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39. It’s a Man’s Man’s World - Renee Geyer

  This is a man's world But it wouldn't be nothing Nothing not one little thing Without a woman or a girl   So, this is old news for me, but I’m sharing it anyhow. As I discussed in Post 37 , I was up for jury duty a few months back. In this post I discussed how I had little to no chance of actually being selected as a juror because of my gender, age and education. Well, I had it wrong. I’ve apparently watched too many Hollywood movies and didn’t have any idea about the New South Wales (NSW) jury process. My first take home is that it is very refreshing to now know that juror “selection” in NSW is (almost) totally randomised. We were all assigned a number and then it was a lottery draw as to who’s numbers were drawn out. That said, the defence then had the opportunity to make three challenges to jurors without explanation as to why they didn’t want them there. Surprise, surprise , they challenged the three youngest females, who also happened to be very well dress...
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38. Irrelevant – P!nk 2022

  Girls just wanna have rights So, why do we have to fight?    You can call me irrelevant, insignificant I won't call on you at all   Wow . . . I don’t know what to say about what’s going on in America, other than I’m damn glad to be an Australian.             Thank you P!nk for putting it together in a great song and a moving film clip.             Feel free to read this article from Rolling Stone if you want more context.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54TqACn_9V8  
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37. Respect – Aretha Franklin 1967

  R-E-S-P-E-C-T Find out what it means to me R-E-S-P-E-C-T Take care, TCB Oh (sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me) A little respect (sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me)   Soooo, I’m up for jury duty soon. ‘How’s this relevant to a blog about women in the 2020s?’ you ask. Well, once I received my notice from New South Wales Communities and Justice I thought something along the lines of   This will be a hassle .   Then my thoughts moved to   This could be interesting .   Finally I landed on   I might have been called up as a randomised representative of society, but they’re not going to pick me .   Why are they not going to pick me? Well, I’m an educated female that is capable of thinking for herself. Solicitors, who are predominantly male, don’t want my type anywhere near their juries. Solicitors prefer the uneducated as they believe they can be more easily lead d...
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36. Run the World (Girls) – Beyonce 2011

  To the other men that respect what I do Please accept my shine Boy, you know you love it How we're smart enough to make these millions Strong enough to bear the children Then get back to business   It’s been almost a year since America voted in its first female Vice President, and the sky hasn’t fallen. @KamalaHarris has clearly inspired a generation of women by reaching the second highest office in American politics, and she may yet reach the highest office. However, before Kamala Harris became the Veep she had a distinguished legal career - the first Black district attorney in California, the first Black and South Asian American attorney general in California, and the first South Asian American woman and second Black woman in the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile in Australia . . . I really can’t say much more than this excellent article by @Dr_KMcLoughlin , so I’ll just highlight my key take home points from it. When eminent and obviously appropriate men judges are ...
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35. I Love Playing With Fire – The Runaways 1977

  My heart is achin' to see you play And I can't wait Till another day   Ummm, I don’t know how I feel about this one. A couple of weeks back Netball Queensland had their state titles, and never before has a winning team caused so much controversy. They had parents abusing players and officials. Not because of some wrong doing. The team that won, won fair and square. The team was being abused because they were boys . . . Sorry, but isn’t the general lack of respect being applied on a gender basis exactly what ‘ Oh my God! Women! ’ have been fighting against for generations? The one decent article I could find on this issue - which has been regurgitated by many other online media outlets - did raise the very fair point that the boys team was a sate (representative) team, while all other (girls) teams were regional (community) teams. This situation is on the nose. Now, I know I’ve never really played netball (see Post 14 for an account of my limited experience ...
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34. Roam – B52’s 1989

  Fly the great big sky See the great big sea Kick through continents Busting boundaries   I like to travel. I mean, when we’re not in the midst of a Covid induced standstill, I take every opportunity I can to travel. I started my intrepid ways at the age of 18 when, fresh out of high school, I hopped on a plane to the other side of the planet to do a working holiday in the UK, and I haven’t looked back. I never felt that I had to miss out on experiencing anything the world had to offer just because I was on my own. Initially at least, no boyfriend to hold my hand, and no girlfriend to do a bit of mutual back watching with. Just me. However, travelling as a Single White Female ( film reference intentional ) did present a few challenges for me. These challenges were not due to cultural clashes or ignorance, but because of my gender. I present to you Experience One. While travelling through Egypt in the mid-90s I had an employee of a motel I was staying invite hi...
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33. Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend – Marilyn Munroe 1953

  Men grow cold As girls grow old And we all lose our charms in the end   I have a boss. My boss happens to be male. He also happens to sulk - A LOT - and assume that things will just happen around him - that I’ll take care of things for him - without him having to get concerned about them. This sounds like a 1950s husband and wife scenario doesn’t it? I mean, when I was a kid - in the 80s, not the 50s by the way - if my mum wasn’t around to cook dinner, we were lucky to get fish fingers nuked in the microwave for dinner ‘cause, unless there was a barbeque involved, my dad had never concerned himself with learning the basics of cooking for himself. Then when my big sister turned about ten it was suddenly her responsibility to feed the family if Mum wasn’t around, again because Dad really couldn’t be arsed concerning himself with domestic chores. Given this childhood, I found myself cutting my boss some slack when he started sulking about the trivial stuff in the...
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