Sorry but after a few very busy days and then yesterday when D, who cleans through the bungalow for me once a month had arranged to come at lunchtime, followed by D and J, who together keep my lawns and garden tidy; add to that a friend for an hour and J - my morning carer and C my Monday evening carer - J 7am to 8am andC 5pm to 6pm and there was not much of the day left for blogging. Or for mulling over what to write about either.
But food for thought really has centred on The Lionesses and their progress through the World Football Championships.
I think it is brilliant the way women have found their place - certainly in the Western World - and in many other countries - Australasia, China, parts of Africa for example- in the World. It is hard to think back for getting on for a Century (gosh - am I really that old?) and to think of any time when I was made to feel inferior or discriminated against because of my sex and female readers I would be interested to hear your views on this. I think perhaps that discrimination is not so obvious in Universities nor in the teaching profession (in my schooldays boys and girls usually went to separate schools from the age of eleven) and thinking back to those days in Grammar School I do remember that girls tended to be pointed in the direction of professions thought 'suitable' for girls - teaching, nursing, to think of two.
But now there has been this giant leap forward to girls not only playing tennis professionally (tennis was always viewed in a rather 'genteel' way) to girls playing FOOTBALL. And 'our' team have always shone in the world.
But I was oddly saddened yesterday to see photos in the newspapers and shots on TV of one of 'our' team actually walking over and treading on the prostrate body of a member of the opposing team in what I can only describe as a 'nonchallant' manner. I haven't actually seen a shot of a male footballer doing that - although it may have happened but my immediate thought (old-fashioned as it may seem) was just that it was such an 'unladylike' thing to do. But no doubt you will say that football is a tough game where ladylike behaviour gets you nowhere.
But I do ask myself does equality of the sexes equate with everyone behaving in the same 'tough' manner -in fact has that stage already been reached in the fight for equal rights? It puzzles me to even think about such things.
I heard on the News at lunchtime that the 'offender' concerned has apologised for her behaviour and I do appreciate that in the heat of the moment we can all do things that with hindsight we wish we hadn't done. And - as would have happened just the same had the offender been a male - red cards and suspension for a number of matches (especially at this stage in the competition) has been implemented.
Female elephants (I have just read a series of books on elephants), just as with lionesses and I suppose all other female animals, will fight to the death and be just as tough as the males to protect their young. So if we accept we are all in this together - all part of the animal kingdom where we are (or think we are) 'top dog' so to speak then that puts a bit of a spanner in the works of my thinking.
Have I got my head round this in the wrong way - help me out please with some of your 'round the table discussions' however far apart we are globally..
.JPG)
20 comments:
Apparently you can do or say anything you want these days and just apologize for it later... That seems to be the way things are done these days be you politician, athlete or just a common citizen.. that seems to be the trend..
I think you have been lucky Pat if it is hard to think of any time where you were made to feel inferior of discriminated against because of being female. If you are a member of a traditional church, you can only go so far in it, though there are more women priests now in some.
You were also in an era when women had to give up work once they were married, though obviously teaching and nursing were different.
Weren't there places in pubs that women in England couldn't go and were relegated to the snug?
I don't think women have 'found' their place, to me they have rightfully reclaimed it, and many are brave bringing sexual assault to the attention of the courts.- Pam.
I love your musings today xx
...my mother and mother in law think its funny to tell how disappointed they were we first-borns were girls. "I cried and cried' says MIL. First taste of being inferior for many and maybe not on your radar Pat? -P.
Women are and have always been tough. We may not have the physical strength of men (although I know of some who could floor a man without breaking a sweat), but in attitude and perseverance, keeping things together when times are really tough, and dealing with everything life throws at them, the women in my family at least, have coped better than the men.
Of course, depriving us of opportunity historically kept women subservient to men, and thankfully that is disappearing. I was brought up in a very un-sexist way, and see the term 'ladylike' as just part of a game between the sexes. There was nothing ladylike about the hockey team of my girls' grammar when the sticks were flying!
Pam when I was at school women had to leave teaching if they married. I think the war put paid to that.
I'm a great follower of women's sport, especially our national football and rugby teams. Apart from yesterday's little treading on incident, both of those sports are played by women in an excellent way and with none of the play acting that you get in the over paid men's sports such as football.
Good on women for now achieving what they are, long may it last.
I attended a boys-only school, and we had occasional hockey matches against the equivalent girls school. To describe those girls as ruthless was a major understatement - they could and did play much harder than any of the boys!
On a related note, in nearly 50 years of working I've always found that the female employees were treated and paid the same as the males in the places that I've worked.
World War II changed the world for men and women, turns out women can do men's jobs, often better, and with fewer accidents. And then the "Pill" came along and women could now decide when and if to have children, which changed everything for women in my opinion. I was lucky to be born in the sixties and have benefitted from those women who came before me and made it easier for me to be a woman.
One thing I do find though in the world, is a constant undercurrent of hatred towards women, which saddens and baffles me. What did we ever do to piss off so many men and even some women?
So many times in my life have I been made to feel unequal or inferior, it would take a while to catalog them all. Wanting to be an altar boy, wanting to take shop or electricity classes, not being allowed to wear certain clothing when going to town...all the way to my professional career as a librarian, when each year Library Journal would publish their salaries review. Every year, male MLIS graduates received higher starting salaries, were promoted more quickly, were hired for administrative positions more often, etc. It was disheartening and infuriating. Sometimes I feel like we have come a long way, yet other times I see how far the road we have yet to travel stretches in front of us.
I saw a very short video of the incident on The News. It did seem totally unnecessary, and wilful. Not really what one expects from our top-ranking sports-people.
I don't think "ladylike" has anything to do with it. Anyone, male or female, should not deliberately attempt to injure a fellow professional and if they do they should receive much stronger punishments than simply missing a game or two. Imagine if the geography teacher fell over and you went and trod on her - no, I can't imagine it either but I suspect there would have been more severe consequences than having another teacher take a lesson for you.
I think also ladylike has nothing to do with it either. Bad behaviour from either gender is just bad behaviour and should be called out. Women have gained a lot over the years, but, we are still different, women are not men and operate with different coding of their mentality and physical abilities. The injustices they have had to face through the patriarchal influences over the centuries is being addressed. Times are a changing, but you would never find me on the football field!
I wouldn’t say unladylike, rather unsporting.
I married right after high school and remember being denied many jobs and was told the reason was that I would get pregnant and quit the job within two years. So I worked as a temp. And they were right I decided to start a family two years later! I had another baby two years after that, then my husband and I started our own business. We only employed older women who were very reliable. I was never discriminated against again. You are right, in the 60s you were told to be a nurse, a teacher, or a secretary, none of them appealed to me, i always wanted to work in retail. I took a special business course for a year after high school and that was very helpful in starting our business.
Thelma - interesting and I do agree - love your last remark - agree with that too although I must say I would have been useless anyway.
John (Stargoose) I too think the punishment should have been stronger - just missing three games doesn't send the right message to spectators worldwide - but let's face ot - there is more involved in these things than sportsmanship.
Cro - you have hit the nail on the head - expressed it much better than I have with the word 'ladylike'
Granny Sue - interesting. It does seem that it really does depend upon ones career path.
Pixie - I have been watching Simon Raven this week going round the Med - and my goodness it has been a very different Med to where the cruise ships go. It has struck me how many of the countries he visited have a very male orientated society - women only ever seem to be seen buying food in the markets!
Derek - I just didn't see the incident as 'little' I'm afraid.
Will - the idea of boys v girls on the hockey pitch brought a laugh from me!!
I have not seen the incident nor do I know about it at all except for reading your blog post. My reaction is that let us hope like Beckham who did something similarly silly and impetuous in his young days when playing for England for all the world to see that this girl learns from it and becomes a much improved person, as Beckham did.
It was "little" Pat and she didn't stamp on the girl, just lightly stood on her. It wasn't an agressive action and the Nigerian girl said after, that she hadn't been hurt. Like all these things it was blown up as worse than it was by the media, with various camera angles making it as bad as they wanted it to look.
Rachel got it about right.
Lack of good judgement happens. Let's hope this was just a one off incident on the playing field. Today, women are rising through the ranks. Women with a top education at a great school combined with a work history of excellence gets well compensated. Choosing a field that is growing also provides excellent opportunities. For example, I know a young women that attended an ivy league school, majored in mathematics and computer science, graduated at the top of her class and then went on to the Harvard Chan School. She works in the biomedical field. She recently married, had a baby and bought a large home to grow her family.
The scene you describe, in my opinion, has nothing at all to do with sexual equality. We live in a very angry, self absorbed time. People, on the whole, seem more aggressively selfish.
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