Tag: genderequity

Why Shebah?

I often get asked why I drive for Shebah, instead of the other rideshare companies. Why? Because Shebah. Rideshare for women, by women. 

Shebah started in 2017, with a focus on safe personal transport for women and children. It also empowers us a drivers. We can choose when we want to work, and what bookings we want to accept. We are not penalised for not accepting a booking. Shebah creates female empowerment through that, and by paying 85% of the fare.

My personal ethos – every drive is a safe and secure trip for my passengers, without fear of harm or harassment. This goes both ways.  It’s better for me,  as a driver, and it’s better for my passengers.

Driving for Shebah is the most fulfilling work I’ve ever done. I value the rapport I build with my regular passengers. I value the conversations with one-off passengers. Everyone has a story.

Good stories and bad stories

The good stories I hear – about school days and assignments, sporting achievements, weekend plans, interests and hobbies.

I’ve done exam coaching and cramming, brainstormed ideas for essays, discussed concepts the teenage passengers have had trouble with, teasing out for critical review and analysis.

Here’s an example from last night. This was for a young Grade 7 girl,  from school to her sport. It’s week 4 in term 2, so I always know that assignments will be due soon, and exam block is coming up. I ask about assignments and what they’re working on. This young lady had an assignment to deepen the “no” argument about egg farms. I asked for her thoughts, and in her reply, she mentioned things that she had seen in activists’ videos.

I asked if she had ever been to an egg farm, and if she knew that there was an egg farm less than 10kms away. She was interested in seeing one for herself.

In a short, 10 minute drive, we covered that English assignment, shared acquaintances, and her sport.

Why Shebah? For parents, knowing that drivers have “blue cards” (Positive Notice for Child Related Employment), gives them reassurance for their child, travelling alone, with a stranger. Our bread and butter is school drop offs and pick-ups for other people’s children, often the same children ever day, every week. We’re not strangers for long.

Bad stories

In any group of women, ask, and you’ll find that most have had a bad experience as a passenger. Hence, Shebah.

For example, the 23yo women with severe disabilities who needed help getting her seatbelt done up, only to have the male driver get a bit handsy, and then remind this vulnerable passenger that he knew where she lived. We will ask if you need help, and that help will be respectful. Hence Shebah.

For example, the 21yo model whose male driver started driving in the opposite direction to her destination. We will NEVER do that, unless we know about a road closure or other issue. Hence Shebah.

For example, the male driver who drove two 15yo girls to a party, who kept asking if they’d like to go to another party with him when this party was finished. We will never do that. But we will ask if these girls have their return journey sorted, because we are worried about their safety. Hence Shebah.

For example, the deaf 17yo boy who was punched by the driver because he wouldn’t answer his questions. We will accept boys as passengers until they turn 18. Hence Shebah.

For example, the male driver who was so incensed at my continued refusal to go for drinks with him, he ran a red light on a busy road. That was in 2018; I registered as a Shebah passenger the next day.  I registered as a driver in 2021.

Bears and men

There has been quite a conversation recently, about whether women would rather come across a bear or a stranger, male, in the forest. I think the examples above would give some, small example why women are saying, “bear”, and why having a rideshare service like Shebah is invaluable.

Living my values

It is all those reasons, and many, many more, why I love driving for Shebah. Safety, security and 85% of the fare.

Footnote – yes, I am registered with Uber and Didi, as a means to an end. If I’m not going to make my daily revenue target, then I log into one of the other rideshare platforms to make up the balance.

That’s why… Shebah.

Warning – rage ahead

For all the women who think that they are aliens in this world, I see you.

For all the girls who think they are worthless because they can’t write an essay at school, I see you.

For all the undiagnosed autistic women and girls, I see you. I was you. And I rage and grieve for you.

Yes, we didn’t know then what we know now. Except Temple Grandin was diagnosed when she was 3 years old in 1950. Her mother fought to keep Temple out of an institution.

Which makes me wonder how many women with undiagnosed autism were lobotomised in the 1930s to make them more biddable? We’ll never know.

How many girls and women are misdiagnosed with schizophrenia, when in fact they are undiagnosed autistic?

How many girls and women are misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder, when in fact they are undiagnosed autistic?

How many girls and women are misdiagnosed with borderline personality disorder, when in fact they ate undiagnosed autistic?

How many girls are handicapped by their parents who refuse to get their daughter assessed for autism?

How many  girls are handicapped by their parents who refuse to tell their daughter that she is autistic?

How many women are preyed upon because they are undiagnosed autistic and have no defence against manipulative people?

How many women? When will this disparity end?

What could have been, if it was recognised that there is a female autism phenotype in the 1950s? What could my life have been like, if I had been diagnosed at 3 years of age, like Temple Grandin? What if I had been given support? What might have been changed? I’ll never know.

But when I see these undiagnoses, misdiagnoses, and secret diagnoses, I wonder – what have we learned in the last 70 years about women’s health? Why is there still a predilection to diagnose us all with anxiety, or hormonal issues when we seek medical help? Why are we diagnosed with major illnesses 4 years later than men, on average?

Why is half of the population so ignored, maligned, and disadvantaged? Why do we keep carrying the same mistakes forward from generation to generation?

Yes, I have rage. And I have grief, for all the girls, all the women, who don’t get the support they need.

I have rage for the  psychiatrist who attempted to dissuade me from seeking an autism assessment “because it will be an unremovable label for the rest of your life.”

Autism already is for life. It doesn’t go away. Label or not, I’m autistic. As are all the undiagnosed and misdiagnosed women and girls out there.

I see you. I hear you. I know you.

Gender bias in autism research

I intended this blog post to be about the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system, getting locked in fight/flight/freeze/fawn mode,  and the mind body connection.

In doing my research for this,  I came across a piece that  yelled, “Stop the press!”

Many in the autism community say that there is likely a high rate of under- or mis-diagnosis for autistic women. Why? Because autistic girls present differently to autistic boys, and the diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5-TR is based on typically male presentation of autism.

This article,  reporting research that was presented to a symposium is entirely representative of that.

“The pupils of preschool-age children with autism are slow to constrict in response to light, according to results from two unpublished studies presented … at the 2016 International Meeting for Autism Research in Baltimore. The findings suggest that the pupillary reflex could serve as an early indicator of autism risk.” https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/delayed-pupil-response-to-light-may-be-early-sign-of-autism/

This study was based on pupil response to watching cartoons. Of the 104 children observed in this study, aged between 2 and 6, half were autistic and half were “developing typically”.

But all 104 were boys.

Now, this was in 2016. Three years later, in a study looking at pupillometry, visual perception, and ASD features in a task switching paradigm, this was included in the recommendations:

“While sex-differences was not the central focus of the current research, future studies across the BAP should continue to explore differences in neurobiological correlates such as pupil response and phenotypic variability between males and females.”

(DiCriscio, A.S., Hu, Y. & Troiani, V. Brief Report: Pupillometry, Visual Perception, and ASD Features in a Task-Switching Paradigm. J Autism Dev Disord 49, 5086–5099 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04213-8)

Gender bias is prevalent.  https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/news/2023/08/fewer-females-may-be-diagnosed-with-autism-due-to-gender-bias-new-research-suggests/#:~:text=News%20story-,Fewer%20females%20may%20be%20diagnosed%20with%20autism,gender%20bias%2C%20new%20research%20suggests&text=Fewer%20females%20may%20be%20diagnosed%20with%20autism%20due%20to%20misconceptions,condition%2C%20new%20research%20has%20found.

FEMALE AUTISM IS REAL. It’s time,  past time,  to reflect this in diagnostic criteria and research.

BPW (Business and Professional Women) – Making a Difference for Women in Australia and around the World

My links to BPW go back to 1986, when I received one of three bursaries given to girls in Grade 9 attending Maryborough high schools.

This bursary made a huge difference to my schooling and my family. By that time, my adopted mother was a single mother, her marriage irrevocably broken, and on the age pension. Not having to worry about stationery, textbooks, uniforms and shoes meant I could focus on my schooling, and I continued to excel at school in Years 9 and 10.

It wasn’t until I was widowed in 2019, and during that first torrid year of Covid-19, that I sought connections. I had the idea to see if BPW was still a thing, and I was overjoyed to see that they were. I joined online very quickly, and in July 2020, attended my first lunch meeting with my closest BPW club.

BPW has a long, international history, and I still feel so proud to be a part, albeit a very small part, of BPW International.

Back in October 2023, BPW Australia issued a press release about the International Women’s Day theme for 2024:

COUNT HER IN

Accelerating gender equality through economic empowerment as a means to realising women’s rights and gender equality globally.

What can we do, in advocacy, to accelerate gender equality through economic empowerment?

It’s about advocating for equal opportunity to education, pathways to employment and to self-employment; is about advocating for equal access to financial literacy and financial services.

How can you communicate this, advocate for this, with your local member, state senators, treasurers state and federal, and the CEOs and directors of the ASX200?

Statement from BPW Australia

IWD 2024 THEME IS “COUNT HER IN”
29 Oct 2023 8:41 AM Jean Murray (Administrator)
UN Women has announced the theme of International Women’s Day 2024: Count Her In: Accelerating gender equality through economic empowerment as a means to realising women’s rights and gender equality globally.

Sam Mostyn AO, Chair of the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce and Besa Deda, Chief Economist of Westpac’s Business Bank joined Simone Clarke, CEO of UN Women Australia for the announcement of the International Women’s Day 2024 theme this week. CEO of UN Women Australia Simone Clarke said that it was important for women to be empowered to earn and manage their income and be afforded equal access to finance. Simone stressed the importance of ensuring all women have equal access, capacity and capability to fully participate in the economy. This requires shifting behaviours and perceptions that inhibit economic participation and limit investment in women. Increasing women’s economic empowerment means economies grow, children and families prosper, and women have resources available to leave abusive situations.

In searching online for IWD2024 you may come across another theme: #InspireInclusion. This not the official United Nations theme and it isn’t clear who is behind this International Women’s Day website