Hey Ms. Summers
I just finished The End of Equality, and you have no idea how much I feel like shoving it in my friends faces, just going, “Read!” Unfortunately, I don’t think that they would respond the way I would wish. For the record, I’m 14, and a 9 month old feminist (it was thanks to this {http://libba-bray.livejournal.com/16264.html} post in the beginning). I found you’re book while at my local Border’s- which I then I begged my father to buy for me (Don’t get me started- he thinks we live in a matriarchy.) It was absolutely brilliant. My school library also has Damned Whores and God’s Police, so hopefully I’ll be getting to that soon.
The End of Equality was incredibly insightful for me. Basically, I’ve been in an environment (in real-life anyway. All the internet people are the opposite.) where everyone is absolutely obsessed with Howard, and depressed Labour is now in power. It was nice to get a full understanding of what Howard’s prime minister-ship meant for Australian women, although the representation of Labour wasn’t exactly all positive. (And darn it, everything looked like it was going to be at least better until the 2020 Summit.) Reading this book helped to explain random things I had noticed (like giving me an explanation for why the hell almost all the Australian feminist websites I looked at seemed dead) and made me feel bitchy (which is actually more positive than it sounds, because then I actually have to do something.)
I was just wondering, for someone who was interested in tackling gender inequality in Australia:
a) what Australia-based resources would you recommend?
and
b) what career paths would you recommend?
You’re probably insanely busy at the moment (esp. with IWD tomorrow) but if you could shoot me back a reply I would be very thankful.
(Name withheld) but reprinted with permission of the sender
Anee,
I may have written this on one of your other blogs, so sorry if this is a repeat. For all the gender issues you raise, and for all the young peolple not invited to the 2020 Summit, the online community created a wiki so people across Australia could post, discuss, and vote on the best ideas for the country. It’s totally a grassroots effort. It’s free, can be anonymous, and isn’t being sponsored by any political party, corporation, union, or special interests. It’s just people who want to encourage an online national brainstorming session.
The site is at http://ozideas.wetpaint.com. There are pages for over 20 different issues (including gender) and even an online petition to get the best ideas heard at the actual Summit.
Why don’t you post some of your ideas and see what people think?
For your amusement and that of the public’s, we also created a funny web “commercial” for the site – it’s of Kevin Rudd, Brendan Nelson, and Peter Garrett break dancing. Check that out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQZa17-Dt_4.
What 14 year old says “darn it”?
Very curious