A Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic has told a celebratory gathering on the 100^th anniversary of International Women’s Day that while much has been achieved, there is still much to do to attain the ideals of equality and fairness that brought socialists and feminists together on the first Women’s Day in the United States in 1910.

 

Associate Professor Leonora Ritter, an Honorary Fellow in the CSU Division of Learning and Teaching Services, challenged her audience in Bathurst to consider that the only acceptable option to ensure planetary survival may depend on feminising men and the public sphere by resurrecting emotional values and nurturing sensitivity and cooperation.

 

“There has been progress in the subsequent century since Women’s Day in 1910,  including the establishment of women’s health centres, equal pay legislation, no fault divorce, the outlawing of rape in marriage, provision of supporting mothers’ benefits, and anti-discrimination legislation.

 

“Australia now has its first woman Prime Minister, The Hon. Julia Gillard, MP, and its first woman Governor-General, Her Excellency Quentin Bryce. Most Australian states and territories have had one woman Premier or Chief Minister, and some have had a woman Governor. Women increasingly hold senior positions in business, bureaucracies and academia, and increasing numbers serve in the armed forces.

 

“But there is still much that is wrong with our world. As long as the gender of the female office holder is significant, we have not achieved equality. Furthermore, many women acceding to positions of power have been given a poison chalice rather than a door to political opportunity.

 

“Beyond politics, studies show women still take most of the responsibility for the home, including child care, and generally have had to take on masculine attributes in order to succeed in their careers.

 

“We seem to have made more progress in masculinising women to suit a patriarchal world of aggression, competition and oppositional politics rather than in feminising the world.

 

“Nurturing and cooperation have been relegated to a fast disappearing private domestic sphere.

 

“To resurrect emotional values and nurture the sensitivity and cooperation that will enable the planet to survive, feminising men and the public sphere through promoting creativity, collaboration, communication, empathy and adaptability seems the only acceptable option.