anon

I’m 16 and from Australia.Whenever we visit my dad’s side for Christmas my older brother was always the one included in the big discussions in the living room about world issues, economics or politics, and my grandma and auntie’s and myself were always sitting at the dining table or in the kitchen talking about town gossip, or asking me about boys and what makeup I wanted for my next birthday. It angers me so much that I’m not accepted into the ‘inner-circle’ of men in my family, how they just assume that women are weak or stupid or just good for cooking and raising kids. I’m in the open first VIII at my school for rowing, recently went to nationals for it and came away with 4 gold medals. When I told them this, I heard ‘I can’t believe she could handle the mud or getting her hair wet’ followed by laughter. It doesn’t matter what kind of sporting or academic achievements I make in my life, I’ll always be told, maybe not to my face but it is surely implied, that I am just simply are not as good as a man and I never will be. It doesn’t matter if I become a doctor or a lawyer I’ll always be second best to a man of the same qualifications as me.