My article in today's Indođ
Exerpt: A few years ago, I was disinvited from speaking at an International Womenâs Day (IWD) corporate event when the organiser belatedly realised an article I wrote (which led to the booking) was satirical. It was called, âWomen should embrace inequality, not fight itâ.
Organiser: âSo⊠you didnât mean it when you wrote that we should prepare our daughters for working life by giving them less pocket money than our sonsâŠ?â
Me: âWTF?â
Another time, I was invited to talk about female empowerment at a women-only event. I suggested tackling female disempowerment at source instead by having a men-only workshop for the 21-member entirely male board.
Me: âWomen donât need assertiveness workshops, we need equal pay, equal rights and equal representation at the top table.â
Organiser: âSorry, wrong number.â
More recently, I declined an invitation to speak at an IWD event because all six panel members were privileged white women. I suggested they give my place to a friend who fled persecution in Sudan and is now a kick-ass (very cool) doctor. I was replaced by... a privileged white woman.
Perusing the week-long IWD events, I couldnât help noticing the glaringly absent voices. One panel had 16 women â all of whom were white. âChoose to challengeâ was this yearâs IWD theme and some marginalised women chose to challenge the womenâs movement itself.
When MincĂ©ir Beoir Rosemarie Maughan called out the exclusion of Traveller women from IWD panels, she was offered a last-minute slot resulting from a settled woman cancelling. She declined, instead joining other Traveller women on the Sligo Traveller Group forum where she expressed frustration at being excluded by female allies, adding: âWe deserve more than crumbs from other peopleâs plates.â
Catherine Coffey OâBrien talked about her mother being picked up by the âcruelty manâ (agents of the State that took Traveller children from their families and put them into institutions). Three other families were seized the same day, all of whom were first cousins, and all were split up and âthrown like leaves in the windâ. They never came back together as a family and âour clan systemâ, Catherine said, âwas destroyedâ.
Catherine, a Bessborough survivor, also expressed irritation that Traveller and other marginalised womenâs voices were ignored by the Mother and Baby Home Commission. âThey never listened. We were not heard.â
If I could only challenge one act of state-sponsored misogyny this year it would be the egregious Mother and Baby Homes Report. An official document containing evidence of human rights abuses perpetrated against women and babies, yet describing them as âlobbyistsâ while dismissing, distorting and deleting their testimonies, cannot be accepted as a legitimate historical record.
Bereft of moral and legal integrity, the process exposed survivors to retraumatisation, was underpinned by misogynistic preconceptions and enabled by silence â past and present.
Annette McKay, whose testimony documenting her motherâs ordeal in Tuam was returned to her in tick-box form, vowed to continue the fight after lockdown. âBring a shovel,â she tweeted, âwe are burying their report and digging up the truth.â I've got my shovel.
It references an earlier article, "Women should embrace equality, not fight it". Health warning: contains satiređ