While the editorial is being written, Happy Women’s Day is a trending topic on Twitter, beating other topics such as the Oscars and Hurt Locker. Surely, if something is the top trend on Twitter, it must be a pretty big deal.
This week, we are celebrating 100 years of women’s liberation. With Howard Davies and Nick Stern looking spiffy in their clever “this is what a feminist looks like” t-shirts, and an exciting line-up of events over the next week, it’s hoped that this important week will not go unnoticed by the LSE student community. Hopefully our bright yellow banner on the front page helps as well.
It is appropriate, then, that last week we celebrated the win of our first female General Secretary in 8 years. In fact, 3 out of 4 of next year’s sabbatical team are female, most of them beating their male counterparts in their respective races. Undoubtedly, comments on Houghton Street and even this office have sometimes been along the lines of: “I’m definitely voting for Charlotte! She’s so pretty!”. Correct us if we are wrong, but that sounds like reducing the worth of a candidate to their bright smile and lovely curls, as appealing as they may be. Extrapolating, that might sound a little like (dare we say it?) objectification. Nonetheless, it still shows the rest of LSE community that men are not always the pinnacle of competency and principle, and that women can be just as much capable of leading our Union forward. Even this paper has seen its first female executive editor in 8 years this year.
It is somewhat ironic, then, that our front page story this week is sadly one that reveals a stark gender pay gap at the LSE. Although 47.4% of the school’s employees are female, they represent only 31.2% of senior management. Even more perturbing, only 23.6% of professors and 27.6% of senior lecturers are women. The finance department, the jewel in the crown that is the LSE, is only 8.8% female in its faculty make-up. If this does not reinforce stereotypes and go against any equal opportunities or diversity policies that exist in this Union, School and even country, we aren’t sure what does.
And let’s not forget the recent overflow of “casual sexism” on the part of some members of the Athletics Union (or those-that-sit-upstairs-at-the-UGM) during the recent motion to ban the Sun and FHM from being sold in the SU shop. Wolf-whistling, name-calling and ludicrous comments including claims that those proposing the motion were militant lesbians were a definite indication that the women’s liberation movement has so much left to achieve. If even being respectful to women (just women in general, forget an elected official meant to represent women at the LSESU), surely sexism is not dead.
While we celebrate the improvement we have seen in the lives of women everywhere over the past 100 years, we must not forget that even in a liberal institution in the heart of central London, gender inequality is far from dead. As we say goodbye to the old guards of the Union and celebrate our new mostly-female sabbatical team, we can only hope that they do not tear the Union apart and cause as much disillusionment and anger as this year’s sabbaticals have. Perhaps, then, it will prove that women can do a job that is as good as, or even better than, their male counterparts.
Related posts:
- One year on, a pageant for feminist progress
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on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 05:07 and is filed under Comment.
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This is what a feminist looks like
by Editorial on 9 Mar 2010 in Comment
While the editorial is being written, Happy Women’s Day is a trending topic on Twitter, beating other topics such as the Oscars and Hurt Locker. Surely, if something is the top trend on Twitter, it must be a pretty big deal.
This week, we are celebrating 100 years of women’s liberation. With Howard Davies and Nick Stern looking spiffy in their clever “this is what a feminist looks like” t-shirts, and an exciting line-up of events over the next week, it’s hoped that this important week will not go unnoticed by the LSE student community. Hopefully our bright yellow banner on the front page helps as well.
It is appropriate, then, that last week we celebrated the win of our first female General Secretary in 8 years. In fact, 3 out of 4 of next year’s sabbatical team are female, most of them beating their male counterparts in their respective races. Undoubtedly, comments on Houghton Street and even this office have sometimes been along the lines of: “I’m definitely voting for Charlotte! She’s so pretty!”. Correct us if we are wrong, but that sounds like reducing the worth of a candidate to their bright smile and lovely curls, as appealing as they may be. Extrapolating, that might sound a little like (dare we say it?) objectification. Nonetheless, it still shows the rest of LSE community that men are not always the pinnacle of competency and principle, and that women can be just as much capable of leading our Union forward. Even this paper has seen its first female executive editor in 8 years this year.
It is somewhat ironic, then, that our front page story this week is sadly one that reveals a stark gender pay gap at the LSE. Although 47.4% of the school’s employees are female, they represent only 31.2% of senior management. Even more perturbing, only 23.6% of professors and 27.6% of senior lecturers are women. The finance department, the jewel in the crown that is the LSE, is only 8.8% female in its faculty make-up. If this does not reinforce stereotypes and go against any equal opportunities or diversity policies that exist in this Union, School and even country, we aren’t sure what does.
And let’s not forget the recent overflow of “casual sexism” on the part of some members of the Athletics Union (or those-that-sit-upstairs-at-the-UGM) during the recent motion to ban the Sun and FHM from being sold in the SU shop. Wolf-whistling, name-calling and ludicrous comments including claims that those proposing the motion were militant lesbians were a definite indication that the women’s liberation movement has so much left to achieve. If even being respectful to women (just women in general, forget an elected official meant to represent women at the LSESU), surely sexism is not dead.
While we celebrate the improvement we have seen in the lives of women everywhere over the past 100 years, we must not forget that even in a liberal institution in the heart of central London, gender inequality is far from dead. As we say goodbye to the old guards of the Union and celebrate our new mostly-female sabbatical team, we can only hope that they do not tear the Union apart and cause as much disillusionment and anger as this year’s sabbaticals have. Perhaps, then, it will prove that women can do a job that is as good as, or even better than, their male counterparts.
Related posts:
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 05:07 and is filed under Comment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.