Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 04 March 2021
The theme of this year’s international women’s day, #ChooseToChallenge, is thought provoking and motivating. Those of us who are privileged enough to be in Parliament have a duty to challenge. There is a real responsibility on those of us with the privilege of choice to use it, but, of course, even in 2021, fewer than 25 per cent of parliamentarians around the world are women. In the face of such glacial progress, we must choose to challenge any and all systems that perpetuate such underrepresentation.
Trump may be gone, but his disgusting macho politics is not. His misogynistic language was common knowledge before he became President, and the same applies to Brazil’s President Bolsonaro. When so-called leaders normalise misogynistic language and behaviour, there is no choice—we must challenge it.
Let us choose to challenge a system that means that women in Venezuela and around the globe cannot afford contraception. That is a system that makes it very hard for women to choose to challenge. It is a system that deprives women of agency and choice.
We must choose to challenge a system that sees too many women’s sports receive a fraction of the media coverage that those of their male counterparts receive and therefore a fraction of the opportunities to earn through endorsements and advertising. When he was hosting the London Olympic games as mayor, Boris Johnson said:
“there are semi-naked women playing beach volleyball ... glistening like wet otters”.
Women’s athleticism, ability, skill and success are often totally overlooked, and the focus on how women look, rather than on what they do, persists.
Let us choose to challenge the invisibility of women’s achievements, past and present. Let us choose to challenge the proliferation of statues of male slave owners and the lack of acclaim and acknowledgement of women who have excelled in many humanitarian endeavours, such as Elsie Inglis, Frances Melville and Flora Murray.