Dear Poirot and Suse,

Controversial discussions certainly bring out
the worst in some people as this forum has
shown us over the years. Prejudice is a
learned trait. You're not born prejudiced.
You're taught it. Prejudice is also a great
time saver. You can have opinions without
having to get the facts. This is particularly
helpful to people who have delusions of
adequacy.

Well put Foxy : )

Sooo much inadequacy displayed by contributors who regularly feel the need to try to howl down intelligent comments, without actually having anything at all to say on the actual subject matter.

Most feminists strike fear into the Neanderthal hearts of these charming people....

When my wife went to University the only professions available for educated woman were librarian, nursing or teaching. While she was at university a new profession opened up so she became an occupational therapist.

In my estimation she would have made a top-notch mathematician, but that was not a profession available for women at the time.

My mother was a school teacher who had to quit her job when she got married as the school district would not employ married women.

My granddaughters all have the opportunities to be anything they have the capability to become. That fact is the product of the struggle for equal rights for women has made great changes in the status of women. In many cases women still do not get equal pay for equal work so fairness dictates we must continue to work for equal rights for women in the world. Girls all over the world should have the same opportunities for education as boys. I don't see how anybody who is for a fairgo can be against feminism.

Foxy,

I don't disagree with anything in that article.

While I can't comment on your experience, my experience in my line of work is that women do very well to start and are on the same level of pay etc, and move quickly into management particularly 5 chemical engineers that I have worked with. However, as you move up the ladder the jobs become 50-60 hrs/wk with late nights and weekends and these engineers' careers have been derailed in their early 30s when they decided to have children, have taken 1 yr off and have come back to work looking for 2-3 days a week with no overtime work. Not one of these women are in the positions they left even though they could have if they wanted.

The reality of life is that you can't have it all.

Dear Suse,

Thanks for that.

I find my health improving if I simply don't respond
to these people and read any of their rants.
It is troll like behaviour devised to stir.
Nothing productive is every achieved by them.

I suppose that if people in general and women in particular are distancing themselves from the label of feminist as Foxy states then there can be one of two reasons:

1) they do not support the philosophical basis of feminism enough (or at all) to want to acknowledge that as part of their everyday interaction with other people and to incorporate that into their lifestyle.

2) the advocates and authoritative supporters of the philosophical basis of feminism have failed to convince people to begin to either see themselves as feminists or continue to see themselves as feminists.

There could be other reasons but I am not aware of them.

I find that when I ask the question “which females are you talking about” that I can engage in a much more meaningful and honest discussion about addressing the causes of a particular inequality or discrimination.