not for a generation or two anyway

lizardtitties:

A lot of the “women are socialised to be housewives or avoid manual labor” thing is really alien to be as a working class English woman. Because poor women have always been working, and have been instrumental in a lot of workers rights. I mean, the London Matchgirls Strike happened in 1888. Women in the labour movement have always been A Thing. Women have the right to equal pay in the UK because a bunch of mouthy, unclassified Essex Girls kicked off about it in the 60s and went on strike.

My grandma has an Open University degree in philosophy she obtained while working nights at a pie factory so she could be a better union rep. My 19th century ancestors were 14 year old girls working in cotton mills. The choice between “having it all” and “stay at home mum” was never a choice for my communities; the women worked and they generally worked in dangerous jobs. If they didn’t work, it was because they were married to men who spent 14 hours down a mine and someone literally did have to be home to look after the small children.

When people are talking about trying to get girls into STEM subjects at university level or women in offices missing out on promotions due to pregnancy, I can’t help but think how alien that kind of thing is to women from my family, to women like me. We didn’t go to university, we don’t work in offices (and if we do, it’s a call centre), we’re not getting promotions or having the kinds of jobs where you can angle for a raise. I’m not saying these things aren’t important. But pretending that women have never been in the labor rights movement, and pretending that as a working class woman, getting a quota for female board members in a multinational corporation is a victory for me… Well, it ignores history, and it ignores how integral class is to who I am and how my life has turned out. Thatcher being prime minister wasn’t a victory for all British women, it was a blow to working class women.

We are not all on the same team. I’ll stand on a picket line with crass working class blokes and fight benefit cuts with men in football shirts that make you uncomfortable far before I campaign for Harriet Harmon or the right for more women to be in power at my terrible company.