The Sydney Feminists

In 2019, it is not safe to be a woman with an opinion on the internet. This is not to suggest it once was or that it might be in the not-too-distant future; it is simply an undeniable truth all women implicitly and explicitly understand.  When euphoria around the first-wave of feminism subsided, it gave rise to the second waves’ demands for fairer working conditions and retention of the inalienable right to reproductive autonomy. During this time, women began to regain access to power that had been stripped from them. Women inherently understand the good and necessary work involved of dismantling the oppressors’ political, economic and social structures comes at a great cost. The oppressors do not yield – they appease. And, as Oliver Twist experienced when he demanded, ‘Please, Sir, I want some more’, all oppressed groups eventually discover what awaits them when appeasement is no longer an option. Censorship is oft used to silence the voices of the oppressed who d...

Image Description: A black and white photo of Mamie Phipps Clark and her husband Kenneth Clark. Mamie is on the left and is wearing a knit dress and string of pearls. She is smiling and looking directly at the camera. Kenneth is on the right, dressed in a black pinstripe suit, white shirt and black tie. He is wearing tortoiseshell glasses and looking lovingly at Mamie . His hand is rested on her forearm. Racial segregation affected the lives of every black American during the middle of the 20 th century. Mamie Phipps Clark was a pioneering social psychologist who investigated its influence on young black children’s self-esteem and identification. She was also the first black woman to graduate from Columbia University, in New York, with a doctorate in social psychology. Clark was born on October 18 th , 1917, in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Her father was a doctor, while her mother stayed home to raise Clark and her siblings. She had a moderately comfortable and happy life g...

Jehovah’s Witnesses is an exclusive and restrictive religion whose members claim to be on the path to an enlightening and everlasting life. However, women raised in this cult claim some of their practices represent a serious violation of human rights. For example, there is no gender equality, and women are prevented from advancing in their careers. Lara Kaput, a former Jehovah’s Witness, reveals the position of women in this organisation. Jehovah’s Witnesses is a millenarian evangelical religion founded in 1870 by Charles Taze Russell. The Witnesses believe their cult is a restoration of first-century Christianity and the doctrine is based on the entire Protestant canon of scripture, which is considered the inerrant word of God. Female members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses face multiple restrictions in their life. First, they have the lowest positions in the religious hierarchy and, most of the time, they are excluded from any governing decisions. “I [was] many levels down th...

As a woman in STEM and the reluctant inheritor of a resting bitch face, paychecks and imposter syndromes have been easier to navigate than the perplexing relationship I’ve had with other women. I have found that I generally get along more easily with men than with women. I am aware that I am not the only woman who experiences this phenomenon, and that there are many factors which may have contributed to this, but I do believe that a rather large number of women in STEM fields seem to feel the same way. While there are undeniably women in every field that face similar situations with fellow women, there seems to be a disproportionate amount of them in fields related to science, math and technology. Personally, I’ve always had to make more effort to connect with most other women than with men, and the ones I did well with seem to face the same struggle. For the longest time I thought it was just a personality thing, which it perhaps is, in part. But being surrounded by other women from...