It was some years ago since I read the Handmaid’s Tale and at the time was astonished at Attwood’s perception of the tiny step it would take to go from reality to the dystopian future of a completely patriarchal society. And here we are with the US taking away women’s rights to their own bodies.

Supposedly this legislation reflects a ‘pro-life’ judgement—leaving women with no option but to seek dangerous illegal methods to control their bodies. However, this same society has no restraints on who buys guns or how they’re used. This tyrannical act against women is appalling leaving women powerless over further rights being removed, such as the contraceptive pill. Evidence-based research shows that cultures that devalue females’ rights also have the highest domestic violence rates;

Evidence-based research shows that cultures that devalue females’ rights also have the highest domestic violence rates;

Domestic violence contributes to systemic gender inequality, and as sociologists and organizational researchers have shown, is a gendered experience, a manifestation of broader structured gender power relations (cf.Hearn & Collinson, 2018) fuelled by toxic, hegemonic, hetero-normative masculinity (Connell, 2005b) which is part of the normalcy of patriarchal society.

(Wilcox et al. 2021).

It’s imperative that women step up and be heard. If not for ourselves but for our daughters and granddaughters. Don’t let this happen in Australia.

If you have read my previous posts, you’ll be familiar with my stance against Domestic Violence and the cost it has on everyone. Removing women’s rights is a backward step in stopping the deaths of women in their own homes—over twenty in Australia so far this year.

It’s imperative that women step up and be heard. If not for ourselves but for our daughters and granddaughters. Don’t let this happen in Australia.

Source:
(p702) Wilcox T, Greenwood M, Pullen A, O’Leary Kelly A, Jones D, 2021, Interfaces of domestic violence and organisation: Gendered violence and inequality. Gender Work Organ, pp701-721 DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12515