Fix the System, Not the Women

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Laura talks about intersectional feminism, about how it’s not the women who should change but how all the problems are rooted in our systems on different levels. This is done by giving a more lenient sentence, maybe because the female was wearing something that made her look older than she was, or is simply excused because the male was having a shitty time in the office.

Maternity discrimination, workplace sexual harassment, the gender pay gap “and so much more” lie somewhere in between. It's about the need to equal -up the opportunities and behaviours deeply ingrained in our culture, and other cultures, that do not consider women as being equal to men. Continuing what Invisible Women presented, it's full of statistics demonstrating how sexism and racism are embedded not only in everyday life, but especially in the systems that govern our lives. Bates also reminds us that if we want to tackle oppression in one sphere, we need to be aware of its overlap with others. This is essential reading for absolutely everyone, it made my stomach turn and made me incredibly sad.In November 2017 the people of Zimbabwe took to the streets in an unprecedented alliance with the military. Laura is a contributor at Women Under Siege, a New York-based project tackling rape in conflict worldwide and she is patron of SARSAS, Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support. She begins with her own list, a list of events or situations in which she has been the victim of sexism, harassment or assault. It’s a powerful opener that sticks with you throughout; I will be making my own list and expect to lighten the weight of it with a glass of wine in the company of my incredible female friends. My eyes are firmly now open to how deep-rooted the problems really are and I will be shouting from the rooftops where possible to try to make at least a tiny impact.

She is the recipient of two honorary degrees, an honorary fellow of St John's College Cambridge and was awarded the Internet and Society Award by the Oxford Internet Institute alongside Sir Tim Berners Lee. Whichever way anyone looks at this, this is yet another misogynistic method of exerting control over women's lives. And men not getting convicted because “they were stressed about their job, so it’s understandable that they took up skirt pictures of women on the bus”. Bates pursues her thesis across five key areas: education, policing, criminal justice, media and politics. But the most rousing sections of the book are on male violence and the burden on women to keep themselves safe.So well written, so INTERESTING and I honestly just wanted to keep on reading regardless of how mad it made me! Through astonishing interviews with powerful insiders, Blood and Oil tells how MBS's cabal played the Saudi economy and capitalised on the omnipotence of feudal power while effectively stamping out dissent, before allegations of his extreme brutality and excess began to slip out. And it’s sad and infuriating reading all these stories of abuse, harassment, abuse of power, exclusion, and rape. The idea that the solution is for women to “better track our movements” or “stay home after dark” is absolutely unacceptable . Especially men who believe feminists hate men for no reason and society is equal and there's no point to feminism, because they've never seen or experienced the things feminists are complaining about - that's privilege.

It’s all the things you know, from your experience in this world as a woman to be true, but now with statistics! It doesn’t help that we live in a society that sees a man who changes a nappy as a saint, a boyfriend who occasionally makes brunch as a diamond in the rough, an emotionally supportive man as a rare treasure, yet expects all these things from female partners as a matter of course.Listing fact after devastating fact that will be all too familiar to the female reader, Fix the System Not the Women makes for a tough read.

If readers are interested in a more academic book looking at similar topics could I recommend 'The Incel Rebellion: The Rise of the Manosphere and the Virtual War Against Women' by Lisa Sugiura. In reality, every democracy, however sophisticated or stable it may look, has been attacked or actually destroyed by a would-be Caesar, from Ancient Greece to the present day.

FIX THE SYSTEM, NOT THE WOMEN no fue el primer libro de feminismo que leí; sí el que más me ha marcado hasta ahora. A story of breath-taking dealings that range from Riyadh to London, Paris to America, this is a thrilling and brutal investigation into extreme wealth, one of the world's most decisive and dangerous new leaders, and the bid for Saudi transformation that is reverberating around the world. El libro aún no está en español (arribando a las editoriales para que se pongan las pilas), así que si pueden leer en inglés, les invito de todo corazón a leerlo. I cant wait to read this book, it looks incredibly interesting but, I am disappointed that it arrived in such a poor condition.