Women in politics

One of the matters which rarely gets commented on is women in politics, unless they are used as token trophies.

I remembered last week  the  latest Prime Minister's Cabinet reshuffle; out went Hauge (worst foreign sec since the last one) and others, including Gove 'demoted',much to teaching union's delight  ( hasn't Cameron ever watched or read 'the house of cards'? and regardless didn't someone tell him about the 'black magic' of the Chief Whip?). But the real big news was the promotion of women. Of course this being Cameron, the decision has nothing to do with the merit or not of the women being promoted, but all to do with Cameron wanting to look modern and trendy by having women in high office. Which is great .Except, with all due respect, I don't want to think that women have got to where  they are because of being women. That is a constant smear that hangs over many a successful woman and Cameron is helping that along. 

Of course I shouldn't moan, because at least women are now in top jobs. Although whether this will do Cameron any good remains to be seen. This is no disrespect to the women being promoted, but I've noticed recently (from my forays into debating this with people) that there is a  new breed of Tory women who are thirty something, very confident, confrontational and super self confident, married into money or from money, which contrasts with those of us who have had to build everything from nothing, who are more down to earth, no less intelligent, who are folksy and know how to speak to people; modern Tory woman by contrast cannot understand that just because you have a triple first from Oxbridge doesn't mean to say you can treat lesser mortals with utter contempt.

New Tory woman doesn't get this and doesn't get that & has no experience of life outside of the rich upper middle class metropolitan way of doing things along with the attitude that comes with, i.e. rich or married in wealth, pushy, willing to trample on everyone to get what they want,  plum in the mouth, ignorant of life outside of London, but doubtless representing an area like ours in rural England, who are disparagingly called 'the turnip taliban' for holding traditional views (hyperbolic I know and perhaps hypocritical given that I went to public schools and Oxbridge, but hey I was a Sephardi working class Jew of  a third world immigrant family, who'd had to rebuild their businesses from scratch) . No wonder the Tory right is leaning toward UKIP. If you don't even care about your own constituency, why should the rest thing that you care about them? 

Half the population of this country are men and men require special handling; treating them with contempt or derision because they hold doors open for you is the stupidest idea that you can do; it is childish, rude and gets their backs up unnecessarily. Nor does a willingness to  tear your ideas apart if they are crap  make them sexist and we do need to make allowances for them in other areas . My own husband, for example, is utterly incapable of running a household, which is why it is part of my lot in life to do so, but he is at least good at handywork  around the house and with my (behind the scenes help) good at running businesses. So we all have our skill set. 

I just hope that the women promoted in  politics not only have the ability, but also the understanding of how to communicate to people (they are politicians afterall).  I also hope that they are not like the New Tory women I've mentioned above. 

Well, we'll see. Time will tell. It always does. 

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

Today is the international day for the elimination of violence against women. The UN gives us the following harrowing statistics:

• 35% of women and girls globally experience some form of physical and or sexual violence in their lifetime with up to seven in ten women facing this abuse in some countries. 

• It is estimated that up to 30 million girls under the age of 15 remain at risk from FGM/C, and more than 130 million girls and women have undergone the procedure worldwide. 

• Worldwide, more than 700 million women alive today were married as children, 250 million of whom were married before the age of 15. Girls who marry before the age of 18 are less likely to complete their education and more likely to experience domestic violence and complications in childbirth.

In Britain the charity shelter notes the following( NOTE: domestic abuse against men also occurs and this is equally unacceptable) :

• Metropolitan Police statistics show that male violence against women made up 85% of reported domestic violence incidents

• A 2009 study based on police reports, which accounted for the dynamics of domestic violence, found that only 5% of domestic violence incidents were perpetrated by women in heterosexual relationships

• Domestic violence is patterned, repeated behaviour intended to assert power and control over the victim. Of those who experience 4 or more incidents of domestic violence, 89% are women

• Four times as many women as men are killed by a current or former partner.

• Two women a week are killed as a result of domestic violence in England and Wales

So I think it's perfectly laudable that there is a day to raise awareness of these issues within our society,including our particular Jewish community. Yes it is true that Jewish women also suffer from domestic abuse and this is in NO WAY condoned in our religion. Jewish law expressly forbids personal violence and requires commitment to shalom bayit, a happy and peaceful family life. Jewish men who commit domestic violence, are destroying shalom bayit and breaking Jewish law.

Here are some Jewish sources in relation to this : 

• 'Do not stand idly by and see your neighbour’s blood spilled' – Leviticus 19:16

• 'A husband should love his wife as much as he does himself and should respect her even more than he respects himself' – Gemara Yevamot 62b

• 'Maintaining the dignity of a person is so great that it may override halacha' – Gemara Brachot 19b

• 'A man who strikes his wife commits a sin, just as if he were to strike anyone else' - Rama, Shulchan Aruch, Even HaEzer 154:3

We need to be unequivocally supportive of those who've and those who are suffering from these abuses & not to treat them as taboos. Here's a link to the charity I've just mentioned so people can  familiarise themselves with the issues and become more aware of how to help or if you need help to go to a website like the ones below (Please!) :

Jewish women's aid

Refuge

New Tory women?

I've posted the following at my brother's blog :

New Tory women?

Basically discussing attitudes of  women in politics, following the reshuffle last week.