Does Feminism Discriminate Against Men?

With Special Guests:

• Warren Farrell
• Warwick Marsh and
• Kay Knight.

For all their fence sitting, prevarication and cruel failure to properly reform either the Family Court of Australia or the Child Support Agency, at least the previous conservative government headed by John Howard acknowledged that fathers existed.

But the inclusion of a divisive single mother’s advocate such as Kathleen Swinbourne in Kevin Rudd’s massive 2020 Summit talk fest, supposedly bringing together the country’s 1,000 brightest brains, while totally ignoring all the highly intelligent and hardworking figures in the fatherhood movement, shows exactly where their heads are at. That Swinbourne from the Sole Parents Union is regarded as one of the country’s brightest is a tragic farce. Figures who were overlooked and who would have leant much needed balance to the debate include Tony Miller from Dads in Distress, Professor John MacDonald from the University of Western Sydney, Warwick Marsh from the Fatherhood Foundation, and the list goes on - and on - and on.

Instead the government has decided to put together a list that reads more like an Australian left wing feminists’ who’s who than a genuine list of people who could contribute to the debate on families. Believe it or not, they have the audacity to use the word “social inclusion” while ignoring every single figure in the fatherhood movement from coast to coast. In announcing the Summit, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd declared that they wanted to hear ideas from across the spectrum, ideas that could suprise and unsettle them. Nothing, it appears, could be further from the truth.

While professors and doctors clutter the list, the inclusion of an even more divisive figure than Swinbourne, the former chief justice of the Family Court Alastair Nicholson, shows that the academics who organised the conference have no idea of the real world. Surely if anyone had been aware of the low esteem with which Nicholson is held by hundreds of thousands of separated dads and separated families they would have passed over him for someone much more worthy. Critics argue that on his retirement Nicholson left the court in a shambles and its reputation at an extremely low ebb, both in the public eye and within the legal profession as a whole. His inclusion is a disgrace.

What makes the choices in the Summit under the family and social inclusion section so questionable is that this is the Summit which is meant to set up the paramaters of the debate and propose an agenda for the next decade of the Rudd government. Kevin Rudd declares at www.australia2020.gov.au that: “The Summit will help us shape a long term strategy for the nation’s future covering the economy, the nation’s infrastructure, our environment, our farmers, health care, indigenous Australians, the arts, national security, how we improve our system of government, and how we strengthen our communities and ensure nobody is left out of Australia’s future. It’s a big agenda, but we need to think big.”

That agenda clearly doesn’t include fathers or anyone from the fatherhood movement; and thus we as a nation are sentenced to yet another cycle of despair amongst broken families. Ultimately the country as a whole will pay the price for the left’s continuing contempt for fathers and their vital role in bringing up children.

John Howard blew a rare historical confluence of public and professional opinion when he balked at introducing proper shared parenting and opted for a meaningless notion of “shared responsibility” for separating families. Now, with the left in power from coast to coast and alternative and progressive views from the fatherhood movement ignored by the reactionary elements within the massive family law industry, we are all paying the consequences for his timidity, fence sitting and courting of the feminist vote.

But there are some positives. One of them is that we have on our show this week Dr Warren Farrell, world renowned author of countless books on gender, including The Myth of Male Power, Why Men Earn More and Father and Child Reunion.

With women’s and gender studies courses dominating our universities; where the next generation of leaders learns contempt for men and their traditional roles and are taught to hate males and fathers and the so-called patriarchy, Warren Farrell has set out to address exactly this audience with his new book, produced by leading academic publishers Oxford University Press, Does Feminism Discriminate Against Men?

Here is the book’s promotional blurb:

“Does feminism give a much-needed voice to women in a patriarchal world? Or is the world not really patriarchal? Has feminism begun to level the playing field in a world in which women are more often paid less at work and abused at home? Or are women paid equally for the same work and not abused more at home? Does feminism support equality in education and in the military, or does it discriminate against men by ignoring such issues as male-only draft registration and boys lagging behind in school?

The only book of its kind, this volume offers a sharp, lively, and provocative debate on the impact of feminism on men. Warren Farrell - an international best-selling author and leader in both the early women’s and current men’s movements - praises feminism for opening options for women but criticizes it for demonizing men, distorting data, and undervaluing the family. In response, James P. Sterba - an acclaimed philosopher and ardent advocate of feminism - maintains that the feminist movement gives a long-neglected voice to women in a male-dominated world and that men are not an oppressed gender in today’s America.

Their wide-ranging debate covers personal issues, from love, sex, dating, and rape to domestic violence, divorce, and child custody. Farrell and Sterba also look through their contrasting lenses at systemic issues, from the school system to the criminal justice system; from the media to the military; and from health care to the workplace. A perfect book to get students thinking and debating, Does Feminism Discriminate Against Men? A Debate is ideal for courses in gender studies, sociology, psychology, economics, feminist philosophy, and contemporary moral issues. It is also compelling reading for anyone interested in the future of men and women.”

Next up we will talk with Warwick Marsh and Greg Andresen, who organised the recent Men and Fathers’ Health Forum in Canberra. Here is Warwick Marsh’s report on the Forum:

“Wednesday 19th March 2008 will go down as a milestone event in the men & fathers’ movement in Australia. This was the day when almost 30 key leaders, representing men’s, fatherhood and family groups, academics and health professionals, met in Federal Parliament to discuss forward motion on the Labor Party’s proposed National Men’s Health Policy.

On the 5th of November 2007 in the lead up to last year’s federal election, the Labor Party announced that it was going to formulate a National Men’s Health Policy. This announcement was greeted with acclaim by Australia’s men and fathers’ movement. Many within the movement were pleasantly surprised because the Labor Party has sometimes been rather anti-male. No doubt it was this pre-election announcement, along with Work Choices that caught the attention of many men across Australia. The announcement of a National Men’s Health Policy certainly contributed to the 5% swing, allowing the Labor Party to win government. Men at 49.2% are the largest minority group in Australia today, and have been waiting a long time for a National Men’s Health Policy.

Men are falling behind in the area of health. Indigenous men’s health is even further behind. Take for instance the following facts:

• The average life expectancy for men is 4 years and 10 months below women (83.5 years for women and 78.7 years for men).
• Men commit suicide at 4 times the rate of women. The average life expectancy for Indigenous males in Australia is 59.4 years of age, 19.3 years less than non-Indigenous men.
• The Australian male mortality rate (the rate of deaths from all causes) is 50% higher than the female rate.
• The death rate for men from injury in NSW is about 3 times the rate for women.
• Overall Indigenous males die at 3.2 times the rate of non-Indigenous men from injury - this includes motor vehicles, accidents, falls, homicides and suicides.
• Men die from ischemic heart diseases at 1.7 times the rate of women; from lung cancer at 2.1 times the rate of women; from chronic lower respiratory diseases at 1.9 times the rate of women and from diabetes at 1.5 times the rate of women.
• Indigenous men die from diabetes at 6.1 times the rate of non-Indigenous men.
• In 2005 1,657 Australian men committed suicide whilst the road toll came to 1,636 deaths.
• Divorced men are at least three times as likely to commit suicide as any other group.
• In rural and remote areas the rate of suicide for males aged 15-24 is twice that of similar aged men in capital cities.
• Suicide rates for Indigenous men are 70% higher than for non-Indigenous men.
• Rates of homicide for Indigenous men are 7 to 8 times higher than for non-Indigenous men.
• Expenditure on health care is 34% higher on women than men. In 1993-94, 13.4 billion dollars was spent on men’s health care compared to 18 billion dollars on women’s health care.
• More men die annually from prostate cancer than women die of breast cancer.

In the light of these facts it was important that the men and fathers’ movement gathered at Parliament House for such an historic health forum. The crisis in men’s health requires urgent attention.

Professor John Macdonald was quoted in several news stories along with Dr Elizabeth Celi. I did several national radio interviews in the lead up to the forum, as did Micheal Woods from the University of Western Sydney. One of the interviewers asked me, “How best can men improve their health on a personal basis?” I simply replied, “Exercise more, worry less and become a rabbit and eat lots of vegetables.” I could have added to that, “get closer to your family,” as said to me by David Hughes, Australia’s only clinical nurse specialist in men’s health.”

We close today’s show by talking with Kay Knight from the Thanks Dad Photos competition, run by a group called Community Connections. Here is some background on the origin of the competition from their website www.thanksdadsphotos.org:

“Simply displaying positive photos of dads with their children was first suggested to Chris Hawke in July 2000 by Michael Hawton a Family Court Counsellor in Lismore and Greg Schlieman one of the co-founders of Northern Rivers Mensline telephone support based in Lismore NSW.

Chris Hawke had just started in July 2000 as a men and family relationships worker funded by the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services in the Lismore area. His aim was to continue to run Father Son Weekends and provide dads with other activities like sporting days to bring men and boys together. This positive photo idea was a great way to get to know the local community.

The 2000 Fathers Day Photo Competition was organised in six weeks with the support of local media and schools with cash prizes provided by Lismore businesses and presented to winners in front of K-Mart in Lismore Shopping Square. The Lismore Camera Club and several local schools were involved, local judges and also peoples choice voting. A trophy was also given to be best primary and secondary school photographer by Darcy McFadden, a well known and recently retired photographer with The Northern Star.

The impact was amazing. In organising the competition, Chris became involved in hundred of discussions with men and women who were keen to share their positive stories. Many men were delighted to have positive photos of themselves with their kids displayed in public. The public people’s choice vote seeded many thoughts and stimulated many discussions within families or with the exhibition attendants. Some also wanted support to rebuild broken or struggling relationships with their children and partners.

The 2001 Fathers Day Competition and Exhibitions expanded to include people voting for their favourite photo at Ballina Shopping Fair, schools and community venues. The regional newspaper The Northern Star provided cash prizes and promotion for a Regional Schools Workshop at Richmond River High School. Ian Causley our federal parliament representative presented prizes with several speakers including Jacklyn Wagner photographer fromThe Northern Star.

In 2002 we went national after many requests from around Australia. We visited many schools, community groups

A second regional schools workshop was run in conjunction with the NSW Camera Clubs Convention with speakers and school students from 15 schools across the region, speakers and prizes.

In 2003 the People’s Choice Exhbitions also toured for three months around the south coast and southern highlands of NSW with the NSW Men’s Health and Wellbeing Association.

The competition has continued to go from success to success. Many thousands of Australians continue to be stimulated by this positive preventive activity affirming the positive times that men are already having with our children and young people.”

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