Man Up

by Emily Oldrieve

Recently, whilst queueing in a popular coffee shop, I overheard a conversation between two female friends which included the phrase: ‘that girl needs to man up’. At the time I took little notice of this as my concentration was fully engaged in obtained a much needed caffeine hit; however, in retrospect, I feel this statement needs some consideration, especially in terms of gender equality. On examining the episode it struck me that, perhaps more bizarre than the glaring contradiction expressed, was the fact that I did not immediately identify the statement as a contradiction. It seems that loaded phrases such as these have become common colloquialisms, at least for certain sections of modern British society. The two main points I want to consider are how important it is, in the grand scheme of things, to take the time to worry about something as abstract as a throw-away comment made in casual conversation. Furthermore to then understand what exactly the connotations of the phrase ‘man up’ actually are.

To address my first point, I must admit that I did initially feel my topic might be fairly insignificant when I read through previous blogs on this website which contain heart-wrenching stories, and facts that paint a scary picture for gender equality across the globe. Obviously what I am talking about isn’t the difference between life and death; however I feel we must not forget the seemingly little things which can, sometimes, make us aware of inequalities embedded in our society. Although words in themselves cannot be compared to an immediate, physical threat it is the vast amount of social and historical implications behind a phrase that represents the danger. To clarify this, I came across a rather interesting radio program hosted by Stephen Fry for the BBC entitled He Said, She Said (available on BBC i-player). Although he is exploring a slightly different issue he does discuss how during the 1970-80s women campaigned against words such as ‘chairman‘ claiming it should be ‘chairperson’, and ‘humankind‘ instead of ‘mankind‘. A significant part of their campaign was aimed at an awareness that certain words are unfairly orientated, in this case towards men. The importance of changing words and phrases for these women lay in the fact that words are heavily loaded with social meaning that every member of that society understands albeit subconsciously. I am not suggesting that we should be saying ‘person up’ or exiling gender based phrases from our vocabulary, but i am emphasising the importance behind words and the role they have in maintaining or establishing gender inequalities, and that we should be aware of what we are saying if we are to use these phrases.

So, what exactly are we saying? The phrase ‘man up’ as I understand it means that one should either stop being overly sensitive, be brave or take responsibility. Does this therefore mean that only men can possess these qualities, and for women to become less sensitive or braver they must become more masculine? Can there not be a un-sensitive or a brave female personality? Similarly if this phrase is implying that a man is un-sensitive and hardened does this mean that all males must display these characteristics to be classed as a ‘man’? Furthermore is it suggesting men should be more obligated than women to live up to these characteristics? Any or none of these interpretations could be valid, but if these are the insinuations that lie behind a seemingly harmless comment it is an example of the dangerous and old fashioned stereotypes still being kept alive implicitly behind everything we say. Essentially this phrase relies upon, and supports, unhelpful generalisations about gender and detract from positive changes that are being attempted in our society in general. If nothing else this goes to highlight how issues of equality can affect every facet of our lives, and we should be aware of attacking inequality from every angle: even when we are gossiping in coffee shops!

Why should we care about gender equality?

by Charlotte Page

Because we’re not even close to getting it right.

I have been wearing black on Thursdays for over a year now to stand in solidarity with those who experience violence and discrimination on the basis of gender and the more I look into the issues the more angry I am that this is being allowed to happen. I am proud to wear black to stand alongside women who experience gender based violence, and I am happy to stand up for human rights and I am appalled at the awful abuses that happen to women every day because they are not treated with respect and as equals.

Thursdays in Black is not about devaluing raising awareness of discrimination and violence against men, it is not about female supremacy, it is about putting the issue of gender equality on the table and saying ‘are we really going to let this happen?’

I have a friend who is deeply suspicious of statistics, and so am I, but I hope he will forgive me for highlighting a few here because I think they deserve to be known:

Out of the 130 million out-of-school youth in the world, 70% are girls.
75% of all HIV/AIDS infections in sub-Saharan Africa among people aged 15-24 are young women
Around 80% of maternal deaths could be averted if women had access to essential maternity and basic healthcare services.

These are issues that represent much deeper issues. It has been proven that educating girls is one of the most important things that can be done to tackle gender inequality and consequently to tackle poverty. Girls who are educated can earn more, are more likely to educate their own children and are more able to protect themselves against HIV. Children of both sexes whose mothers die in childbirth are less likely to attend school and more likely to live in poverty.

Gender equality is something that is tied up in economic development, poverty and injustice. But it is not just something affecting less developed countries. We can’t sit back and pat ourselves on the back. While I don’t pretend to understand how the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Index is worked out (though they do explain it in the report) I do understand that they measure equality of opportunity between the sexes in all the countries in the world and represent it on a scale of 0 to 1. You don’t need to understand all the maths to know that if the country ranked first in the world is only achieving a number of 0.8276 we have nothing to be complacent about.

For me, wearing black on Thursdays is about recognising that these issues exist, that they are important and that I should not get complacent. It’s about the individual stories of women who are living through appalling injustices and it is about the bigger picture across the world. But mostly it is about recognising that if we can get this gender equality thing right then the world will be a better and fairer place for all, not just women.



Sources: All statistics are from The World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report which can be found at: http://www.weforum.org/en/Communities/Women%20Leaders%20and%20Gender%20Parity/GenderGapNetwork/index.htm