Is this a man's world?
Asking the questions: Are women equal? Are we safe? Can we work in male dominated spaces?
Our voice is our power.
Going back to Ancient Rome, under the Oppian Law which was aimed at restricting women's choices of style and colour in the clothes they wore, women have been fighting for their right to be heard, to be equal.
"As soon as they [women] begin to be your equal, they will have become your superiors!" - Marcus Porcius Cato
Mirroring how this Roman consul feared the power of the female voice in 215 BC, 2023 has shown us that there is still a male centered sentiment of fear attached to the powerful potential of the contemporary woman. Most recently highlighted by the US government overturning Roe v Wade, the protection of a woman's right to an abortion, to the UK police shutting down peaceful vigils for women murdered by men, with force.
2000 years later there is still an importance in speaking and gathering women's stories on their experiences of the effects of fearful men. Women across the West Country have spoken up about the harassment they face on the streets and the prejudice they are subjected to when entering a male dominated workplace.
Take a walk in a woman's shoes
The public sexual harassment that women face in the UK is one of the biggest focuses of fourth wave feminism and for all women today.
A 2021 report by UN Women stunned the people of the UK when over 70% of women said they have experienced public sexual harassment. Particularly that only 3% of the 18–24-year-olds asked had said they haven’t experienced inappropriate behaviour.
The younger generation is subjected to more sexual harassment, and these figures highlight that the issue is getting worse with time. Teaching young women that their responsibility is to remain safe from sexual harassment and that this is predominately a woman's issue takes away from what is primarily a history of male behaviours. Their inappropriate habits, sexism and their gender bias is a man's responsibility to keep a woman safe. This is why feminism and female empowerment is one of the most important influences of today.
Nevertheless, today the desensitisation to inappropriate behaviour towards women is blanketed in being ‘just a bit of fun’ or ‘flirting’. Except to avoid being subjected to this harassment women everyday are unknowingly engaging in safety work as Dr Finn Mackay, Senior sociology lecturer at University of the West of England (UWE) explains:
“Women have to manage their life around the threat of sexualised violence, this is what is called ‘safety work’ because it is a kind of labour.
Planning different routes, changing times to avoid darkness, pretending to be on the phone to a boyfriend while walking in public, choosing lighter streets with better streetlamps, avoiding underpasses or bridges, messaging friends an estimated time of arrival home, phoning friends to say you got back ok. These are all examples of safety work.”
Safety work is something girls are taught from a young age, yet every 10 minutes somewhere in the world a young girl dies as a result of violence. Two women a week are killed by a current or ex-partner and 2022 was the highest number of reported rapes in the UK. With that number expected to be far more due to the number of cases that go unreported.
The systems in place are not doing enough to prevent sexual abuse and harassment. There is a distrust in these systems among women that believe reporting would not make a difference.
The trust in police has been further hindered by the reports of racism, misogyny and homophobia in the Metropolitan police and the harrowing case of Sarah Everard's rape and murder by an active London police officer.
Ensuring there are safe spaces on and offline, in work, at school and at home for women and girls to talk is the foundations of propelling every person towards a safer society.
Karen Jarvis has dedicated her life to ensuring safe spaces are available to all women. As a previous manager of women crisis services including victim support for serious crimes, community based domestic violence services and now working in homelessness support, she shares her views on the power of feminism and the need for change.
"We can still fight the good fight... there is power in our voice."
Feminism today has become a term women fear to use.
“Homophobia and sexism are still rife in society. Many women do not want to align with feminism because they feel that others will judge them and assume they are man-haters or make assumptions about their sexuality.” Says Dr Mackay.
Feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes. Though somewhere along the way from first wave feminism in the late 19th century to fourth wave feminism, feminist progress has always been followed by misogyny. That 33% of men believe traditional masculinity is under threat from feminism and the influences of Andrew Tate, a prolific misogynist has gained a huge influence on his 4.5 million followers on this belief.
Fourth wave feminism today focuses on the issues of sexual harassment, body shaming and rape culture. Though the facts remain that society is 300 years away from equality, 255 years away from closing the wage gap, 286 years from women having equal legal rights and 140 years from equal representation in leadership roles.
Facts and figures from: United Nations
The women in hard hats and boots
From a young age, we are taught specific gender roles. They are still determinantal towards those who do not adhere to them. These roles assigned from birth are still causing disparities today. Specifically affecting those who can demonstrate flexibly in their expressions of gender. But there are no rules, anyone can be big and strong and play with dolls.
Specific gender roles are also implemented in the careers we choose. For decades the idea of what roles are meant for who, has remained. Women are nurses, men are doctors. Women are hairdressers, men are mechanics. There are industries in which women are being welcomed in to male dominated fields, men being welcomed in to female dominated fields and anyone, despite their choice of gender, are being welcomed in to roles with gender specific dominance. Nevertheless, there is still an impactful stigmatisation surrounding career choices and gender. Sectors like construction are only now beginning to progress towards a more inclusive industry.
The current statistics of women in construction in the UK is staggering. With only 13% of the construction industry being made up of women and 87% of those women are limited to desk related roles such as design and secretarial jobs. These figures have remained for decades. Though their knowledge of the sector they chose should not limit them to being behind a computer screen. A pink hard hat and a plethora of expertise earns their place on site and Darcy Harris owns that space.
Darcy is a 23-year-old head of recruitment consultant from Bridgend, specialising in construction. She made a drastic change from working in a coffee shop to specialising in a sector unbeknownst to her, but she was up for the challenge. Being aware of the lack of female representation in the sector only motivated Darcy more to make the jump and now plays a key role in recruiting more and more women into the construction industry. She does so in style with a pink hard hat and a high vis vest on site.
“We can break the stigma by going into these sectors… I took a step in to the industry and quickly realised it’s a job that I love.”
Construction is still a man’s world with some women in it. But 99% of on-site construction workers are male and besides the stock image photos of women bricklayers on Google, there is difficulty in finding that 1%. Anna Grice, a construction director from Salisbury is part of that very small percentage.
From falling into construction at a young age, Anna has 24 years of experience under her belt and has seen a lot of changes. “One day I was folding up drawings and I said to my boss ‘what do all these lines mean?’ and he stuck a lid on my head and put some boots on me and took me on site and from that day I was like ‘right I get that’.” Anna never looked back.
“It’s easier to change the culture if there are more women and is more balanced. And if you have the support from HR or some men that support you and speak up for you because it’s really difficult to achieve that on your own.”
Fabiola Dorn is a doctoral researcher from the University of Bristol, studying gender disparities in the workplace. Particularly male dominated fields. Her research provides an expert's voice on the lived experiences of women in male industries and essentially what the workplace can do to support them.
While her main focus is engineering, it is another male dominated field with a high turnover of women leaving or essentially not even entering the industry.
The effects on mental health
Experiencing systematic sexism in the workplace, attempting to avoid harassment on the way home and upholding the stereotypical unpaid domestic labour in the household can have detrimental effects on women's mental health.
There is an immense pressure on women to exceed and uphold the expectations of societal standards. Such as being physically attractive, intelligent, empathetic, and nurturing.
There is also an incredible double standard when it comes to women and sex, compared to men and sex, as well as family values, with the entire responsibility of contraception on a woman's shoulders. Women are being overworked in the name of society and research suggests that all of these factors lead to poorer mental health among women.
Women are often left unheard and discouraged by medical professionals, particularly with regards to the psychological side of pregnancy and giving birth. As well as the lack of understanding of the female reproductive system. Women are more vulnerable and anxious during pregnancy and with up to one in five new and expectant mother’s experiencing poor mental health, the support and access is lacklustre.
One of the greatest barriers to mental health support for the post and perinatal period is ethnicity. Research shows that women from certain ethnicities find it most difficult to access help and are four times more likely to die in childbirth and perhaps the problem for this is the lack of cultural understanding and the link between biology and race in healthcare professionals.
However, early intervention and support throughout pregnancy will help to reduce the risk of mental health issues. As well as a decrease in mortality rates in mothers of an ethnic minority. But the problems still go misunderstood and the fear of being stigmatized or deemed as ‘bad mother's’ contribute to the misconceptions and the untreated cases, and unfortunately the deaths.
Eating disorders affect both men and women and are complex illnesses with no definitive cause. They are debilitating and are the largest killer amongst mental health conditions.
Though the majority of those that suffer from an eating disorder are women, children as young as six begin to develop disordered eating, with most forming early onset anorexia and bulimia by 16.
Eating disorders are largely centred around controlling weight and people take drastic measures to uphold this standard, using laxatives, vomiting and starvation. While the cause is unclear, a contributing factor is social causes. With low self-esteem and a pressure to lose weight by unattainable beauty standards, this is a pressure a lot of women feel.
From edited Instagram pictures to cosmetic surgery from celebrities and influencers, a constant perpetuation of what is considered ‘beautiful’ is difficult to reach and most of the time, not real.
Statistics provided by Priory Group
Anxiety is another mental health condition that is twice as likely to affect women than men. Anxiety is a disabling response to stress and trauma.
Across the female lifespan, hormones fluctuate and change and are a main trigger for the rise in anxiety among women. As well as genetics and as a result of trauma to abuse, sexual harassment, sexual violence or any event that causes immense stress.
The most common form of anxiety in women is Generalized Anxiety Disorder, otherwise known as GAD. GAD is excessive worrying about different activities and events, causing fear to settle in and women report fear levels that are three times more than men. This is predominatly as a result of women’s distinct fear of not being safe in public places. This is when women adopt safety behaviours, otherwise referred to as safety work.
As mentioned earlier, safety work is managing your life around the threat of sexual violence. Avoiding going out alone at night, avoiding certain places and choosing clothes that are less revealing. And safety work has its effects as Dr Mackay also explained:
“Safety work is psychologically draining. Having to make routinised decisions around one’s own safety and be reminded in the media and also in culture and entertainment that this type of violence is common and normalised.”
Adding hormones, trauma, and the perpetuated idea that women are responsible for their safety, the fact that they are more likely to be exposed to a threat or have experienced a threat to their safety, woman's anxiety and fears are justified.
Is this a man's world?
So that leads us to the question, is this a man’s world?
The structures to which society and this world was built on was by the hands of men.
The hours in a working day are based on the hormonal activity of men.
Crash test dummies represent the average male.
The size of a phone is to fit a man’s hand.
Medical research is based on the male biology.
And men still decide on the rights of women, but is this a surprise when men have the majority in most global parliaments? And another 40 years before this is level.
But these structures can be deadly and harmful to women. Half of the global population is working for a system that is rigged to majorly benefit the other half despite women having proved themselves time and time again to be equal contributors to public and societal life.
The research shows that women are capable, perhaps more capable than men in being leaders.
Women are more cooperative.
Women are more compassionate.
Women create change.
Women are more effective.
And women are creating social change around the world.
Where there is a progress, there is inequality and Dr Finn Mackay puts it best:
“This doesn’t mean that all men are in power or that all men have power equally, of course they don't. Most men in power are from a similar demographic. They tend to be white men, from privileged and wealthy backgrounds, they tend to have been privately schooled. Nevertheless, it says something about the inequality in our society that our infrastructure of power is dominated by only one half of the population.”
Women have fought for their right to exist, to vote, for education, for their health and for their voice. Society, particularly Western society, has progressed to make space for women. Though the progress is yet to spread to women’s right to be safe. To be accepted and to be protected for their race, ethnicity, and sexuality.
So, is this a man's world?
Thank you to everyone that has participated and made this project come to life.
Thank you to the incredible women and people that have trusted me to share their stories.
Don't suffer alone. Fight the good fight. Speak up. Contact some of the amazing charities that work to provide support to women and female presenting people if you have been affected by the stories shared here.
Find them at:
SARSAS: https://www.sarsas.org.uk
Womankind: https://www.womankindbristol.org.uk
Bawso: https://bawso.org.uk/en/
Women’s Aid: https://www.womensaid.org.uk
Southall Black Sisters: https://southallblacksisters.org.uk
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