In the past few weeks I have begun wondering about the future for women in this country. Sounds deep but it really just comes from trying to raise my two children, a girl and boy in a manner that provides them with equal oportunties and outlooks. So on one hand we have a female prime minister who is making gender speeches in government, brave, but probably not my main concern as a wife, mother and employee, as I hear lots of people in my area are losing jobs, closing businesses and downsizing investments etc. You see, I'd love us to have a great female running our country, but I'd equally love a great male running it. I like to think I am an activist for womens rights merely by the way I live, the choices I make and the way I speak. But for some reason I don't feel my decision about who runs this country in the upcoming election is a case of me choosing womens rights over mens rights.
On the other hand I am absolutely disgusted that women in our country cannot feel safe walking home from the pub after a few drinks because some crazed sex fiend is on the prowl despite already raping a disgustingly huge number of female victims and is known to authorities. A recent ABC article i just read about a high profile murder in melbourne enraged me, and makes me worry for my daughter as she grows up. She is currently happy, relatively fearless, innocent and confident. This will probably change as she grows and I have to teach her to be fearful, untrusting, and nervous, because our authorities cannot protect her from monsters that roam our suburbs seeking victims. Its ironic, because last week I finished having a discussion with her when she was afraid to go to sleep and I quote what I said: "don't be silly, there's no such thing as monsters, they're not real darling...". Hmmm, so when do I tell her that she needs to never go out alone and to watch her back because there are monsters out there?
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