When history looks back at this grey area known as the 2010s, what will it be marked by?
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The battle for marriage equality was finally, mostly, won.
We communicate via small screens held in our pockets, pinging each other pictures with words on them.
The most powerful country in the world elected a leader with a toupee (maybe) and penchant for sexism.
None of our memories really exist – they’re all hosted on the almighty cloud.
And, hopefully, this decade will be a turning point for women’s rights and gender equality.
It can be easier to ignore an overheard remark with sexist undertones, and it can be easier, too, to react to that same comment with anger.
We’ve seen a change in language around a woman’s right to her body, her choices, and her value.
It has not been a pretty road to get here, and has by no means sprung out of nowhere. Every battle cry, march and sentiment screamed by sisters before us has evolved into the deafening conversation that permeates today.
The change we are seeing now is less about a tangible result and more about a change of culture. A shift in the axis between the sexes.
Thesis upon thesis will be written about the #MeToo movement. The Weinstein war has created a ripple to reach ponds we didn’t know existed.
The extent and gravity of domestic violence, most commonly perpetrated by men, has been acknowledged in Australia.
The heinous acts committed behind closed doors spilled into our streets, from Jill Meagher to the more recent Eurydice Dixon, and all the women in between whose names did not make headlines.
There’s the continued discrimination and further barriers in place for women of colour, and those who identify as LGBTI.
It is hard to tell how far off we are from a gender equality utopia, or even if we’ll ever reach it.
We know that it won’t just take women to get us there. We know that men need to be on board with this path to the utopic oasis, too. But, rewind one step. We need to make sure that all women are on board.
Sometimes it seems like the conversations around how we need to reach this space skip over sectors of society.
Through studies, we know the three key areas that women perceive as lacking the most parity are in economic security, leadership positions, and violence against women.
In a particular study, conducted by Australia’s sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins, it was found that women in regional and rural areas particularly experienced the effects of sexism or gender inequality.
Look to your regions, farflung from urban centres. These are the places that need attention. The women and the men.
Here, hashtags are not groundswells but symbols found on landline keypads.
Ladies bring a plate is still found on event flyers pinned to supermarket notice boards.
And feminism is still often a dirty word. It equates to bra-burning trouble makers.
It’s in these areas that such movements are missed but still so important.
Tasmanian-born comedian Hannah Gadsby shared her experience of growing up as not only a woman, but a gay woman, in a regional town in the state’s somewhat isolated north west.
Towns like this one exist across the country, where it’s not just women’s rights that are foreign concepts, but the rights of anyone that falls outside the nuclear family.
Gadsby’s Nanette is one of the most important pieces of media to emerge in this debate – whatever we want to call this debate – and should be mandatory viewing.
Her experience is not every woman’s, not every gay woman’s, but it is common enough for us to consider with heavy hearts and solutions at the ready.
There is no doubt the Gadsby experience is still being lived out by women – yes, and men – in isolated regions around Australia.
For those who consider themselves informed, new-age feminists (or perhaps they just call themselves decent human beings) it can be easy to dismiss what can be perceived as a narrow mind.
It can be easier to ignore an overheard remark with sexist undertones, and it can be easier, too, to react to that same comment with anger.
What can be harder, can take more courage, is to bridge the gap. Whatever the comment, muttered by whoever, it came from a place of ignorance.
The solution to ignorance is education. It takes a gentle movement to change a lifetime of rough thinking.
There’s a saying that you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. It’s still unclear why we’re aiming to attract the flies in the first place, but in this instance, let’s assume they’re the Australians we still need to get on board to reach that aforementioned utopia.
The year is 2018. We’ve got two years before we enter the next decade.
Not everyone is a victim. Not everyone is a perpetrator. But everyone has a role to play.