Can the past women change how our current women think?

It’s 2015 and there are still very strong opinions about whether we live in a truly equal working environment. Many women would strongly disagree and they would argue that there is still a lot of work and improvement to be done in order to make the working world fairer for women.

Founder of Young Feminists London, Ayelle, says, “There's still a lot of sexual harassment, It's hard to get heard, especially in male dominated professions where women are pushed to the sidelines. If you ‘shout louder’ you will only be seen as annoying so I think there's a limit to the lean in method, women leaning in is great but we can only get so far with that method. We need men to understand their role in all of this and embrace feminism as well.”

Many women believe we still live in a man's world.
Credit: William Murphy

The 20 year old says that feminism, for her, means “standing for equality and dismantling harmful gender stereotypes.”

She believes there is more to be done to make a fairer and equal environment for women. Ayelle explained there is a pay difference between men and women which is a contributing factor towards the term ‘man’s world’ which means that women will find it difficult to be successful because the working environment is aimed at men and not women.

The feminist and musician’s thoughts and feelings are echoed by many other women as demonstrated at the Working Women Exhibition held at Barking Town Hall during March 2015. 

The event, hosted by Clare Sexton, aims to empower women by helping to raise awareness of women in Barking and Dagenham as part of Women’s Empowerment Month. The exhibition will include women such as Elizabeth Fry to show different women and what they have achieved. The event will include “other prominent women” says Clare.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

She explained the event highlights all different types of women and uses the history of the borough to explain how each woman impacted the borough. The assistant activist emphasised the exhibition is also to establish a pride of ordinary and extraordinary women who have lived and impacted the borough.

She is hopeful the exhibition will have an impact on people currently living in the borough of Barking and Dagenham because it will create a sense of empowerment. The five day exhibition has attracted attention from not just the borough of Barking and Dagenham but also from different areas of London. 

The exhibition is being hosted at the request of Councillor Josephine Channer who is a member of the Labour party and a keen activist of women’s rights and empowerment.