Why spoil the use of the inflammatory 'tokenism'. Emotive phrases sell papers, magazines, books.

Patriarchy for Dummies
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2010/07/24/patriarchy-for-dummies/

In the modern day women are assumed to have earned their place on merit which is a good thing.

In the past many females had to work twice as hard and be twice as good to break the glass ceiling but that has changed. Inept and tyrannical female managers can achieve as much success as their inept and tyrannical male counterparts for the most part - it is about knowing how to play the game once you know what the game is.

On the positive side, good women and men have helped to inject a more consultative and nuturing style of management over the last 20 years - at least on paper.

The time has truly past when tokenism influenced recruitment decisions.

Tokenism is not always wrong if a competent woman, disabled person, ethnic, Indigenous person is placed in a role of responsibility during a time when this would not be enough to push such an applicant over the line.

If women are so good at work, then how come the majority retire so early (about 50 on average).

If women are so good at work, then how come nearly every patent and piece of technology is developed by a male.

"placing interpersonal skills, listening skills and accuracy in work - at which research shows that more women excel"

I would like to see this research. Never heard of it before.

If feminists didn't spread so much miss-information, lie, exaggerate, carry out bigotry and prejudice, carry out advocacy research, hide information, carry out brain washing and indoctrination, and carry out so much male denigration and misandry, then maybe some of what they say is believable

vanna,

Some of us women don't give a toss about the politics of male verses female - we just get on with life unencumbered by such notions.
If women retire early from their "job", it's because they have the good sense in their middle-years to embrace "life" outside a rigid concept of workplace - not being one dimensional n'all.

The author makes sound arguments for an affirmative action framework rather than a "token woman" perspective.

Lately I've heard it asked of some public feminists, what will it mean for women if Gillard is not elected as PM? To a woman, they have bemoaned the possible loss of the opportunity to have our first female PM.

This is what I call inverted tokenism. There is no discussion about whether or not Gillard is offering policies that will encourage us to vote for her. There is no discussion of the increasing shift to the right Gillard is demonstrating, and that a shift to the right has never done women much good.

We have good reason to believe Gillard challenged parental leave, and pension increases, both of which seriously affect women. Yet we should support her because of her gender?

None of these aspects are publicly discussed by Gillard's feminist supporters. She is a woman, it's about time we had a female PM, and hell, what do policies and direction matter in the face of her being female? She'll be right.

In my lifetime I have fought ferociously for women's rights. I was one of the first single woman in this country to get a mortgage without a male guarantor. I am outraged at this so-called "feminist" attitude that because she is a woman we should overlook everything else, such as her policies and lack of direction.

This is not what I fought for. I want a woman in the job but I want a woman who demonstrates she can do the job, and is a supporter of other women.

This morning I heard a feminist on the airwaves claiming that it was dreadful that the media was claiming that Julia was being "saved" by a man - Rudd. Another example of men taking over. What I wanted to say was, who else is it that is guiding her every move, if not a contingent of blokes? How many women are there with the "faceless men" pulling the Gillards strings?

Enough, already. Feminists should weep.

Poirot,

We could all retire at 50, but someone has to pay for the pensions.

Maybe feminist with all their "talk" of tokenism could come up with something that provides a lot of tax, so anyone over 50 can retire.

That would be constructive, rather than the normal alienation of the genders that seems to saturate feminism.

But I have to get back to my second job.