Yes I know what you are thinking, yet another month dedicated to the creatures that bleed rigorously but seldom die, more single baby mother’s whinging about their lot in life and no systems in place to help them, when will the high flying affluent positions for top earners finally become a reachable norm for the totties?  Seeing as a woman’s struggle seems to be a now accepted median in our society, it could be considered as vacuous a celebration as the middle class farcical Fairtrade fortnight or Happy book day! Not to mention the constant controversial and bubbling resent for those separatists and their Black history month and let us not mention that needy rain forest with the pseudo scientists poisoning society with their confidence tricking tales of climate change.

Imagine being that cynical and closed down to a world begging for development and opportunity; imagine denying knowledge or new discovery, imagine being that closed to sections in society that have every right to express their opinions and thoughts in a world they share.  Yes of course it could be argued that some of these celebratory months’ weeks and days are slightly repetitive and you find yourself in dissociation with them, after all, how can it have anything to do with you? Whether you are a man or a woman that has never been affected by discrimination (if you’re a woman you need to get in touch with me) historically looking back at the trials and tribulations of women, you will find has everything to do with you, as all our history is shared and though life has improved, it hasn’t improved enough, no matter what country you find yourself in, you will find discrimination against women in some form.  Yes there are regions, countries and continents that are developing at different rates, especially compared to the West, so in most cases we have to stand back and let them find their own solutions to their plights, it’s how societies evolve develop and survive. So an awareness day or month is necessary not just to take action but also for those people that live in the world but have no understanding of its shared experience, it educates all those that don’t know the outrages that occur, so it shouldn’t be looked upon begrudgingly just because life is alright for you, put your mirror down and take a look outside of your cosy environment.

According to Cause of Death: Woman

• Nine out of ten married women in Egypt have undergone female circumcision?
• More than 40 per cent of women in South Africa have been raped, but only one rape in ten is reported?
• The police arrive more quickly in the US if the call-out involves a man who has been subjected to violence by another man than if the victim is a woman in a partner relationship?
• Someone who murders in the name of honour in Pakistan can be “forgiven” by the woman’s family and go free?
• Every tenth child in Sweden sees their mother being beaten?
• In Russia there are 200 beds for women who have been subjected to violence and who need a safe haven – in a country with 142 million inhabitants?
• Brazil’s inefficient legal system means it can take tens of years in before sentence is passed?
• In practice there is almost total exemption from punishment for the majority of human rights abuse in Congo, not least for violence against women?
• There is a state in Mexico where a man who murders his wife can get away with being sent to prison for just three days?
• An Egyptian man can take out a divorce whenever he wants, while an Egyptian woman must prove in court that she has been badly treated in the marriage?
• Spain has specialised courts for crimes of violence against women but eight out of ten women refuse to testify against their husbands?
• Every fourth South African man admits to having committed rape?
• A woman in Pakistan who has been raped must produce four male witnesses to the assault before she is believed?

Don’t get me wrong on any other day of the week I could bring up a list for the atrocities men have to go through and that can be from the torment of life as Transgendered women, through to being denied a life as a child soldier. One day, one month’s awareness isn’t what is needed for women in the West though; in fact I find it quite facile, as the inequalities experienced are resolvable and not a cancerous contrariety that synchronises with our periods.  What is desperately needed is a cultural change in attitude from women, particularly now in the West which has to be echoed into family life, classrooms and work places; we should stop aspiring to a life of breeding and marriage and define ourselves with a career and education first.

We should be able to be in a position where we can support ourselves if we don’t have a partner and find ourselves alone with children, we know by now that some men aren’t into the longevity of the family way of life, so we need a back-up plan. We should be supported by our fellow women and be able to have the choice of abortion and not sabotaged by our sisters who would encourage such a horrific ‘bill requiring Virginia women to undergo an ultrasound procedure prior to having an abortion’, for example, rendering us little better than cattle, which doesn’t serve to inform but to incite guilt, fear and redemption. We should at this point in our history no longer feel powerless to grab the opportunities laid out for men historically, what makes it difficult is our inability to believe we can offer little else to the world than babies, for those who don’t think they can compete it’s what they consider to be success.  My years as a social worker taught me this saddening recurrence.

Our failing is thinking we NEED men, we should drill into our psyches that men are a cheeky bonus to our already fulfilled lives, then need becomes want and desire and not a middle classed aspirational structured industrious tick box with the reward of a long subservient holiday or work house in most cases. Harsh? possibly but we are inherently taught  we are inferior to men and this can be through how our matriarchal figures guide us, to out-of-touch governments policy on how to resolve domestic violence abuses.  Maybe if our next generation took this affirmative action, we will start closing that 10% pay gap that we have been painfully but gradually reducing over the years. Not all families end up with the woman left unskilled for the work market I appreciate that but there are plenty who are.

When will it be international men’s day? I hear quite mockingly on my Twitter time line, I’m not about to start laying into men, we need their help, we can’t do that by isolating them or blaming them anymore, they are not the enemy, even though we all know the best demographic for a good life on earth is white middle class and male, although Milo Yiannopoulos would vehemently disagree with me as he feels ‘The real persecuted minority these days is white middle-class men. Particularly if they dare to have faith or conservative politics’. Yes, I can see their challenges in life are quite great comparatively, you know with the church quite prominent still in our society and a British conservative government, thank goodness they do have an international men’s day on November the 19th then, no I kid you not but I get the distinct feeling that they are.

It’s time to start realising the power that us woman have, we give and we take life, our love resembles the expanse of the Universe and we protect with the strength of Graphene.  Further education and stronger career positions should be the new aspiration for the girls, we need to stop being looked upon as victims; and make men realise that they are by choice and not by need.