Feminist machines

A few days ago I was victim of one of the worst (non-injurious) incidents than can befall a mother.

When I tell my fellow mothers what happened, they wince, roll their eyes and ask how I'm coping. It's been six days now. Six long and painful days.

My washing machine broke down.

People who don't have children appreciate that this must be difficult. People who do have children appreciate the full nature of the calamity

The daily battle to keep my offspring clean is usually dealt with in the short minutes it takes to load, unload, hang up and put away a load of washing (rude nasty girls don't iron). No more.

Washing and feminism

Appliances like the automatic washing machine have set us free. By doing these mundane domestic tasks for us, in a fraction of the time they would otherwise take, they allow us to spend our time doing other things, such as earning money and becoming financially independent.

Once upon a time, laundry was a thing that might take a woman with a family an entire day each week. A day of pummeling and wringing the stains from her whites until her hands were red and sore.

Wealthy women in the past, as now, may have been able to hire cleaners to wash their clothes. And that provided work for other women.

But as washing machines became more affordable, it's meant that those of us who couldn't shell out for a cleaner can deal with this most labour-intensive chore with ease.

Women do more housework than men, even today. Washing machines mean that this doesn't have to take over our entire lives.

Washing around the world

Gender inequality exists for many reasons. Culture, poverty and education all play their parts, and I certainly wouldn't lay the credit for great strides feminism has made in the last 40 years in the West solely at the door of the automatic washing machine.

But it is true that in developing countries where the majority of people are less able to afford labour-saving devices such as washing machines, the opportunities for female independence are far fewer.

The sad fact is that if you are a woman who can't afford a washing machine, you will probably spend a large portion of your life scrubbing your husband and children's socks. You won't have time for a career.

Thank you

The inventor of the electric washing machine is unknown. Whoever he is (although you never know, maybe it was a she), I'd like to plant a big firm kiss on his whiskery cheek. But it would probably be good if he emptied the machine from time to time.

Gender inequality

By San Jose (map), Hayden120 (retouch),
 via Wikimedia Commons

I consider myself privileged to be a woman living in the UK. I had always considered myself one of the lucky ones, that having been born female I had the good fortune to live in a place where that wasn't too much of a problem.

33 better places to live

Today I discovered that actually there are 33 better places for women in the world, including all of our nearest neighbours.*

This is because the UK has been ranked 34th in the Gender Inequality Index, part of an annual development report published by the UN Development Programme.

This assesses countries based on three areas - reproductive health, empowerment (parliamentary representation and educational attainment) and the job market, to find out how equally or inequally women and men are treated in different countries. The report rates 148 countries (data isn't available in all countries of the world).

As you'd expect, developed countries come out at the top of the index, and the poorest come out at the bottom. Australia and Canada come in at spots 17 and 18. The US bombs in at 42.

Holding their heads up high

These are the countries with the most gender equality, according to the Gender Inequality Index:

Silvio Berlusconi, by Ricardo Stuckert/PR
(Agência Brasil), via Wikimedia Commons

1. The Netherlands

2. Sweden
3. and 4. (joint) Denmark and Switzerland
5. Norway

6. and 7. (joint) Finland and Germany

8. Slovenia

9. France

10. Iceland

11. Italy

12. Belgium

I was just going to give you the top ten, but then I noticed that Italy was ahead of the UK, and felt compelled to include this information. It means that the country that elected Bunga Bunga Berlusconi to be its Prime Minister, is ahead of us in terms of gender equality. That is pretty galling. 

Doing the walk of shame

These are the bottom 12 countries - those which ranked as having the least gender equality. There are few surprises - some of these are the worlds poorest countries, whilst others (spots 145 and 148) have notoriously bad human rights records. These are the places you don't want to go to be a woman.

136. Zambia
137. Cameroon
138. Côte d'Ivoire
139. and 140. (joint) Mauritania and Sierra Leone
141. Mali
142. Central African Republic
143. Liberia
144. Democratic Republic of the Congo
145. Saudi Arabia
146. Niger
147. Afghanistan
148. Yemen

What does it all mean?

I idly speculate that the UK does so spectacularly badly because we have relatively low representation of women in parliament, bringing us down in the 'empowerment' ranking, and our job market is still relatively unequal, partly due to the high costs of childcare, something which the countries above us have all pretty well sewn up, allowing women to go forth and be useful and productive members of society.

The fact that we come 34th doesn't mean that the UK is a bad place to live. But it does highlight that, as a relatively rich company, and a nation that considers ourselves to be progressive, we are lagging behind our nearest neighbours when it comes to equality between genders. It's time to try and keep up with the Johanneses.

*Except Ireland, which seems to be strangely absent from the report.