How did women fare in 2016? (misogyny, sexism and the patriarchy are, alas, alive and well)
How did women fare in 2016?
Over the past 12 months, women caused an NHS meltdown, wore too many clothes to the beach and just didn’t smile enough. We look back at the year’s most sexist moments
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A year in sexism … Leslie Jones, Harriet Tubman, Mary Beard, Gine Miller, Jessica Meir and John Inverdale. Photograph: Rex, Sarah Lee, Getty and EPA
January:
The new year got off to an impressive start with a headline that managed to blame childless women for the struggling economy, NHS meltdown and shorter life expectancies. Plague of locusts soon expected to follow.
February
US talk show host Wendy Williams criticised singer Kesha for speaking out about alleged sexual abuse: “If everybody complained because somebody allegedly sexually abused them ... contracts would be broken all the time.”
. . . . .
April
The new junior doctors’ contract openly discriminated against women. Luckily, we were repeatedly reassured that “any indirect adverse effect on women is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”, which made women doctors feel much better. Meanwhile, April also saw legendary abolitionist Harriet Tubman become the first woman in the world to be told, “give us a smile, love”, 100 years after her death, when her appearance on the new $20 bill wasn’t cheerful enough to satisfy some men.
. . . . .
September
A woman Nasa astronaut was “corrected” on Twitter by a man who had once been to space camp. He provided inspiration for another 2016 hero who later in the year challenged renowned Cambridge professor Mary Beard, mansplaining the fall of Rome, based on what he had seen in Gladiator. Every woman in the world gave a sigh of recognition as Hillary Clinton was beaten by a man infinitely less qualified than her to do the same job. Meanwhile, Moroccan state TV made important strides towards eliminating domestic violence by showing a helpful programme showing women how to use make up to cover it up.
. . . .
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2016/dec/23/how-did-women-fare-in-2016