Comments on: Long Weekend!

By: Fiona

Fiona — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:32:58 +0000

What? I didn’t realise that was still happening. My brain likes maths-y stuff, if i’d put too many eggs into the “girl-subjects” at highschool then I wouldn’t have had the choice to study what I wanted. Of course I then chose a female dominated thing, which I found increddibly challenging and not a natural course for me. I would have been more comfortable doing sciency subjects but that didn’t lead to where I wanted to be. *shrugs*

On parental leave, if both partners are “lucky” enough to be act public servants the man can take the leave if the woman doesn’t. Otherwise he’s entitled to a couple of weeks, which is a start

but that’s like a lit of things though, conditions that appear in Labor states’ collective agreements are not legislated for for the private sector, so it’s just missed out on. Like “regular” paid maternity leave. It’s getting better where women are being allowed to take their entitled UNpaid leave and still have their old job to get back to afterwards, but there are still those who find themselves no longer required.

But in the general case of taking carers leave to look after a sick child, it’s the double thing of she is expected to take it off, and his employer would expect the mother to take it off and thus it possibly sucking for both parties.

children are the problem here ;)

but at least we have the choice about them now, hey?

*blathers on* :)

By: Kelkel

Kelkel — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 11:28:53 +0000

Actually, in this seminar they asked us to talk about how we had been disadvantaged in our decisions to study maths/science based subjects, to which I replied “What?.. We’ve been celebrated for our choices to do these subjects.”

By: Kelkel

Kelkel — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 11:24:24 +0000

I was told in a “Women in Engineering” seminar-ish thing in 2000, when we visited Newcastle uni that if we filled out the right form they would let us in to study an engineering degree even if our marks fell a bit short. I’m not sure if they still do it.

By: Fiona

Fiona — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 10:26:31 +0000

I think the Catholic ed department wanted to offer scholarships for males to enter teaching and they weren’t allowed. Which is stupid as ‘they’ always talk about wanting more men in teaching positions, particularly in the primary schools.

“We are offered positions of study at university with lesser acedemic achievement.”
really? sorry I haven’t heard of that one. I lknow of, eg, engineering scholarships for women only etc, but didn’t know that they could lower the entrance requirements…

Glad you have a rant to share :)

By: Kelkel

Kelkel — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 10:22:59 +0000

By law women are offered jobs over men with similar qualifications. We are offered positions of study at university with lesser acedemic achievement. We are offered women only scholarships to take these places away from males who have achieved more. A woman pinches a man on the bum and it’s all in good fun. A man pinches a woman on the bum and he’s charged with assault. Girls can join scouts but don’t think about trying to go to half the gyms if you’re male, you’re not allowed in the door.
If it wasn’t for the womens movement I wouldn’t be allowed to have a job, or a vote, or rights. But these days in this nation, I think it’s all a bit of overkill.
Where’s the international mens day, where we encourage them to be teachers and nurses, where they are allowed to take on caring roles without copping attitude from society? Where’s their equal parental leave in order to look after their children? To give them equal oppertunity in a workplace whose laws govern that they come in second place. When will they be able to stand up for their rights in the workplace without being labelled a chauvinist for their opinions?
Obviously I believe in women’s rights, I am one. But I also believe in equality. I’m going to have to copy this rant to my notes section now. :p