Gude Cause March

(Copywrite National Library of Scotland)

The long awaited and planned for march wended its way through the streets of Edinburgh yesterday. Estimates for numbers marching varied from 2500 – 3500. I overheard someone say the police thought there was around the 3000 mark.

The event commemorated the 1909 suffragette march where the theme was votes for women. Yesterday the organisers divided participants into three sections.

Violet was for the past which had women dressed in Edwardian outfits, one example being the woman representing Shetland women's suffrage.

White represented the present with groups who are working for women’s equality in all sorts of fields.

Green was for the future, mostly younger people who are doing exciting things in single and mixed sex groups.

The Auld Reekie Roller Girls took the prize for 'attitude', while the Youth Parliament were probably loudest in their calls for votes for 16 year olds.

In amongst all this were several bands and a large choir singing protest songs from the official Gude Cause song book.
http://www.protestinharmony.org.uk/songs/Gude_Cause/index.htm
Some progress can be claimed compared to 100 years ago. The suffragettes could only dream that policewomen would lead a march, the city council would be led by a woman councillor and speeches given by women elected to a devolved Scottish parliament, while women architects, builders and drummers would all turn up and support the event. We can never over estimate the debt we owe our feminist foremothers for what they achieved on our behalf in many cases through great personal sacrifice. But here’s why we still need to campaign.
http://www.gudecause.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/elspeth-king-edinburgh-women-suffrage-procession.pdf

The original march was led by a nine year old girl piper and this was replicated yesterday by Louise Marshall Millington.
However, right at the front, two mounted women police officers rode in advance of the sea of violet, white and green following behind. Green, white and violet were chosen as the suffragette colours standing for “Give Women the Vote”.
Thanks and congratulations are due the organisers for the work they put in over the last two years to make this event such a success. While the whole day was memorable, some things stand out. The elderly woman who stopped me in the street and told me her grandmother was in the original march and had been a militant suffragette, not a wishy washy suffragist!

The young woman who insisted on confessing her feelings of guilt about having never voted. All I could do was to encourage her to just pick a party to vote for or at the very least write something on her ballot slip.

The two young lads who were part of the student film crew who were so excited at the opportunity to be involved in recording the event and be part of this history.

The film director co-ordinating the filming (above) and who had the inspirational idea to have films and pictures uploaded online to make a permanent record. She also brought along media students who were positioned along the route to do interviews with people on the march.

The young Events student who told me she volunteers for everything she can get involved with, but this was the best yet. Another elderly woman who said in wonder that she hadn’t known there were Scottish suffragettes far less that they were so active in the movement. Here is one group trying to prevent our herstory being hidden from us.

Meeting many, many old pals who I just knew would be there. And the realisation, when seeing the massed ranks of long standing feminists from all walks of life in Scotland, how fortunate we are to have such dedicated women making a difference in academia, politics, VAW, education, business, commerce and everywhere in our society including the Public Safety Officer overseeing the event from the City of Edinburgh Council - a professional young woman who stopped to chat to me about her role.

I tried to photograph as many of the wonderful banners as possible before the march set off. Here are a few.

Aren't we all?

Politicians were out in force, with a sizeable contingent of Greens, Labour, SSP and at least three banners from the SNP. The march stopped outside the City Chambers in the High Street to hear words from the leader of City of Edinburgh Council, Jenny Dawe.

The march ended at the top of Calton Hill with speeches and singing. Cathy Peattie MSP led us in singing Bread and Roses, the traditional protest song on these occasions. Fiona Hyslop, Minister for Education spoke of the need for gender equality and the Gude Cause Chairwoman read out messages of support from feminists across the world.

I think that everyone who got dressed up, made banners, or simply turned up and marched should be proud of themselves for making women's equality in Scotland just a little bit closer.

Oop N’awrth

Another of my ‘always wanted to do that’ tick-the-box activities is to visit the mysterious hinterlands adjacent to the M60 motorway. I persuaded Sig Other to accompany me to Bolton, situated on the A666 a short distance from the M60, for a day out in this north England industrial town.

In the centre there is a square outside the rather glorious architecture of the town hall. A temporary exhibition was housed in a marquee in the square. On entering, I found a small, but fascinating display featuring items of interest on the lives of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people which was part of GRT History Month.

http://www.grthm.co.uk/index.php

Like many (I suspect) I am ignorant of the history of these minority ethnic groups in our local and European population and have no appreciation of lives lived, in some cases, so differently from my own. The link above goes to a truly educational site where I spent a considerable time being enlightened and humbled by the history of people who have contributed in many ways to our society.

The Bolton exhibition highlighted some examples of GRT people’s lives in north England where people live(d) and travel(led) on the canal system, while others bring their circuses and fairgrounds round the cities. Other exhibition boards outlined the terrible destruction of GRT lives in the run up to and during the holocaust. The link above gives harrowing details about this often neglected aspect of those years.

On leaving behind the exhibition, we walked about the town centre which in terms of shops is largely interchangeable with anywhere else, except for the statue of Fred Dibnah cast by sculptor Jane Robbins.
http://www.janerobbins.com/gallery.html

Bolton also has a little aquarium in the basement of their library building. It has been there since 1941 and now has a collection of fish from international waters. The long tailed knife fish is particularly impressive.
http://www.boltonmuseums.org.uk/aquarium/fish-collection/giant-green-knifefish/

The countryside around Bolton is hilly and when I visited, it was looking its best in the sun. A run through the hills on windy country roads then back down the A666 completed this day out.

Women in Politics 3

Winnie Ewing

Ten years ago on 12Th May 1999, the Scottish Parliament met for the first time as a democratically elected body. Dr Winnie Ewing opened the first session with some well-chosen words.

The Scottish Parliament, which adjourned on March 25 1707, is hereby reconvened.

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/vli/history/firstDays/1999firstMeeting.htm

The Scottish Parliament was in abeyance for nearly 300 years until devolution and the Scotland Act 1998 legislated for the Parliament to reconvene. The former parliament was feudal and unrepresentative of the people of Scotland. The current version somewhat better but with room for improvement. In its first sitting there was 39.5% female representation, but that has fallen to 33.3% now. So, although the SNP has always had high profile and very effective women in its ranks, it needs to get serious about recruiting more.

Ewing has been in politics for four decades having been elected as SNP MP for Hamilton in 1967. This spectacular and popular electoral victory is profiled in the BBC Alba documentary on her life. She became even more famous as she took her seat in Europe in 1975 where she was known as Madame Ecosse, presumably because she was there to represent Scottish interests and promote European legislation that would benefit her country.

This is a woman who could employ a pertinent turn of phrase. She is reported as commenting at the time of her Hamilton election victory “stop the world, Scotland wants to get on”.

On taking her seat in the Commons, she noted, “a shiver ran along the Labour front bench looking for a spine to run up.”

The BBC Alba documentary on Winnie Ewing is on YouTube in several parts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaXMT_7wmXs&feature=related

At 79 she is today, returning to Holyrood to see her portrait unveiled as part of the celebration of ten years of devolution. http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/nmCentre/news/news-09/pa09-013.htm

Kirkish stramash

There’s nothing like a good schism to get the theological juices flowing. Sadly, what is happening in the Kirk is absolutely nothing like a good (potential) schism. This stramash is over the appointment of a minister who is living with his male partner and this is unacceptable to a vocal minority of traditionalists and conservatives (conservative minorities are often vocal).

The protesting minority in this case are under the umbrella of The Fellowship of Confessing Churches, whose covenant contains the following:
We recognize God’s creation of humankind as male and female and the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family. We acknowledge the great harm that has come from our failures to maintain this standard, and we repent and call for a renewed commitment to lifelong fidelity in marriage and abstinence for those who are not married.
http://www.confessingchurch.org.uk/

Not surprisingly with such inflexible notions, they are agin any minister who chooses to live with his or her same sex partner. They have set up an online list of signatories who are equally agin this sort of thing. 6000 people have signed it, and counting .

What interested me when I saw this news was curiosity as to whether an old boyfriend of mine, who became a minister, had signed it. It took a while to casually trawl through this number of names, but I got caught up in it and began to notice the odd name I knew from churches in the town I grew up in. Delightfully, the minister of the church that I joined several decades ago and which still insists on sending me newsletters has not signed. Neither did I find the name of old boyfriend, which surprised me a little, because umpteen years ago when I knew him his intolerant attitudes to women were a prime cause of his dumpedness. I have to hope he matured into a decent human being (being a Christian is no guarantee of tolerance).

While engaged on my self-appointed mission to inspect the names, several things are worthy of comment.

Vast numbers of people signed as Mr & Mrs Reactionary, whose joint signing would only count as one person. I tried to fathom why this was not apparent to all those people. I idly speculated that perhaps Mrs R snuck onto hubbie’s computer and signed him up too. Alternatively, that Mr R was making the old time biblical assumption that as woman is part of man (Adam’s rib and all that) then her individual signature would not count anyway. Or maybe they are so dim or unused to online protest that they didn’t think it through. I’m rather grateful, as I’d have taken even longer to scroll through if all these conjoined pairs had separated long enough to complete the online process to register their individual protest.

Of the 6000, far too many were women. It is fairly well known that amongst churchgoers there are more women than men, so depressingly more women jumped up and signed. If only they would use their energy to further the position of women in society by working from within their congregations then we could all admire them more.

Best of all was the section reserved for Non-Church of Scotland signatories. Some people have gained PhD’s in this subject, so I’ll not be trying to analyse this in any depth, but I found it all fascinating. In fact I once worked with a woman whose thesis was on church schisms, therefore I was prepared for the presence of the Free Church of Scotland, the United Free Church (my grandmother attended this), and the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) (with and without brackets).

However, the Presbyterians had more varieties than I knew of. There was a hefty presence from the Associated Presbyterians, but fewer from the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Previously, I only knew of Presbyterians.

The Pentecostals were out in some force and included, for listing purposes, those who claimed membership of Pentecostal/Charismatic, while others were solely Charismatic. There were extremely few Methodists, or Roman Catholics, and sundry members of small local gatherings. While the Brethren were better represented with Open Brethren, Christian Brethren, and Christian Brethren – Evangelical.

Considerably more numerous were the Baptists, whose passion for the truth can be divined from the array of versions. There were plain old Baptists, Scottish Baptists, Zion Baptists, Reformed Baptists, Independent Baptists, Independent Reformed Baptists and the intriguingly named Strict Baptists. Did those last named wander into this looking for a more arcane discussion?

In the section reserved for those signatories from other parts of the world, the first up were the Southern Baptists. I was obscurely comforted by that.

Finally, there were those who tried to cover all bases or maybe couldn’t make up their minds. I include in this list, the Interdenominational, Multi Denominational and the Non-Denominational.

Ultimately, this all forces people to consider their views on tolerance of people's lifestyles and just because someone who avers a calling to the ministry in the Kirk, happens to have a particular relationship preference should not provoke this international storm of reactionary outpouring. Rather I hope an open discussion will help more in the Kirk to live up to their espoused Christian tolerance for difference and equality.

Women and Politics 2

Dave protecting his Tory clones from infiltration by non-white, non-males.

This wasn’t in my original plan to write about women politicians, but I’m not about to resist commenting on the Times quaint half-hearted moan about Call Me Dave and his lack of ladies.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6182399.ece

Dave, it turns out, had made some encouraging noises about increasing the number of women candidates for the next Westminster election. He had some vague plans about one in three ministers being female sometime after his lot win at Westminster. Judging by the picture above, he's not been successful to date.

Tory ladies have previous. I suspect many non-rightwing inclined voters will mostly recall the various exploits of Maggie and then Edwina. Then there is Anne. Even though I cannot imagine holding any views in common, I always found Anne Widdicome an interesting and colourful political personality. More recently there was Caroline and her childcare, with which I have some understanding. One of the seven demands of the Women's Liberation Movement is free accessible 24 hour childcare and even though this may not have been part of Ms Spellman's motives for paying her assistant for providing childcare, at least she did not expect this to be on tap by the woman. Childcare, whoever the mother is, is always a difficulty and it should always be paid for, whatever job the mother is employed in. I'd much prefer to subsidise childcare over second homes and other 'expenses'.

In this country, the estimable Annabel Goldie is usually in fine form leading the Tory contingent in Holyrood, but otherwise, there’s not an overwhelming womanly presence in the prospective Tory ranks and little hope of increasing numbers in the short term. Mostly their problem is the same as faced by aspirational women in all parties: the boys shout louder, the collaboratrices pull the rug from under their sisters and few if any have a clue about the importance of 50:50 representation. Instead, the pale, male and stale whine on about positive discrimination as though they didn’t operate this themselves.

The selection procedures in most parties do not mean that we get people who are picked on their merit, but are more likely to produce the time-honoured numbers of mediocre white males who are chosen via the old school tie, shared football/sports affiliation or the correct funny handshake or whatever other ‘fair’ route into power for the lads is employed. And no one can seriously argue that we have anything other than the calibre of politicos that we deserve in this democratic deficit culture.

We're not convinced by this tokenism, Dave!

Sexist split infinitive

Those who are unapologetic, nay, proud to label themselves Trekkies will automatically identify the subject of this post from the title. Those of us who formerly bashfully called ourselves Trekkers, will also have an inkling of what is to come.*

While the terminally pedantic will point out that the whole split infinitive argument is … er, well, I lost the will to live long enough to decipher whether it is a split infinitive, or if the whole split infinitive discussion is sooooo 2 centuries ago, and none of that matters now, so just make up your own mind. Whatever it is, it is sexist, which might have been almost excusable in the 60’s when ST:TOS** originated, but not in 2009. Of course, another search aspect during which I lost the will to live was to ascertain if the (potential split infinitive warning) “Boldly going where no man has gone before”, is actually used in the new film or not. Much more egalitarian and inclusive is “Boldly going where no sentient being has ever gone before” at least it is in my equalities overloaded cranium where split infinitives take a negative warp-factor 10 backseat to politically correct grammar.

This dismal excuse for blogging about the new ST film is so that I can nit-pick about the lack of female characters in contrast with Rodenberry’s very first pilot where Majel Barrett was first officer and the (for the time) groundbreaking casting of Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) in the first series. I noted in a previous blog that Majel Barrett lived long enough to record her customary role as computer voice in this (possibly) final ST film outing, but it appears that otherwise female roles are scarce this time round. Feminists will readily acknowledge that this is more evidence that in some key areas, women’s progress towards fully recognised humanity has been put into reverse in comparison to 40 years ago. That’s a blog for some future date.

One of the first accidental discoveries I made when going online in the early 90’s was that ST:TOS mainly, but also other parts of the franchise, were mainstays of the burgeoning slash fiction genre. I’d first encountered this phenomenon courtesy of Joanna Russ in an academic essay on Kirk/Spock zines in the 80’s but had not read any. Call me fussy, but after a memorable afternoon reading quantities of this online I’ve never bothered again. And the purist in me cannot cope with crossover slash fiction. That would be where enthusiasts mix their series or genre and have stories in which say Highlander meets Buffy. Just not my idea of entertainment. If none of this is making sense, then you really need to further your education at this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slash_fiction

To continue this theme. Jean-Luc Picard and Gandalf were performing together in Edinburgh last week. Apparently, this was not crossover slash but some boring play by some boring boy playwright. They were joined by the bloke who died in a kilt in that film “Four Weddings and a Hugh Grant”. Still, apparently not slash.
http://www.list.co.uk/event/89151-waiting-for-godot/

If you are still mystified by all this or have thus far managed to avoid the whole ST franchise, then this link takes you to as good a review of the film as any. Of course, I’ve not yet seen the film, but that will be rectified when it arrives in Edinburgh.
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/showbiz/23740-new-star-trek-is-a-superbly-entertaining-return-to-its-tv-origins

*OMG!!!!!!!! I did a Word spell check and discovered that Microsoft (at least on my comp) corrects Trekkies to Trekkers – you just know what this says about Microsoft employees.

** Jargon buster for the wilfully untrekked
ST:TOS – Star Trek, the original series
ST:TNG – The Next Generation
And so on and so forth.

“He’s deid captain, stane deid, nae pulse…”
http://digg.com/d1A3Q0

Just appreciate …
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/8822/nichelle.html

Equal representation

This feels a bit like ‘old news’ but in the land of uber-misogyny that is UK politics, it never gets completely resolved.

It is not just the lack of opportunity to stand for election that women are faced with, nor is it just the rigid macho style of adversarial party politics, but it is the relentless moaning, groaning and criticism that women politicians are faced with which must deter many capable women of all shades of political opinion.

Clinton is an excellent case study in this regard. During her presidential campaign, her every move, word and outfit was poured over in minute detail almost all of it from a sexist commentariat more concerned with slapping down uppity women than analysing her policies. The ever dependable Robin Morgan sums it up in her article for Women’s Media Centre:

“When a sexist idiot screamed “Iron my shirt!” at HRC, it was considered amusing; if a racist idiot shouted “Shine my shoes!” at BO, it would’ve inspired hours of airtime and pages of newsprint analyzing our national dishonor.”

http://www.womensmediacenter.com/ex/020108.html

More locally, in Edinburgh East, the Labour incumbent is retiring at the next Westminster election and Labour has proposed an all women shortlist. This has caused a depressingly familiar reaction amongst some in the male Scottish and otherwise attempting-to-be-fair-and-balanced (in their ain heids) blogosphere and I’m not going to credit any with links because of their persistent lack of gender awareness.

“In Edinburgh, women activists are pressing their case, circulating a document showing that only one of the 18 Labour MPs in the capital since 1918 has been a woman – Lynda Clark, who represented Edinburgh Pentlands between 1997 and 2005.”

http://news.scotsman.com/scottishlabourparty/39Women-only39-call-to-Labour.4493769.jp

To call that a shocking democratic deficit doesn’t begin to articulate the impediments facing aspiring women in that party. Not that many other large parties are substantially better in representation. Until people understand that the lack of women’s representation is a waste of talent and a neglect of women’s voices nothing will particularly change. If you feel able to, simply take a look at the frothing at the mouth comments below that Scotsperson article for a sadly all too common spewing of misogyny.

This attitude affects many males and irritatingly, a fair amount of women across the political spectrum. Some exception is discernible in smaller parties such as the Greens and the Scottish Socialists.

http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/stories/womenspace.html

http://www.scottishgreens.org.uk/site/5335/Women_s_Network.html

The SNP, however are not notably au fait with feminism and a cursory exploration of their (not very user-friendly website) did not produce any signs of a women’s section although there is a youth section. The article below I think is representative of their benign indifference to equal representation. That said, they have always had high profile women politicians and the deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon, is female.

http://www.snp.org/node/8725

And the Tories – aw, bless!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article4969398.ece

Engender has long campaigned for equal representation. Their website contains a comprehensive article on the issue.
http://www.engender.org.uk/projects/38/Power_and_Participation.html

The Rights of Woman

The Rights of Woman

While Europe’s eye is fixed on mighty things,
The fate of empires and the fall of kings;
While quacks of state must each produce his plan,
And even children lisp, the Rights of man;
Amid this mighty fuss, just let me mention,
The Rights of Woman merit some attention.

Burns

As well as his oft quoted "A man's a man for a' that", and other egalitarian verses, Burns occasionally forebore from romantically addressing the lassies to ponder, albeit momentarily, on a vaguely proto-equality message as exhibited above.

Heteronormative phallocentric piffle

Heteronormative is my word du jour, having recently learnt it from reading radical feminist websites. Unsurprisingly, Word spellcheck doesn’t recognise it, so here is a definition:

HETERONORMATIVITY (heteronormative): Those punitive rules (social, familial, and legal) that force us to conform to hegemonic heterosexual standards for identity. "

This explosion of polysyllability was induced during a visit to the Manchester Art Gallery to see the Holman Hunt exhibition. Hunt was a prominent figure in the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and this exhibition gathered together a range of his work. The Pre-Raphaelites used to be a favourite but the more varied art I view, the less I find to praise in this movement. I can appreciate the quality of the artistry, but the subjects are too sentimental for my current tastes. Hunt’s are of particular interest because of his religious overtones. For example, in the Awakening Conscience, he depicts his interpretation of a “fallen” woman.

The quotes below are from a deconstruction of the painting.

"The Awakening Conscience is a fine example of popular Victorian painting. It tells a story. Its theme is the fate of the fallen woman. Many details are intended to be read symbolically. The moral message is stern and strongly disapproving.
There's a ring on every finger except the "wedding finger". She is a kept woman, entirely dependent on the support and whim of the man. If he rejects her, she is likely to resort to prostitution in order to survive.
The soiled, discarded white glove on the floor symbolizes the woman's fate if she stays with her lover." Ref: Robert Cumming's Annotated Art , DK Publishing, 1995

It is fair to say I was most Victorianly not amused by this.

Other Pre-Raphaelites in the Manchester Gallery include Rossetti (the bloke, not his more admirable sister). Some of the notes beside his paintings gave me the distinct impression of a sleazy over-entitled male, which I'm sure was not the intention. For example, his Astarte Syriaca has these comments:

"Astarte was an Ancient Middle Eastern goddess, an earlier, more malign version of Venus, the Classical goddess of love. Above her head is her emblem, the eight-pointed star, and behind this the sun and moon meet. These are symbols of her power over nature. In legend, Astarte's girdle made her an irresistible force and Rossetti has conveyed this by cramming the picture space so that it seems as if Astarte might stride out of the painting and confront you, half-threatening, half-alluring. Astarte has idealised feminine features that recur in Rossetti's paintings: soulful eyes, sensuous rosebud mouth and luxuriant, flowing hair, based during this period on the features of Jane Morris, his friend's wife."

Not a Pre-Raphaelite painter, but hanging opposite Astarte Syriaca is Sappho by Charles-August Mengin which has this explanation on the card beside it:

"The painting has an intense sexual charge intended to appeal to male viewers visiting the officially endorsed Paris Salon exhibition. Its eroticism was legitimised for them by the meticulous finish of fine brushstrokes and the scholarly reference to Classical history."

So much for heteronormativity and the male gaze; could these descriptions not have alternative notes written by informed radical feminists? I'd really enjoy myself reading those but instead, public art galleries remain places of mild disgust to me, owing to the preponderance of pudenda and nipples parading as “high art”. It is the basic dishonesty that is so insulting; these are paintings for men by men, often with the explicit double standard of female objectification and moralistic control of women's agency. And yet, we are expected to admire this as 'art' and to swallow an extremely slanted patriarchal analysis of what we are looking at. More erudite feminists than I have expounded on this subject, notably the Guerrilla Girls.
From their website:

"In 1985, (in the USA) a bunch of female artists, incensed by an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art that included 165 artists but only 17 women, founded the Guerrilla Girls. Dubbing ourselves “The Conscience of the Artworld,” we started making posters that bluntly stated the facts of discrimination and used humour to convey information, provoke discussion and to show that feminists can be funny. We assumed the names of dead women artists, and began wearing gorilla masks when we appeared in public, concealing our true identities and focusing on the issues rather than on our personalities."

http://www.guerrillagirls.com/admin/moreherstory.shtml

Manchester Art Gallery has a painting by the first woman to be admitted as an associate of the Royal Academy - Annie Swynnerton, a Manchester lass. The gallery has one of her paintings on display, although disappointingly, no image of it on their website. However, below is their description which differs from my perception of it. In fairness, I didn’t warm to this particular painting, but some of her other paintings which are more to my taste.

Manchester Art Gallery has this to say about the Swynnerton on display:
"Montagna Mia means 'My Mountain'. Natural features in a landscape are often personified by the humans who live near them. The painting may show a protective mountain 'spirit', but breasts and arms metamorphosing into peaks create an ambiguous, erotic, perhaps symbolic image. Is Montagna Mia waiting to be conquered?"
http://www.manchestergalleries.org/the-collections/search-the-collection/display.php?EMUSESSID=eeb6690341ca67e575aba7014dbe44de&irn=3904 Above is a Swynnerton painting I do like.

Here is a link to the Society of Women Artists history page which discusses the difficulties of women being admitted to the Royal Academy. Other pages on their site contain glorious art by women.
http://www.society-women-artists.org.uk/History.html

Holman Hunt Exhibition http://www.manchestergalleries.org/whats-on/exhibitions/index.php?itemID=45

Who’s Who?

So the boy David has cast aside his role as Dr Who.

I’m not normally someone who complains about change, but I liked Eccleston so much as the first of the revamped Dr’s Who that it took me till the end of the first Tennant series to accept him in the role. Then I really enjoyed Tate as the companion only to have her forget all her wondrous adventures at the end of the last series. There is not much hope of her coming back from that in the way there could be a convenient resurrection had she only died, rather than have her memories and experiences obliterated. This means I am not looking forward to getting used to yet another Dr, especially as there will be a new producer and new companion as well.

Parts of the blogosphere are in full speculative mode about the next doctor. Lots of names being bandied about, but what is all too clear is that we won’t be getting a woman doctor any time soon. At least not if the producers listen to the multitude of sexist comments in response to anyone suggesting women for the role.

Best suggestion I’ve seen so far is Joanna Lumley. I’d be in favour of her, with a suitable pretty boy as sidekick. In fact any woman of mature years to bring wisdom, grace and elegance instead of frantic running around hoping to avoid nasty aliens.

There is a depressing and predictable parallel to the rejection by loud (mostly non-female) bloggers/commenter's in all of this and I fear we are as likely to get a woman Dr Who as we are to get a woman as president of the US of A voted in on her own ticket. Not until the prevailing levels of sexism dwindle, but I can't see that happening any time soon, not given the permanent backlash against women's liberation.

Money Talk

I ventured forth to listen to a talk on poverty. The gendered nature of poverty to be more precise.

It turns out that women’s experience of poverty is very different from that of the male. Well, there’s no surprise there as practically everything is experienced through the lens of one’s own gender and therefore, through gendered differences. While I would be amongst the first to agree with Germaine Greer on the whole sex /destiny business, it remains worthwhile to explore how and why gender makes a difference, especially when faced with the extra burdens poor women deal with.

Ruth Lister gave a short, but concise talk on the relationship between poverty and gender this afternoon. Professor Lister discussed the findings of a few recent studies on poverty and gender. These inevitably found that women and their male partners view personal spending quite differently. For example, fathers interpret spending on the kids as mum’s personal spending, while his beer money is his personal spending. This means that when she buys the kids some clothes he sees it as her money, not his or their joint money. Okay, I probably need to qualify that, as some fathers.

It is well known that women can be thrown into poverty when a male partner leaves her with his debts and she has to cope with reduced income and fewer options for employment. Professor Lister said this had been described as STDs, or ‘sexually transmitted debts’. Anyone who has seen a friend in this situation, or indeed been put into this situation herself will instantly recognise that description.

Another useful phrase I learned is that of the 'sticky floor'. While we usually hear about the glass ceiling, many more women face the situation of not being able to get off the sticky floor of low paid, low status work in the 4 C’s. (Catering, Caring, Cleaning and Cash Register).

Women’s poverty is often hidden as stats on income tend to assume that the income in a household is fairly shared. Well, it’s not and it does not take much common sense to work that one out! Unless that is, you come from a political standpoint of belief in traditional family values and other such naive and wilful thinking.

Poverty in old age is the likely outcome for so many women who have spent their lives in activities not valued by our present capitalist system. Pensions policy has to be continually monitored in case it further damages women, and groups like the women’s budget groups in Scotland and in England keep close track of these issues and lobby Scottish and Westminster Governments on their policies.

On the whole, I feel equally positive and enraged after this talk. We are making progress, but as usual it is a long and sometimes bitter struggle to get financial equality.

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ss/staff/staff_biog/lister.html

http://www.wbg.org.uk/