fourth floor feminism | sociable speculation

I would like my children, nieces and nephews, godchildren, grandchildren and all young people with dreams to be able to participate in a political system that demonstrably represents the population. At a basic level that would mean a political system that has a minimum of 50% of its participants, from voters to parliamentarians, being women. I would like my daughters, nieces, goddaughters, granddaughters and all future women to take political power and shape it in their image, not ask for political participation and have to change it to fit them. I think the voting women of Australia have a five year window to take political power and shape it in their image so the women growing up now have one less battle to fight in the future. The women growing up now will have to face a world in the merciless grip of climate change. If we have not secured 50% presence of women in all areas of social, economic and political power, women will have no voice in how they and their children survi...

It's an inconvenient truth that our current economic, political and legal systems don't even acknowledge that the majority of us exist. That’s because we currently live with systems created by old rich white dudes about 300 years ago, and in Australia up until 1962, positions of power in those systems were not open to: Indigenous populations Women Anyone who was not able-bodied Non-Europeans Non-cisgender males Non-heterosexual males Men under a certain threshold of wealth/employment/education Here are some dates for reference: Renaissance ideas on the individual had taken over Europe by the 17th Century Parliamentary Democracy (British Edition): 1707 Industrial Revolution: 1760 Universal Male Suffrage (Britain): starts 1791 , full by 1928 Non-Indigenous Male Suffrage (Australia): 1855 Non-Indigenous Female Suffrage (Australia): 1902 Suffrage for Indigenous Australians: 1962 In truth, access to positions of power in Australia for anyone excluded before 1962 has...

To build a political movement there must be a large population without a voice, mentorship and training for candidates, and voters that have access to the candidates to articulate their specific needs. Australia has three major political parties, each backed by their own training and voting block: the Australian Greens have the Environmental and Activist movements, Labor has the Unions and the Liberal Party has the business sector. Unfortunately the Labor and Liberal models are the Boys Club in Australia, and while the Australian Greens have a very different internal model of democracy, they participate in a parliamentary model that was created by the Boys Club, and they do not have the numbers to change the system – yet. Australian Politics: The Boys Club Our political system simply cannot cope with diversity of candidates - and that is the fault of the system, not the fault of diversity. Diversity is ever-present and requires systems to improve, not retreat. Systems are just...