance-prominent-women-metoo

Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd.

VOCABULARY

Overhaul: Renovation, repair

Drag your ˈfeet/ˈheels: Do something very slowly or delay doing something because you do not want to do it: How much longer will the government go on dragging its feet about whether to invest more money in the railways?

Turn away: To refuse admittance or assistance to

bell hooks: Gloria Jean Watkins (born September 25, 1952), better known by her pen name bell hooks, is an American author, professor, feminist, and social activist. Note is used in not capital letters because is a pen name. A pen name (nom de plume or literary double) is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their "real" name.

Darndest / darnedest / damnedest:   The best

No pun intended: The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect.