Do you think there is a sexist backlash in New Zealand? Do we have any examples or personal experience of “sexism” living in New Zealand?
Background Link: http://www.scoop.co.nz:80/stories/PO0612/S00158.htm
NEW ZEALAND – Women Face Sexist Backlash
By PATRICK CREWDSON
The Dominion Post | Thursday, 19 July 2007
Women may have claimed some top jobs but worsening domestic violence and a sexist backlash show they still face discrimination, a New Zealand delegation will tell the United Nations.
A report to be presented to an international committee warns of a “marked change for the worse in the social and political climate”, eroding some of the gains made in gender equality.
New Zealanders were increasingly dismissing anti-discrimination work as unnecessary political correctness – often citing the success of prominent women such as Prime Minister Helen Clark and Chief Justice Sian Elias as evidence women had achieved full equality with men.
Though New Zealand women no longer faced prejudice enshrined in law, the “far-reaching effects of social and cultural discrimination” could still be seen.
The report was compiled by the National Council of Women of New Zealand based on submissions from 93 non-governmental organisations.
Council representatives Beryl Anderson and Anne Todd-Lambie will present it to the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women monitoring committee in New York at the end of the month.
Ms Anderson said the overall tone of the report was optimistic and there had been areas of clear progress – such as paid parental leave and student loan reform – since the previous report in 2002.
But domestic violence rates had increased, many workplace issues such as pay parity remained unresolved, and women were no better represented in the top echelons of companies.
“Sexist attitudes and the `Old Boy network’ still prevail in many areas of public and professional life where men are in positions of power,” the report says.
Lesbian and bisexual women faced particular discrimination in the workplace.
Ms Anderson said that having had women as prime minister, chief justice, governor-general, speaker of Parliament, and chief executive of Telecom had created a misleading impression that gender parity had been achieved.
“There has been a bit of a backlash because so much emphasis was given on having women in those top positions. People thought everything was resolved when in actual fact the pay equity gap is greater now than it was 20 years ago.”
The report expresses concern that sexist jokes are becoming more common as part of a reaction against “political correctness” that included developments such as the National Party appointing a `PC eradicator’, a position that has since been disestablished.
Other concerns included women’s treatment in the male-dominated prison system, where their needs as mothers were not met, and migrant women being subjected to oppressive customs transplanted from their countries of origin.
Women’s sport still received meagre media coverage and advertisers used stereotypes to sell products.
“We’re seeing more and more young women sexualised in television programmes and advertising and it’s happening at an earlier and earlier age,” Ms Anderson said.
The report criticises National’s intention to abolish the Women’s Affairs Ministry if it had won the 2005 election, but newly appointed women’s affairs spokeswoman Jackie Blue said the party had abandoned that policy.
She said Women’s Affairs was a small ministry and she would like to see its funding increased so it could move on from “tick-a-box” policy work to more active work.
“I would like to see it have more teeth and to actually lobby for women’s issues and causes.”
A Government delegation will present its official report three days after the National Council of Women presents its findings.
That report also identifies domestic violence and gender pay parity as areas that need addressing.
Firstly I need to point out that New Zealand more than ever now has a large number of immigrants or refugees. In many of these communities women are considered as secondary to men and maybe this report partly is as a result of that. In terms of women not having top positions in different companies I could not comment on that since we do not have a clear evidence on whether this is as a result of discrimination against women or not having many females out there fighting for these positions. Lesbians and bi-sexual women are not yet accepted by NZ society as yet unfortunately and that is the main reason why they have been discriminated against at work places. Also it is not only the issue of lesbians and bi-sexual women, the gay men unfortunately face discrimination as well, so overall homosexuals have not yet been accepted in society and this is not particulary a woman’s issue. However there have been a significant improvement in NZ media discussing homosexual issues as well as broadcasting programs such as the L World and six feet under, queer eye for straight guy and etc..so i am very pleased with that. In terms of advertising women have been streotyped but this again is not a woman’s issue only and I could probably point out more streotyps about men in media and advertising than women such as the pizza hut ad where the two females refer to one of their boy friends as a dog and he is referred to as a well trained boy friend. This again goes back to NZ society (white, maori, indian, chinese and etc)..These streotypes are rooted in our cultures that have been practiced by our ancestors and there is a significant amount of people who still think that these cultures have been practiced by our ancestors for a right reason. However I am pleased to say that as our new generation of boys and girls grow up together and they are very close to each other emotionally more than ever these stereotypes will slowly fade away. However do not forget that is not only men who encourage these stereotypes, there is a significant number of females who use and encourage these stereotypes as well if you observe your friends and family, i know my female friends use a lot of male stereotypes against me. In terms of women being sexualized in media and now even from a younger age, I must say this issue is addressed in Australia much more than NZ and I am very pleased that has been mentioned in this report and it is becoming a real problem when young teenage girls have been hired by modelling agencies to make the products attracted to other teenagers by using sex sells attitude, which they use in adults marketing. But overall you need to go back and see where these problems come from, which in my opinion religion and culture are the most likely sources and perhaps the only sources that encourage these discriminations.
“Though New Zealand women no longer faced prejudice enshrined in law…”
Two words: Rape trial.
Personal experiences of sexism. Wow, that’s a big can of worms! Okay, a deep breath and here I go…
Having men feel entitled to my body; having my opinions be automatically devalued because, of course, women don’t know what we’re talking about; my boss at work second-guessing decisions I make when he doesn’t do so to any of the guys working there; being trained as a shift manager at work then not actually being assigned any shifts to manage because aforementioned boss doesn’t think I can “handle the pressure”; being sexually assaulted and not even considering telling the police about it due to not wanting to suffer the humiliation of having my sexual history being put on trial; my mother working full time and still doing almost all of the cooking and cleaning around her and Dad’s house; having to pay so much money for tampons each month – one can go to the doctor and get heavily subsidised condoms, why on earth are menstrual products not subsidised?; having guys stare at my chest when I walk past them; being at a concert when I was 16 and having a man run up to me, grab my ass, and run off again, when my friends and I were on our way out (what on EARTH?!); when I’m at a gig in a venue that’s really packed, resigning myself to the inevitability of someone taking advantage of the fact that it’s hard to move and feeling entitled to touch my ass/boobs/etc; men yelling commentary about my body out of car windows as they drive past; sitting down on Courney Place (one of the main streets) in Wellington by myself and having a group of guys coming up to me asking “How much?” (because any woman who is ‘unattended’ by a man just might be a prostitute, right? Such is the awesome logic of the patriarchy); people assuming that I *must* love children; witnessing the wink-nudge presentation of an issue of Penthouse to a co-worker on his 18th birthday – our (male) supervisor jokingly told them they should have grabbed him a copy too (this was when I was working for Inland Revenue).
There is so much more I could have written and, being young, Pakeha and ‘middle class’ in a ‘developed’ country, I pretty much have privilege oozing out of my ears – so many people have it so much worse.
The mind boggles, the heart breaks.