Bettany Hughes on Radio 4

I've now heard the historian, Bettany Hughes, three times on Radio 4: presenting her two half-hour programmes, Banishing Eve, and as one of the guests on Loose Ends yesterday, when I was horrified to learn of the cruel death meted out to Hypatia. I was very interested in Hughes' examination of the rôle of women in the founding of the Christian Church, and I warmed to her expressive voice, lively delivery and rich vocabulary. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rl4kn

Very clearly there was a deal of misogyny among the early hierarchy of the early church, and clearly there are many members of the church today who are still of that persuasion. I would welcome another series about institutional sex prejudice, this time specifically about the medical profession's ignoble history of prejudiced views about women and damaging treatment of them, which, like the sexism within the church, still has a destructive presence today.

See Women get worse heart treatment than men

and Fighting the System for NHS Complaints

Baroness Susan Greenfield intends to sue the Royal Institution for sex discrimination

Baroness Susan Greenfield intends to sue the Royal Institution for sex discrimination after being made redundant from her post as Director because the RI is strapped for cash: reported HERE by BBC News. I find it astonishing that she feels she has been subject to sex discrimination, of all things, when she has been in post for over a decade! It seems eminently sensible to me for the Royal Institution to sack a highly paid employee when her salary can no longer be afforded. For her to sue on the grounds of sex discrimination is, it seems to me, grossly insulting to the many women who really have suffered, and suffered very greatly indeed, because of sex discrimination.

I must declare my interest in Lady Greenfield, because I am not one of her admirers. - See Susan Greenfield, speaking on Simon Mayo's Show, gave the wrong information about what causes obesity.

A government consultation paper aims to change and rationalise some of the UK's discrimination legislation, e.g. relating to golf club membership.

Equality bill set to curb golf club discrimination - Guardian

Extract:

"Golf clubs and other private members' establishments will no longer be able to ban women members from their bars or discriminate in any other way on gender grounds under a shakeup of equality laws unveiled today.

The change is outlined in a government consultation paper aimed at rationalising the UK's complex web of discrimination legislation, some of which dates back 40 years, and introducing new protection for some groups.

Planned reforms include compelling private landlords to put in ramps and stairlifts for disabled tenants who request it, although the tenant would have to pay.

Changes to rules affecting private clubs and associations would mean those with mixed membership could no longer treat women differently.

Some golf clubs give female members limited access to club facilities or bar them from the running of the club.

The Carlton Club, the Conservative party's gentleman's club of choice, rejected a move last month to elevate women from "half member" status to full membership.

A source at the Department of Communities and Local Government, which is publishing today's green paper, said: "We firmly believe that people being treated as second class citizens when a club is open to all is simply not on."

However, in a move that will spare gentlemen's clubs without female members and the few remaining all-male working men's clubs, the government will also make clear it will not prevent the setting up of private clubs aimed solely at one gender or group.

While women's groups are expected to welcome the reform, campaigners believe the government must go far further in tackling more fundamental equality issues."

It is so much more important to outlaw the sex discrimination within the medical profession, that results in a woman with the same symptoms (e.g. of heart disease) as a man, finding that she is less likely to be physically examined and less likely to be offered tests and/or treatment than a man. Medics are inclined to regard a woman's reported physical symptoms as imaginary/psychogenic/exaggerated/hypochondriacal, etc despite their physicality, and this is very damaging to women's health. There is a wealth of research that bears this out, but nothing is done to legislate against this harmful practice. We all, male and female, pay taxes that fund the health service, but women usually get an inferior service.

Similarly, the most damaging ageism is practised by health professionals. - It is so blatant as to be a national scandal and it intermittently receives widespread coverage in the press. - But we still lack legislation to outlaw it.

Many doctors are also, in practice, discriminating against disabled people, e.g. people with learning difficulties, and this too tends to get quite widely reported, but nothing is done to prevent it by law.

How does equal membership of a golf club matter compare in importance to equality of access to appropriate health care and equal courtesy from our grossly overpaid, prejudiced medical profession?


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)