Depressing realisation - men rule the world!

[BooCanary]

All this talk about Maggie making great strides for women. What a load of BS.

I went to a meeting today. Quite high level, senior mgrs, MDs etc. Must have been about 150 people at least - blue chip, government, small business, multi nationals all represented.

Only FIVE people out of that entire group, were not white, middle aged men. FIVE!

Two ethnic minority men, and three white women. And 150 white men, all more or less between 40 and 60.

How fucking depressing is that. Nearly 150 grey suited clones.

So easy to think things have changed if you watch business programmes on the TV. The reality is very different .

[NiceTabard]

Yup of course they do.

Apart from in countries where white people are not predominant. In which case, middle aged men of the predominant race / colour run everything.

[NiceTabard]

And yes it is fucking depressing. Really fucking depressing.

The thing that I always notice though is when on the news they are talking about somewhere or other and showing footage from the streets and markets and wandering around and stuff and there are no women anywhere now that freaks me right out.

[TheCrackFox]

Yy

I used to volunteer for Homestart - a couple of years ago a group of the volunteers were asked by the co-ordinator to plead our case with the council who gave us a grant. The council representative was a white, middle class, middle aged man surrounded by women trying to explain how supportive our service was to vulnerable families. He had all the power and I felt quite grubby afterwards.

[Bunnylion]

nicetabard that seriously freaks me out too, some sort of twilight zone but even scarier because it's not another dimension.

OP I worked in a large company for 7 years while the directors repeatedly told me "bunny, you're just one step away from the board". As 4 men who'd less experience, qualifications, ability and work ethic than I jumped over me to a seat on the board. The glass ceiling well and truly exists.

[Jellykitten1]

I said the very same thing to DH only last night

I was commenting on how crazy the world is, how men own/run/rule the world but are completely ineffective at actually taking responsibility and working out real solutions instead of waffling about making solutions. I said the older I get, the more I (depressingly) realise that the men who rule the world are actually not very effective, they can't see that we are all stuck on this relatively small planet together and we cannot escape our neighbouring countries to go to another planet so shouldn't we really stop trying to compete so hard when eventually, we'll only end up damaging ourselves (nuclear war for example). Also that (very simplisitically), how ridiculous it is that we give billions but we owe billions(!) I mean, what men have allowed that ridiculous situation come about and how many women do you know who would think that was a cutting edge, 2013 place to be. (ok, years of history to that I know but still... history presided over by Men).

DH is an unemotive logical sort, so having ignored most of the five minute rant, he rattled his newspaper and said all the countries in the world have differing natural resourses and so it goes back so far to nature that there will always be inequalities. and the only real solution to that would be to redistribute the world's wealth so we accommodate for those in countries poorer in natural resourses, would I want to downside massively and/or perhaps try a spell somewhere far less inhabitable than the UK myself, and everyone in the world gets the exact same accommodation? And could I pass the remote control, he wanted to switch over to Sky Sports now. [Conversation dismissed]

[Maggysinge]

Suck it up girls cuz things will never change and in 100 years time you lot will still be on here whingeing while men are still running everything.

[IAmJacksRagingBileDuct]

What a well thought out, productive comment Maggy

I'm amazed every day at the total incompetence at the top, tbh its not even the fact its all men, if they were doing a fantastic job it would be ok with me, but they're not and there's no signs of real change.

[Dadthelion]

Shouldn't it be:

'white, middle aged men'

Rule the world? And probably middle class should be in there as well.

Believe me men don't rule the world, some men rule the world.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

I believe they remain male despite being white and middle class, but naturally, dismissive comments don't at all prove anyone's point here.

Men do rule the world.

[namechangeguy]

Can I just say on behalf of your overlords, it isn't all fun and games. And my Chinese and Indian colleagues, despite being relatively new to the throne, are a little bit miffed at being overlooked.

[Dadthelion]

The UK, for example, is ruled by Cameron, Osborne, Johnson and I suppose Clegg. And their ilk.

White, middle/upper class, middle aged men.

They're not black or poor or disabled.

The world is ruled by a tiny minority, from a narrow selection, of men.

[namechangeguy]

I wonder though, dad - how much do the politicians run things? If they were so powerful, how would they have been in thrall to Rupert Murdoch for so many years? Look at the effect George Soros had on the UK economy on Black Wednesday. Look at how much influence the oligarch's have on the Russian economy.

The posh boys in government are not the top of the tree.

[MiniTheMinx]

No the political class are not the top of the tree. It would be wrong to say that men rule the world. Some men actually have very little power.

Apart from in countries where white people are not predominant. In which case, middle aged men of the predominant race / colour run everything

before about 1900 I think this statement was correct but now this is not the case.

[namechangeguy]

If I ruled the world, it would be a far nicer place. Benevolent dictatorship is the way to go.

[vesuvia]

MiniTheMinx wrote - "It would be wrong to say that men rule the world.

There are a few women who are political leaders or business leaders, but men dominate the world's power structures in politics and big business. As power in the sense of "running the world" is about upholding patriarchal values, people in power have to support those patriarchal power structures, whether they personally like it or not, but I suspect that almost all of the people running the world actually love patriarchal power.

If men aren't running the world, then who is? Given a choice of men, women, boys or girls, I think it's men. I suppose we could say some phase like "99.9999999% of the people who run the world are men". Would such pedantry change the situation substantially? I don't think it would significantly change our understanding of the cause of the problem. I think it would have negligible impact on the main point, that patriarchy ensures there is a huge and unfair power imbalance between men and women.

MiniTheMinx wrote - "Some men actually have very little power."

I am sure that there are fewer powerless men than there are powerless women, but yet again, the majority of powerless adults (women) are being urged to bend over backwards to help the minority of powerless adults (men) to gain more patriarchal power (over women).

Left-wing governments or right-wing governments, it doesn't matter, women are marginalised by patriarchal power structures. For example, I think the politburo of the USSR included only 3 women in its 64 years of existence. I'm not at all surprised that the last female member of the Soviet politburo was given the "women's issues" ministerial portfolio of "women, family and children" - another example of patriarchal sexist "group think".

[MiniTheMinx]

I am just saying that the statement "men rule the world" is incorrect.

Some men rule the world.

Would such pedantry change the world? Yes I think it would because class society is at the root of this inequality.

Am I worried about the lack of women in politics, yes very much. Do I personally think we need more women business leaders......well no, not under the capitalist mode of production which creates and perpetuates class society.

[MiniTheMinx]

If I ruled the world........

I don't want to what is needed is more democracy not less.

[namechangeguy]

Democracy is an awful system. Have you seen the voters?

[MiniTheMinx]

No, there isn't many of them, they have all given up and gone shopping. We now vote at the tills.

[Mugofteaforme]

Well said Mini :). What is the patriarchy I hear so much about? Most men have about as much power as is allowed under a classist society-virtually none.

[LastMangoInParis]

White, middle class men rule the world? Really?
Which part of the world would that be?
US? China? India? Saudi? Iran? N Korea? S Korea?

[namechangeguy]

As the theory goes, Mug, every rung of society/patriarchy contains men and women, and within that rung the men are lording it over the women. As intricate as it sounds, that is how it supposedly works.

[MiniTheMinx]

Reading Gerda Lerner (creation of patriarchy) it seems that slavery and the capture of women and children & the exchange of women btw tribes that the subordination of women happened first before the creation of archaic states/nation states and the class system.

It isn't as simple now to separate class/race/gender/sex oppression. And we won't overcome women's subordination in a class society IMO which is why every time I see someone say we need more women CEOs I want to scream. I don't think playing patriarchy top trumps/ who can shin up the tree the quickest wearing a dress and carrying female chromosomes is any different to having men wield power over others. Thatcher is a perfect example of a powerful women who abused her position to harm a great many people, men and women.

[LastMangoInParis]

Mini that is really, really well said.