Women don’t need to prove equality is worth something, they just need to insist on having it - Women's Agenda

Women don’t need to prove equality is worth something, they just need to insist on having it

I read a report the other day, which claimed that domestic violence costs Australia $21.7 billion dollars a year.

Another analysis from last month said the global economy would grow by $28 trillion in the next ten years if women’s participation in the work force was equal to men’s.

I have a rough idea how someone would make such calculations, but the more interesting point is why someone would do it.

All those reports of billions and trillions of dollars to be saved or made are not directed at women, who already know all too well that gender inequality damages them. The reports are written for men, who still sit in most of the seats of power. It’s meant to prove to them that it’s worth their while to support change.

The problem with it is that they know it isn’t.

The domestic violence figure isn’t new, an Access Economics report from 2004 put the figure at $8 billion and the only response from government over the last ten years has been to cut funding to domestic violence services. It seems that potential savings don’t mean much without a powerful lobby group.

No matter how much we talk about how men will benefit from changing gender inequality, the truth is that they will lose as much as they gain.

Earlier this year Bill Shorten promised to increase the number of Labor MPs to 50% by 2025. It was an odd commitment, because Labor is already at 45%. It’s going to take another ten years to give that extra 5%? No, it’s probably not. But Shorten had to take a softly softly approach because if he did what say, Justin Trudeau did, and just mandated 50%, some of the men in the ALP would have to step back. Some of the next round of preselections would have to go to women, so the men who are hoping or even expecting to get them would miss out.

There is only a finite number of seats in parliaments, on boards, panels, CEO positions, local council seats, literary award shortlists, person of the year awards, magistrate’s robes, editor’s chairs, news anchor seats and senior sergeant jobs. All those positions of power that rich, white, able bodied men have filled for all of human history are not an infinite resource. Every time one person gets one of those spots, lots of other people miss out.

A million in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Men are not going to just step back and happily give up their places to women, people of colour, people with disabilities or any of the other groups denied power, why would they? They have everything tangible to lose and only an unknown intangible to gain.

So if they’re not going to do it voluntarily, the only other option is for them to do it because they’re forced to.

And the unpalatable truth for men is that they are being forced to. Women have been waging this battle for hundreds of years. And slowly, very slowly, we’re winning.

Every time another woman cracks another glass ceiling, every preselection won, every Walkley, Franklin, Sports Illustrated, TIME, CEO award given, every successful rape case, AVO granted, sexual harassment case won, every promotion, every strong woman’s voice heard in the public debate, every tiny step forward is another tiny chip off a large wall. And every step forward made by one woman makes the next step for the next woman that little bit easier.

Women will not achieve equality because men gave it to us, it will happen because we insisted on having an equal place in the world and refused to take no for an answer. We have been learning perseverance for a thousand generations, we’re not going to give up just because the fight isn’t easy. 

×

Stay Smart! Get Savvy!

Get Women’s Agenda in your inbox