There’s something I really want to address in this week’s editorial but honestly, I’m exhausted at the thought of it.
We got a letter to the editor last week, sent to our editorial team very last minute, which I didn’t have the time to address in an editor’s note before going to print. So now we’re going to do that.
Every woman I have spoken to this past week has expressed shock that another woman wrote that letter.
Reading it back now, they invalidate their own argument by saying that maybe more men ran for Council and that’s why there’s more male representation than female.
Well, why are there more women running for Council? Why is running for Council undesirable to women? Is it because we get analysed in a way no man does? Receive hate in a way no man does? Are expected to represent all women in a way no man is?
I was involved in student council and dealt with too much nonsense to ever want to go into politics. And that was a piddly student council.
This person seems to think that women having the ability to run for Council solved the problem. That’s like saying we conquered the patriarchy when we got to vote.
And I love how it says the March For Justice last year was advocating for a large issue. Because…duh. You just admitted we have a huge problem.
The dig at all our journalists being female was honestly just hilarious to me. Don’t get me started on the sexism female journalists deal with.
Frankly, I just found that letter embarrassing. You embarrassed yourself. It was ridiculous.
I thought about how I should approach this extensively. About whether I should form an academic argument, with sources and figures. But honestly, I shouldn’t have to academically explain why women should be valued in the workplace and in positions of leadership. I feel like the writer of that letter is too far gone; I’m not going to convince them otherwise and my energy can be better utilised elsewhere. They talk about 70s feminism when they are very clearly stuck in the dark ages.
I look forward to celebrating impressive women in our region in next week’s edition, in time for International Women’s Day. If there is a local woman you think we should chat with, let us know by emailing me or our general journo email.
-Mini Tassell
