"Like the cyclone, the trajectory of our common life is far from straightforward or linear"
Justice & Advocacy
“Saturday was International Women’s Day. It is the day on which we acknowledge that the vision my 13-year-old self of 50 years ago thought would be achieved in a few short years is still years away from being achieved. In fact, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report suggests that at the current rate of progress gender economic equality is still 134 years away,” says The Very Rev’d Dr Peter Catt
I recognised something of what life is like in the pattern of movement we witnessed in Cyclone Alfred. The cyclone’s final track was, in broad strokes, more or less what had been predicted by the meteorologists almost a week out from the cyclone’s crossing of the coast. The detail, however, was very different.
Throughout last week the cyclone moved more slowly than anyone had predicted. Then it doubled back on itself. It stalled and doubled back again. It moved away from the predicted crossing point before suddenly turning back on course. It sped up and then slowed down yet again. The predicted arrival time at the coast moved from Thursday night to Friday morning to Friday afternoon to Friday night to Saturday morning to Saturday evening. At one stage on Saturday some were thinking that it might head back out to sea; a move that would have further delayed its crossing. And for 12 hours on Saturday, it went absolutely nowhere, holding us all in a disappointing hiatus.
I suggest that the cyclone’s movements reflect the way life plays out because, like the cyclone, the trajectory of our common life is far from straightforward or linear. Take for example the move towards equality for women.
In 1974, some 70 years after women received the vote in Australia, the Whitlam Government put forward legislation that it hoped would lead to pay parity for women. This was strongly opposed by social and economic conservatives.
My parents used the gender pay debate as an opportunity to discuss with 13-year-old me the notion of equality between the sexes. Given that they both worked full-time and shared the household load, I found their argument convincing. In fact, I found their arguments so convincing that I naively thought that gender equality would be well-established by the time I became an adult.
Saturday was International Women’s Day. It is the day on which we acknowledge that the vision my 13-year-old self of 50 years ago thought would be achieved in a few short years is still years away from being achieved. In fact, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report suggests that at the current rate of progress gender economic equality is still 134 years away.
Just as Cyclone Alfred doubled back on itself, in the present day the path to gender equality could be seen to be taking a few steps back. The rise of religious fundamentalism, the resurgence of puritanism (even in our own denomination), the rise of toxic masculinity and the attacks on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in the USA, which will find supporters here, are all producing headwinds that might see the move towards gender equality stall.
Over the past two thousand years, the unfolding Jesus project has seen a constant, if torturously slow, movement towards the breaking down of the divisions that so often divide humanity. Like the cyclone, this movement, though at times, wobbly is unstoppable. It is unstoppable because there are people who hold fast to the faith of Jesus; the faith that God loves us, that all people are valued equally, and that people of goodwill can and do make a difference.
May we be those who enact and live the faith of Jesus.
First published in the “Precinct eNews” on 10 March 2025.
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