Paradigm Shift

Ian talks with Betty Taylor (Red Rose Foundation) about violence done toward women and the structural nature of society that discriminates against women.
Ian talks with Pamela Curr AOM about growing up as a woman in the 1960s. Pamela Curr became an activist with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
Image: 'On the basis of sex' (film poster)

What is a women?
Angela Davis once said 'radical simple means getting to the root'.

At the 1910 2nd International Conference of Working Women, delegate Clara Zetkin successfully moved for an International Women’s Day to be celebrated every year. People have marched ever since for women's rights and to end discrimination against women.

There are many events around Brisbane this week where people can celebrate gains made by women and to organise for struggles ahead. Last night women celebrated IWD at an event hosted by Union Aid Abroad highlighting the international character of this struggle. In the trade unions, the National Tertiary Education union has organised events for its members. There are two rallies planned for tomorrow one in Emma Miller Place starting at 10 am and another at 2pm in Queens Park. We encourage our listeners to support these events where possible.

During International Women's Day 2018 in Brisbane a singer was heckled because she held up a sign that said trans people cannot be women.
IWD 2019 has split because of the acrimony existing within the women's movement over this issue.

For many there are other issues facing women that are more pressing: preventing violence against women, the pay gap, discrimination and sexual harrassment in the workplace, women's control over their own bodies and fertility, and why are women doing the bulk of unpaid caring and domestic work. There are other pressing issues.

It is important for the discussion about transgender to be out in the open and not behind closed doors. So what are the questions that go to the heart of this division in the women's movement and what is a remedy (if one is possible)?

We do not claim to be experts and can only ask questions that go to the heart of this issue:

What is a woman?
What is a feminist?
What are internal, inside the psyche, that influence relations between women and men?
What are the structural elements in society that determine inequality faced by women?