Author Archives: Rachel Edwards

Rachel Edwards

Why a culture change is a necessary pre-requisite to gender balance

By Rachel Edwards | Thu 17th March 2016 - 8:55 am

I’m glad to be in a party where sexual harassment is taken seriously, and I don’t doubt that everybody has good intentions.  Let me explain why that isn’t nearly enough.

A man walks into a bar.  He buys a drink.  He chats with a friend about the policy debate they’ve both come from, and they have a lively disagreement.  He contemplates getting food.  He gets talking to a young woman who he finds attractive, but she doesn’t seem interested so he doesn’t push it.  He gets another drink.

A woman walks into the same bar.  A strange man twice her age hits on her.  She goes up to the bar to buy a drink, where a man she kind-of-knows hits on her.  She’s talking to her friend about a policy debate, and another man she’s never met comes up, joins in the debate in an extraordinarily condescending manner, and she can’t quite tell if he’s hitting on her but she wishes he would take the hint and leave.  She goes back up to the bar, where a drunk stranger makes a pass at her.

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