Sunday 8 March 2015

Capturing the Women's Vote


Happy International Women’s Day! Честит 8-ми март!! Today we celebrate the increased recognition of the power of women's voices, and votes. Make no mistake, many a society has gone far but there is still a winding road ahead and the ultimate destination appears to be a space frontier light years away. Because despite the fact that women are more represented in decision-making bodies, and politicians hug and coo to babies during the campaigns, rarely are issues tackled head on such as unequal pay, free child care, and an honest discussion of who provides social care and how they are remunerated for it. These are not issues that concern only women - they concern and weigh down the household as a whole, the family (defined broadly) as a whole - that is to say, the building  blocks of the society  which demise is an integral part of the lamenting phase ON any political agenda. These are not issues that can be solved solely by increased representation (not equal yet in numerous public and private bodies). Following the political debates during the last few weeks, I could not help but think that for years women have been treated as genies - good at multi-tasking, good at ‘getting the job done’, expected to boost the economy and increase tax revenues through greater labour market participation while still miraculously ticking off 70-80 per cent of domestic chores and struggling to be satisfied with the ‘flexibility’ offered to them. Often this becomes the celebrated ideal - of the ‘good’ genie that participates, and votes, and is heavily involved in any and all workload allocations. Instead we should celebrate the rattling coming from the all-so patriarchal lamp/bottle that one day will be given a rub too far.

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