Unlike some men I am very happy to admit when I am wrong and when I am confused and it is the latter I own up to in this instance. A press release from the council last week titled ‘Wyndham City Takes A Stand” urged everyone to participate in the movement to end violence against women. No arguments here, or from any rational and sane human being I would have thought.
The release encourages all residents to support the Women’s Heath West 16-day Activist Challenge.
The release also says the council is developing a gender equality strategy. Seems to me that this activist challenge is exactly that, and council is simply rubber stamping this organisation and its agenda. That might not be a bad thing. The list of challenges includes looking for gender bias in movies and television, reflecting on who does what chores around the house, addressing the gender pay gap, recognise the media’s promotion of harmful gender stereotypes and call out the myths about violence against women. Again no argument.
My concern is that there is a retrospective blame that is not in the best interests of anyone. We can’t change the past, so why waste time and energy? Encourage open communication and debate without recrimination, a heavy-handed attitude from either gender is not helpful or healthy. If either party is too intimidated to speak, no progress will be made.
Starting today, make gender equality the norm. My 12-year-old son is being brought up with that mindset, as are his peers, so it will not be an issue. Use the mistakes of the past to help forge a new social order, where gender is not an advantage or disadvantage in any way. That is not going to happen overnight, so let’s all be patient and work towards achieving this goal harmoniously. There will be resistance, disagreements and anxiety, but nothing that cannot be resolved amicably.
To council, one final observation, maybe it would be a good idea to have a male and a female as spokespersons on this subject in the future, if you are going to practise what you preach.
