International Women's Day

"The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organisation but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights" Gloria Steinem

This year, more than any other, I find myself using this day to take stock. It is, perhaps, with a weary heart that I find ever more reasons to believe that this day, Women's Day, matters.  My beloved country, Australia, seems to be going backwards, not forwards in terms of women's rights.  Tony Abbott, the lack of women in parliament, the failure of Mary Wooldridge to be pre-selected for the Victorian safe seat of Stonnington and the ongoing lack of adequate and appropriate maternity and childcare support are reminders of how far we have to go.  It is tempting to look at the seemingly insurmountable obstacles and think that it's all too hard. Or that it doesn't matter, because mostly we live in nice houses with nice families and nice jobs. But it does matter and if we stick together and keep talking and agitating and pushing for change; if we keep supporting the good leaders and stop supporting the bad; if we say yes to equal pay; yes to maternity leave; yes to the collective - maybe, just maybe when I sit down to write this post next year it will be with heartfelt joy that we have collectively move just a little bit closer to where we want to be.

Ita

I am the first to admit that I knew almost nothing about Ita Buttrose before listening to this podcast. I kind of dismissed her as "the Women's Weekly" editor, always looking perfectly vacuous with her blow-dryed bob, perfect manicure and chiselled eyebrows. Truth be told I dismissed her as an airhead with nothing of any import to say except, perhaps, for how to make a delicious meal for less than $10 and the best way to get grass stains out of clothes. Had I actually stopped to think about it, I might have guessed that a woman who managed to successfully swim to the top of the Australian media fishbowl in the 70s might have had a thing of two to say about women in media and the role that the Australian media is currently playing in belittling our current Prime Minister*.  She also has a lot to say about the failure of women to progress beyond talking about the issues she was writing about in the 70s; equal pay, flexibility in the workforce and that not-so-mythical mythical glass ceiling. By the end of the podcast I wanted to read her book and there was just a little bit of me that wanted to be just like her. Passionate, feisty, ambitious and nice.  

*For the record, Ita has fairly strong views on who should be able to comment hair colour, bottom size and choice of shoe - funnily enough it's not the media, nor is it a stranger and probably not even a friend. Because personal attacks like this aren't nice and above all Ita is nice.