An interesting piece of research has just been published in the media. Research that I think is extremely reflective of societies view and attitude towards men.

Father's Day ranks last when it comes to spending on gifts.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25983740-5005961,00.html

<What I would like to know is this: which rights currently available to women are at risk of erosion at the hands of our government?
Posted by Otokonoko,>

Good question Otokonoko, I believe this is part of the scare tactics used without any justification, to create a culture of fear and resentment.

Maybe it is just paranoia from reading too many feminist texts.

I guess in Ninas world, women talk and men must only listen and do what the women want. Men must not be allowed to express ideas or opinions that conflict with a womans ideas or opinions, otherwise that is inequality.

In regards to womens' rights being eroded, in Tasmania as in other places there are moves to restrict on demand abortions. The Howard years set women back a couple of decades and the Catholic church continues to put up road blocks making it difficult/ discouraging women from accessing sexual health care.

Perhaps a better example other than the jury example is the fact that gender segregation existed in pubs until the 1970's. Really, Australia? Banning women from the main parts of pubs until then? You can't exactly say women have had equality for all that long- if at all.

"
I guess in Ninas world, women talk and men must only listen and do what the women want. Men must not be allowed to express ideas or opinions that conflict with a womans ideas or opinions, otherwise that is inequality."

As for this, this is ludicrous. Point to a single place where I have said women's voices are MORE important than men's, or for that matter a single place where i have argued for men's rights to be supresed.

And finally, if you want to talk fear mongering- check out Runners comments about Aus transforming into a land of Sharia law bc anglo women are aborting ourselves out of existence, and refusing to pony up and spit out nice white little aussie battlers

ninaf:"gender segregation existed "

and it doesn't exist now.

ninaf:"in Tasmania as in other places there are moves to restrict on demand abortions"

Grasping at straws, nina. Given the child support laws, abortion on demand serves the potential father just as much as the potential mother. It's hardly a gender issue: she has to carry it for 9 months or so, but he faces punitive child support obligations for the next 18 years or so, just as she does. Making abortions more difficult to get has the potential to hurt both of them.

ninaf:"check out Runners comments"

Do I have to? Runner is not in a position to influence anyone, but you are striving mightily to achieve that sort of position for yourself. That means that you have a greater responsibility to measure your words than poor old runner does.

Set yourself a high benchmark, don't settle for the third-rate easy path that so many of your contemporaries are trying to make for themselves.

Otokonoko: “which rights currently available to women are at risk of erosion at the hands of our government?”

All of them.

Cazza: “It is very hard to change the entrenched attitudes of older generations, but once they lose their power, the old discriminations fade away.”

Nice idea Cazza, do you have any evidence for this whatsoever as a properly researched and observable phenomenon? Because by now the planet should be heaven by your reckoning, certainly instances of war and poverty would have diminished world-wide eh? Rape and incest figures should be dropping everywhere and hardly any homosexuals or black people should be being beaten to death as we speak.

Seems to me that a generation of young people who have only lived in & known the bigotry now acceptable in mainstream (Howards’) Australia are nowhere near as open to any kind of change as previous generations were. Hugh Mackay’s observations about the search for the perfect bathroom tile would seem to bear me out in this ;-)

A group of undergraduates last year led a formal delegation to me on the basis that having a homosexual tutor in one subject and an indigenous tutor in another meant that the teaching standards were therefore “naturally going to be lower “ than courses with “proper Australian” tutors; that they were being “discriminated against” simply by being in those tutorials - these students were in an Arts Faculty. Thankfully and with a good deal of effort I eventually won the argument but not before having to systematically challenge all their acquired culture – their parents, their secondary schools, their churches – nobody had ever questioned their learned sexist and racist attitudes logically before. And many young undergraduate women were surprised that anyone would ever question their so called “equality”..until they discovered stuff like date rape and needed the help of professional counselling from other women, provided on campus and fought for thru generation after generation of women concerned about health and welfare...then they started to realise that feminism wasn’t all about wage levels ...

Abortion doesn't have anything to do with gender inequality. There are many reasons for this; I pointed one out earlier (which Nina has either missed or ignored) and now antiseptic has pointed out another reason.

This is a major issue for Nina obviously as she's written about it in her article and now mentioned it again, but the fact that it's unrelated to her central contention makes me question the coherence of her overall argument and wonder whether she even understands the battle she's fighting and the issues she's talking about.

*the Catholic church continues to put up road blocks making it difficult/ discouraging women from accessing sexual health care.*

They certainly do, much of it behind the scenes, globally, for the
Catholic Church has one talent and that is clever lobbying. Few
are aware just how good!

But that is a religious issue.

I am male and I have spent an awfull many posts on OLO arguing with
female Catholic lobbyists, who preach the pope's mantra.