'She was created to be the toy of man, his rattle'

We live in a world full of division. The rich are divided from the poor. The Black are divided from the White. The Christians are divided from the Muslims and the theists are divided from the athiests.

It has been a good few decades now since the women's liberation movement was in full swing and yet, without doubt, women are still divided from men. Women still earn less than men. Women still do most of the housework. Women are still expected to do most of the child rearing. Women are still socially excluded from men's activities. I don't think that the feminist movement is dead yet and I believe it still has some way to go in both the developed and less developed worlds.

In Europe "Women still earn 15% less than men on average, compared with 17% in 1995, despite being better educated"1. Europe could be said to be the most socially liberal area of the world and yet in six European countries (including Brtiain) women still earn 20% less than men. The problem of women lacking education has been well and truly adressed (60% of university graduates in Europe are women) but a glass celing seems to have lingered in our male dominated societies. In Europe only 19.6%2 of parliamentarians are women. A lot has been done since Germain Greer wrote the Female Eunuch and Betty Friedan wrote the Feminine Mystique but many of the problems they discussed still stain our society today. It is a myth that feminism has done all it can in the developed world. I believe that men and women in Europe and the rest of the developed world need to stand together to demand equal rights for women but that is not all.

Germaine Greer talked of the social condition inflicted upon young women and girls from an early age, she talked about the sexual submission of women, she talked about the lack of freedom allowed to women and yet we see the same problems today.

Girls are still told that they must look beautiful to be accepted. Mums still fuss over their daughters appearance more than their sons, they still overprotect their daughters and don't allow them from having the same ambitions as their male counterparts. A promiscuous male is still admired by his peers but his female counterpart is still rejected, called a slag and often left friendless. Girls still suffer accutely from eating disorders3, weight related depression and are constantly being bombarded with ways to improve themselves or, more accurately, how they look to others. Why is it that women (and more and more men) pay thousands to have their bodies changed surgically?

From a personal perspective: I have never met a girl who doesn't worry about her weight. It scares me how often girls think about how they look rather than who they are and it scares me more that men (including, though i hate to admit it, myself) still often judge a girl on their looks first and everything else after. Men are bombarded with the message that a 'fit', 'buff' or 'hot' girlfriend is better than a clever, funny or sporty one.

"Girls are constantly exposed to images of very thin women, a body shape that is not normal or healthy, and strive to obtain this shape, which in most cases is not attainable." Dr Jones. University of Toronto.

In the developed world we face the same problems that Germain Greer faced. It is not that women don't have the rights, in general they do. It is the aftermath of centuries of patriarchical oppression that still needs to be revised. Women have the power and possibility to make the 'final leap' to equality and men must also play their part. The country I live in is not right until women truly enjoy the same privileges as men, until pay is fair and until all women (and men) can be loved and love themselves for who they are and not what they look like.

I wish I knew exactly what to do, but I don't. Maybe my best chance is to have kids. ha!

The world at large is far behind the West in terms of female emancipation and I think it is time that 'Women of the world Unite' and stand up to patriarchy, to female circumsision, to the death penalty for adultory and to the compulsory wearing of Hijab. No one anywhere should have laws dictating the type of clothes they should wear. The world should not rest until those 80% of female prisoners in Pakistan,who have been convicted of 'Fornication',4are released. Women all over the world and men next to them must say 'NO' to unjust laws and patriarchical society.

I would like to leave you with a final piece of infomation, provided by the United Nations:

'In the world as a whole, women compromise 51% of the population, do 66% of the work, recieve 10% of the income and own less than 1% of the property'

1)http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6904434.stm

2) http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm

3) http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/e/eating_disorders/stats-country.htm

4) The Economist, May 19th 2007.