Hiding in Plain Sight

Writing for the Feminist Academy section called 'Hiding in Plain Sight', I uncover surprising ways that patriarchy hides in plain sight. This time, snow clearing in Sweden has prompted a chapter in Caroline Criado Perez book, Invisible Women. And is not the motion required to clear the snow, but rather which streets and areas are chosen to be free routes of circulation.

The main problem, explains Criado Perez, is that women and men travel in different ways and for different reasons. So when the Swedish government chose to clear only main traffic arteries, pedestrian walks, and bicycle lanes, was inadvertently creating yet another hurdle for women to navigate. Pondering on this question, Criado Perez wrote a thought provoking chapter on how men and women travel. It turns out that men have simple and straightforward journeys - mainly from home to work, and vice versa. Men also have more access to cars than women do.

However, a woman's journey looks different from a man's. Yes, she travels to work. But most likely she has also dropped the kids off to school first. On the way back, she is not only picking up the kids from school, she is likely stopping at the grocery store, and perhaps even visiting an elder she cares for, or taking them to the doctors. This is because women do 75% of the world's unpaid care work. Women's travel needs are radically different from mens'. There is even a name for the way women travel, is called 'trip-chaining' because one step outside the house means many interconnected small journeys. As an example, in London, women are 25% more likely to trip-chain than their male counterparts.

There is also one more difference in how men and women travel. Since men have greater access to cars than women, public services are therefore mainly used by women. The Swedish government rectified this issue, and is now clearing of snow the routes used by public transport. Their willingness was related to cots. It requires no extra money and it would improve the life of many. What they did not anticipate is that they will actually save money! This is because pedestrians were injured three times more than motorists during icy conditions. So clearing the pedestrian paths along the public transport routes, resulted in less hospital admissions. Because men have greater access than women to cars, is at no surprise that most of the pedestrians admitted to hospital were women. So poor snow clearing was costing women not just effort to navigate their cities, but also trips to the hospital, broken bones, and recovery time. For the sake of precision, women constituted the 69% of single person incidents admission.

Who knew even clearing snow could be influenced by patriarchy!

Patriarchy can be loud and oppressive or silent and invisible. Today I am writing about the ways patriarchal societies hide in plain sight and affect women in unimaginable ways.

Because I am an academic, what you will read from now on is all backed by science and research. Not mine, but Caroline Criado Perez's. Her book, Invisible Women, was the winner of the 2019 Science Book Prize and a fascinating read. If you haven't got to it yet, do not worry, I've got you covered. Keep reading...

Men, argues Criado Perez (and I agree!) are considered the standard of human race. This means that when you hear/read the word 'men' and think it just a backwards way of talking about us all - at least I know I did - it is not! Men means, literally, men. Because men made the rules and men are the default society rests upon, and is measured against.

So when taking about the evolution of men and the human race we have been told for decades about the importance of hunting. Anthropologists and historians have considered hinting an activity that was highly influential for the development of primitive societies. It was this aggressive and brave act carried out by males that allowed those ancient humans to develop into modern humans. After all, this was the conclusion that seventy-five academics reached at the symposium called 'Man the Hunter', back in 1966 at the super respectful University of Chicago.

The activity of hunting is what distinguished humans from apes, they thought. However. No, let me write that again. HOWEVER, anthropologist Sally Slocum began to wonder what did women do while men were hunting? As a woman reading this right now, I am sure you know the answer to this one... women were multitasking! Their role in those primitive societies was pivotal for organising their lives into functional systems by: gathering food, breastfeeding, weaning babies, raising kids, planning, running the mental load! communicating and cooperating with each other! The conclusion Slocum arrived at is that the men gathering at the Man the Hunter symposium were giving too much importance to aggression as a form of evolution (Darwin anyone?) and disregarding the other very important factors that helped humans evolve.

But this is not just a hiccup in our patriarchal past, there is more! And it affects you, and me, and all women today. Let's talk about work and its impact on our health. Science tells us that humans working over 40 hours a week pay a health cost. However, women work significantly longer than this due to the second shift and mental load. In the UK, data from 2017 published by Health and Safety Executive reveal that women experience more work related stress, depression and anxiety than men. Overall, women were 53% more stressed than men. However, here is when it gets interesting. Working over 40 hours per week costs women not only hour mental health, but also the risk of developing life threatening diseases. However, men working between 41 to 50 hours per week do not seem to pay such a high health tax as women. So the question is, are women less tolerant to the nitty gritty of paid labour outside our homes? Not really. The issue was solved when someone decided to measure a group of workers - both male and female - with no caring responsibilities. It turned out that both male and females respond quite similarly to work stress. The issue was never paid labour but the invisible labour that women shoulder every day, outside their workplace!

And talking about long hours at work, it is 9.35pm and I should stop writing. I will bring you more fascinating facts on patriarchy hiding in pain sight next week.

Solange