Ripple Affect

It is common for women to ask men to " put themselves in women’s shoes and consider how it would feel to be a woman." We hope that by asking men to do this they will have some empathy towards us. 

To date, I don't believe, that this has worked very well. Men don't seem to be able to put themselves in our shoes.

Maybe we need to ask a different question because men are certainly not “feeling” what we do.

Perhaps the question needs to be “how would your life be different if you were born a woman”?

This question gets men to actually consider the ‘biases’ against women and how they would react to them if they were against them.

To help our male counterparts understand what it would be like to have been born a woman here
 are few thought starters:

In many countries being born a woman does not equate to the celebration of a new life, it equates to being a burden on the family which may result in your death as an infant, if you are kept alive then education may not be your privilege, becoming a child bride may be or worse being sold into slavery. Your male family members will often decide your fate and if you choose to defy these it may result in your death.

You may be one of the 70% of women who make up the world’s poor, where you are a victim of systematic discrimination in education and healthcare, you may have never learnt to read and write, be the one in three that is a victim of abuse or forced into labour.

You would have had to fight for the right to vote and now that you have it, fight for equal pay and equal employment opportunities.

You may be the victim of violence, in Australia 1 woman a week dies from domestic violence and 1 in 3 have experienced violence of some sort.

You would have had to give up your career at some point to have your children and yes just imagine giving birth.

More often than not, the role of ensuring that the household is still functioning will be your responsibility. And yes your husband will potentially be coming home late most nights.

Every month you will of course have your periods, you will bloat, have tender breasts, feel grumpy, tear up and often be in pain.

Every two years you will have to have a pap smear.

Then at some point you will go through menopause.

You will retire on 40% less superannuation than your husband if you are in Australia

You will pay more interest for any loans you may have taken out to complete your university degree simply because you will choose to take a break and have kids

The common language you will hear is that you have to ask for what you want, lean in, learn how to do business like a man, letting go of the guilt.

In the workplace you may be described as bossy, bitchy, aggressive, and often be accused of sleeping your way to the top.

You will have to work harder in business to gain the promotions that your male counterparts currently get.

You will feel enormous guilt over just about everything.

Everything you wear will be commented on and judged, how you do your hair and your makeup, nails, shoes....the list will go on.

You will spend a lot of money getting most of your body waxed to ensure that you are virtually hairless for your partner as this seems to be the trend today

Oh and of course there is the whole weight issue. If you add on a few kilo’s your male partners in life and work will no doubt notice it and comment. Note also that the waist line of your male counterparts seems to grow in girth yearly

Now of all the above were not challenging enough lets add to the mix the following

o   Under representation in the media

o   No such thing as a cheap haircut

o   Under representation in politics

o   More likely to be harassed in public

o   At worse other women will not support your endeavours

So, if you were born a woman, some of the challenges you may face , depending on where you are born, will be around gender equality, gender pay gap, violence, poverty, hunger, homelessness, trafficking, under-representation at all levels.

Given all the above, how many men would choose to live the life of a woman.

Not many I would suggest. Who in their right mind would want to deal with these issues?

If the thought of being born a woman is not one that any man would want why is it that men are not championing the issues we face louder than women are, why are they not leading the charge more aggressively than woman are.

There are more men around board tables, directors and CEO’s of companies, surely the issue of gender equality should be an easy one to fix if these men truly understood what their life would be like if they had been born a woman!