Exploding Gender Myths

With Special Guests:

• Professor Mark Wooden
• Warwick Marsh and
• Professor Richard B. Felson.

Prof Mark Wooden, social researcher at the University of Melbourne, is a very courageous man. Last week he was the only male taking part in a National Press Club panel discussion on the gender pay gap. Faced with a mostly female audience, he dared to challenge the myth that the pay gap between men and women in Australia is mainly due to discrimination, instead suggesting that it has “got a lot to do with the fact that women are not prepared to work longer hours.”

Other widespread myths concern the issue of domestic violence. One of them is that husbands engage in more marital violence than wives because they are more controlling. The other is that societal norms permit violence within marriage and that gender roles encourage violence by males moreso than females. Richard B. Felson, Professor of Crime, Law, Justice and Sociology at the Pennsylvania State University in the US, has published extensive research that challenges both of these myths.

Also on today’s show we speak to Warwick Marsh from the Fatherhood Foundation about the proposed laws in NSW that will remove the word ‘father’ from birth certifcates and consign the term ‘paternity leave’ to the dustbin of history.

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Women Who Speak Out For Men

Barbara KayWith Special Guests:

• Barbara Kay and
• Malia Blom.

Barbara Kay is a columnist for the National Post, Canada and the author of such courageous and widely-circulated male-friendly articles as On domestic violence, no one wants to hear the truth, The plight of divorced dads and The last white ribbon.

Malia Blom is executive director of the Boys and Schools program in the USA. Boys and Schools is dedicated to improving the lives and futures of boys. Their outreach efforts focus on raising public awareness regarding issues related to boys’ health and achievement. The Boys and Schools program is a project of the Men’s Health Network, a non-profit educational organization committed to improving the health and well-being of men and boys.

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The Best of 2007 - Part 1

With special guests:

• Sue Price: founder and spokesperson for the Men’s Rights Agency
• Dr Ludwig Lowenstein: world expert on Parental Alienation Syndrome
• Maggie Hamilton: author of What Men Don’t Talk About
• Andrew Denton: TV personality from many shows including Enough Rope
• Erin Pizzey: founder of the world’s first refuge for battered women
• Tony Coe: president of the UK’s Equal Parenting Council
• Ann Bressington: outspoken South Australian MP, who is calling for better Child Protection
• Mark Harris and Jolly Stansby: Fathers4Justice UK activists. Mark is also the author of Family Court Hell
• Jim Bailey: New Zealand father’s activist.

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International Comment

John Waters

With special guests:

• Dean Tong - internationally known family rights and forensic consultant on child abuse, domestic violence and child custody cases. He is also the author of a number of books including “Don’t blame me Daddy: false accusations of child sexual abuse - a hidden national tragedy” and “Elusive Innocence: survival guide for the falsely accused”
• John Waters - well known Irish journalist and social commentator, who calls a spade a spade. John speaks his mind at the Amen conference in Dublin, attacking the authorities for ignoring their duty of care to fathers and their children and refering to this scandal as being a gross violation of human rights

Plus the lastest news items from Australia and overseas affecting dads and their children.

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Abused Men

With special guests

• Joshua Key, subject of the book The Deserter’s Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq. Key, a young husband and father from Oklahoma, enlisted in the US Army in 2002 to lift his family out of poverty. Key tells of the human rights abuses he witnessed in Iraq: civilians beaten and shot, killed or maimed after little or no provocation. After seven months in Iraq, Key went home and knew he could no longer serve his country.

• Mary Cleary from AMEN, Ireland. AMEN is a voluntary group, founded in December 1997, which provides a confidential helpline, a support service and information for male victims of domestic abuse. Thousands of men and supportive members of their families have contacted the helpline since it was set up. She is also co-author of a new book That Bitch: Protect Yourself Against Women with Malicious Intent.

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The Dangers of Original Thought

Erin Pizzey

With special guest

• Erin Pizzey, founder of the world’s first refuge for battered women.

Erin Pizzey says domestic violence is not a gender issue. “It’s quite simple”, she says, “if children are born into violent families, both boys and girls will be infected.” She believes eventually we will have to concentrate on an alternative strategy of love and hope for these problem families. We will have to abandon the model of idealising the “victim”, demonising the “perpetrator” and politicising the issues.

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