Sarah, 17, has asked her grandmother to describe what it was like living through the an era when women’s rights were based on being female
Nan, 82, remembers a simpler time when women had female-only sporting competitions, bathrooms, changing rooms and prisons, without anyone needing to debate what the word “woman” meant.
She said things began getting more complicated after Julia Gillard expanded legal protections for gender identity, with Labor governments since continuing the approach.
Yesterday, Labor senators again voted against Michaelia Cash’s proposal to recognise biological sex in the Sex Discrimination Act.
Sarah was fascinated by Nan’s stories of women’s gymnastics, where spectators weren’t required to perform mental gymnastics about the bulge they were seeing in the competitors spandex.
“So women really had their own spaces?”
“Yes, dear.”
“Prisons?”
Nan smiled wistfully.
“Those were the days.”