Women's rights Archives - Opher's World

Women’s rights – A list of countries showing when they allowed women to vote.

Posted on June 6, 2018June 6, 2018 by Opher

It is quite sobering to look at the year when women were allowed the vote.

Here is a list. It’s a bit crude because there are instances where aboriginals were still denied voting rights.

It is quite shocking to see countries such as Switzerland not allowing females to vote until 1971!!

To think that some countries only gave women the right to vote in the last couple of decades!!

There is much that needs doing in order to gain equality throughout the world.

Well done New Zealand!! Shame upon so many countries!!

1893 New Zealand
1902 Australia¹
1906 Finland
1913 Norway
1915 Denmark
1917 Canada²
1918 Austria, Germany, Poland, Russia
1919 Netherlands
1920 United States
1921 Sweden
1928 Britain, Ireland
1930 South Africa³
1931 Spain
1934 Turkey
1944 France
1945 Italy
1947 Argentina, Japan, Mexico, Pakistan
1949 China
1950 India
1954 Colombia
1957 Malaysia, Zimbabwe
1962 Algeria
1963 Iran, Morocco
1964 Libya
1967 Ecuador
1971 Switzerland
1972 Bangladesh
1974 Jordan
1976 Portugal
1989 Namibia
1990 Western Samoa
1993 Kazakhstan, Moldova
2005 Kuwait
2006 United Arab Emirate
2011 Saudi Arabia

Women’s rights! There’s a battle to be fought!

Posted on June 6, 2018 by Opher

Women’s Rights

How long does it take to gain real equality?

Women have been treated badly in many cultures throughout the world and still are. In all Abrahamic religions women are treated as second-class citizens. In the UK they weren’t allowed to own property until 1870! Women were seen as the property of men. They had no rights.

Looking around the world one can see many instances of misogyny and repression of women. They are sometimes not allowed out of the home without a man. They are forced to wear burqas and hijabs. They are not allowed to drive. They are not allowed to work or own anything. They are segregated from men. Some are not able to access contraception or use it.

Equality looks a long way off.

In the UK the suffragettes started up in 1867 to fight for the right to vote. It wasn’t until they became violent that they finally achieved the vote in 1928. It wasn’t until 1956 that women teachers and civil servants gained equal pay with men. In 1968 women had to go on strike in the Ford Car factory in Dagenham to gain equal pay.

As late as 1970 women had to have a male guarantor in order to get a mortgage.

There is such a lot to fight for. Even in the West we are far from a situation of equality. That will only occur when half of parliament, business managers and those in top jobs are female.

In 2018 the DUP are stopping women of Northern Ireland from having the right to abortions.

No matter what legislation is brought in until we sort out a proper system of child care I do not think women will ever achieve true equality.

Until we have universal human rights and women are afforded equality in all areas there is a battle. It is a battle worth fighting!

Empowering Girls and Women Solves Problems

Posted on March 17, 2018 by Opher

By empowering women we can solve a large number of problems.

Overpopulation is one of the biggest problems. It is causing the destruction of the planet. We need to get out population back under control and rein it back. When girls are educated and have a career fertility rates drop. We need to educate girls. So many cultures have a misogynist attitude towards women. They need challenging. Girls need educating and careers.

There is a wealth of talent that is not being exploited. All those brains, ideas and talents need channelling in order to make the world better.

We desperately need a feminine perspective around the world. Men are making a mess of it.

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/campaign/empower-girls-and-women/

What Did Women Win In Britain A Hundred Years Ago?

Posted on February 6, 2018 by Opher

I find it rather salutary to look at the lists of countries and when they gave the vote to women. For many it was not until the mid 20th Century or even later. Women have only been considered equal to men in many places for a mere fifty years. That seems incredible to me.

In Britain after campaigns that ran for around a hundred years the Suffragists and Suffragettes finally won limited suffrage. It was a hard-fought battle. Many women failed to support the movement and described women who were fighting for the right to vote as lunatics.

It was not a complete victory in 1918. Women were reluctantly given the right to vote – but only those who were over thirty years old and were property owners (around 6 million). So what was the idea behind that? To eliminate the uneducated and poor? To give he vote only to the rich, middle and upper classes?

It wasn’t until 1928 that this was extended to all women over the age of twenty one.

11 Brilliant Signs from the Women’s March!!

Posted on January 26, 2018 by Opher

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/womens-march-2018-best-signs-us-uk-canada/?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=UK_26_Jan_2018_content_digest_alive

Women are taking to the streets demanding equal rights. It is imperative that we men support them. The future is about equality. For too long women have been second-class citizens. They are not just bodies to be groped and abused.

These signs from Global Citizen say it all. Attitudes have to change!!

So what is it that has held women back?

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Opher

Could it be men’s size, strength, aggression and forcefulness that women find intimidating?

Could it really be that women have a tendency to be more emotional and less rational in times of stress?

Or is it just that having children and subsequent childcare takes women out of the game at a crucial time in the development of a career?

It would seem to me that until we find a way of sharing the responsibility for childcare or making adequate quality provision women will always be at a disadvantage.

Could this be the crucial problem that requires solving? In order to create a fair meritocracy we require first-rate childcare and social facilities for sharing the responsibility!

Is this at last the start of a new age for women?

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Opher

Ever since the Agricultural Revolution the world has been dominated by Patriarchal societies. With few exceptions (Cleopatra, Wu Zetian and Elizabeth 1st being rare examples) the world has been dominated by men. Women were considered inferior, given few, if any, opportunities to receive an education or develop skills. Their roles were limited and peripheral. Their duty was to serve their men, look after the house and raise children. Men ran the country and did the important work. All the politicians, lawyers, military chiefs, religious leaders, scientists, theologians, artists, writers, musicians, architects, poets, judges and philosophers were men. Even in the courts of the rare female leaders all the other roles were masculine.

Strangely this mindset is one that has been perpetuated by women as well as men. They are often the ones who create the loudest clamor if a female steps out of line – they can be the cruelest in terms of abuse for promiscuous girls, the strongest advocates for FGM and, as leaders, least likely to give a helping hand to fellow women. Thatcher’s cabinet was a good example. She only appointed one woman to her twenty plus cabinet during the whole of her term.

It is only in recent times, in many societies, that this is beginning to change. People such as Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher and Angela Merkel have taken leading roles. We have women as successful CEOs, Bishops, Lawyers, Artists, Police Chiefs, Scientists and Politicians. As more women take on these roles, and demonstrate that they are not hysterical or incapable, they are setting examples for other women to aspire to and gradually changing the mindset of society.

It is a very gradual business. They have to overturn the preconceptions that have been built up for thousands of years. But it is happening. Things are changing.

Perhaps this is the dawn of a new era for women? Perhaps the dawn of a fairer society built on meritocracy and not gender, race, class, caste or affluence?

There are things worth fighting for!

Emmeline Pankhurst Quotes – Suffragettes fighting for equality.

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Opher

Emmeline believed in equality and wanted the vote for women. She believed in justice so strongly that she was prepared for civil disobedience and even damage to property to force people to take notice. She was prepared to suffer and go to prison for her beliefs. She was a woman of great courage.

The argument of the broken window pane is the most valuable argument in modern politics.

Nobody listens until you force them to.

Justice and judgment lie often a world apart.

The law is not fair. It is merely a legal system There is not justice in it.

Not by the forces of civil war can you govern the very weakest woman. You can kill that woman, but she escapes you then; you cannot govern her. No power on earth can govern a human being, however feeble, who withholds his or her consent.

If a person is determined you can torture or kill them but you cannot force them, deep inside, to agree with you. You merely provoke lip-service.

Men make the moral code and they expect women to accept it. They have decided that it is entirely right and proper for men to fight for their liberties and their rights, but that it is not right and proper for women to fight for theirs.

All people are equal. The rights of all have to be upheld.

My parents, especially my father, discussed the question of my brothers’ education as a matter of real importance. My education and that of my sister were scarcely discussed at all.

Education is the basis of freedom and democracy. The education of women is of utmost importance. We need women fully present in all positions of power and decision making. Societies and religions that suppress women are barbaric.

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Peggy Seeger – I’m Gonna be an Engineer – Feminist lyrics from the fifties.

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Opher

In this time when so many are bringing up our daughters in pink tutus and fairy costumes to play with fairy castles and dream of being a princess it is all the more important to get our girls into maths, physics and engineering.

Females make up 50% of the world’s population yet in many cultures they are second class citizens, unable to vote, drive or sit with their male counterparts. We see Muslim men walking around in T-shirts, trainers and jeans while their women are coerced into medieval costume. We see girls education under threat.

This misogyny is not only repulsive; it is stupid. We need that female intelligence and those sensibilities informing the world.

The misogynism of the Abrahamic tradition is a great danger. We have to oppose it. Equality is freedom.

We need women in boardrooms, cabinets, laboratories and all walks of life; making their contribution at the highest level.

Until the obstacles are removed, the cultural indoctrination is removed, the cultural stigmas are removed, we will not have a fair world.

Misogyny needs challenging where-ever it is. Whether that is in the boardrooms and governments of the USA and Europe or on the streets of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan where women are treated appallingly.

Women’s Rights need fighting for.

This song summed up the sexist attitudes in America and Britain in the fifties. We’ve come quite a way but nowhere near far enough.

Peggy Seeger

I’M GONNA BE AN ENGINEER

When I was a little girl I wished I was a boy
I tagged along behind the gang and wore my corduroys.
Everybody said I only did it to annoy
But I was gonna be an engineer

Mamma said, “Why can’t you be a lady?
Your duty is to make me the mother of a pearl
Wait until you’re older, dear
And maybe you’ll be glad that you’re a girl.

Dainty as a Dresden statue, gentle as a Jersey cow,
Smooth as silk, gives cream and milk
Learn to coo, learn to moo
That’s what you do to be a lady, now.

When I went to school I learned to write and how to read
History, geography and home economy
And typing is a skill that every girl is sure to need
To while away the extra time until the time to breed
And then they had the nerve to ask, what would I like to be?
I says, “I’m gonna be an engineer!”

“No, you only need to learn to be a lady
The duty isn’t yours, for to try to run the world
An engineer could never have a baby
Remember, dear, that you’re a girl”

She’s smart — for a woman.
I wonder how she got that way?
You get no choice, you get no voice
Just stay mum, pretend you’re dumb.
That’s how you come to be a lady, today.

Well, I started as a typist but I studied on the sly
Working out the day and night so I could qualify
And every time the boss came in, he pinched me on the thigh
Said, “I’ve never had an engineer!”
“You owe it to the job to be a lady
The duty of the staff is to give the boss a whirl
The wages that you get are crummy, maybe
But it’s all you get, ’cause you’re a girl”

Then Jimmy came along and we set up a conjugation
We were busy every night with loving recreation
I spent my days at work so he could get an education
And now he’s an engineer!

He said: “I know you’ll always be a lady
The duty of my darling is to love me all her life
Could an engineer look after or obey me?
Remember, dear, that you’re my wife!”

As soon a Jimmy got a job, I studied hard again
Then busy at me turret-lathe a year or two, and then
The morning that the twins were born, Jimmy says to them
“Your mother was an engineer!”
“You owe it to the kids to be a lady
Dainty as a dish-rag, faithful as a chow
Stay at home, you got to mind the baby
Remember you’re a mother now!”

Every time I turn around there’s something else to do
Cook a meal or mend a sock or sweep a floor or two
Listening to Jimmy Young – it makes me want to spew
I was gonna be an engineer.

I only wish that I could be a lady
I’d do the lovely things that a lady’s s’posed to do
I wouldn’t even mind if only they would pay me
Then I could be a person too.

What price for a woman?
You can buy her for a ring of gold,
To love and obey, without any pay,
You get a cook and a nurse for better or worse
You don’t need a purse when a lady is sold.

Oh, but now the times are harder and me Jimmy’s got the sack;
I went down to Vicker’s, they were glad o have me back.
But I’m a third-class citizen, my wages tell me that
But I’m a first-class engineer!

The boss he says “We pay you as a lady,
You only got the job because I can’t afford a man,
With you I keep the profits high as may be,
You’re just a cheaper pair of hands.”

You got one fault, you’re a woman;
You’re not worth the equal pay.
A bitch or a tart, you’re nothing but heart,
Shallow and vain, you’ve got no brain,

Well, I listened to my mother and I joined a typing pool
Listened to my lover and I put him through his school
If I listen to the boss, I’m just a bloody fool
And an underpaid engineer
I been a sucker ever since I was a baby
As a daughter, as a mother, as a lover, as a dear
But I’ll fight them as a woman, not a lady
I’ll fight them as an engineer!

Amnesty International – A cause worth supporting!

Posted on June 14, 2015 by Opher

In their own words – ‘Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 7 million people who take injustice personally. We are campaigning for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all.’

‘Only when the last prisoner of conscience has been freed, when the last torture chamber has been closed, when the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a reality for the world’s people, will our work be done.