Women's Library

The Women's Library in London is a very interesting place to visit. Currently, they have an exhibition, What Women Want, until September 15th.


This exhibition focused on 7 aspects of women's lives: pleasure (leisure time), having a voice, beauty, equality of work, safety and security, freedom and independence, and home life. Each of these aspects were in separate sections of the exhibit space and had items on display such as magazines, photos, buttons and a fact area which listed some statistical information. I found the statistical information very interesting and informative.

The pleasure section included a breakdown on how women in the UK today spend their free time.

TV & videos:
2 hours, 9 minutes or 44% of free time
Socializing:
1 hour or 21% of free time
Reading:
25 minutes or 9% of free time <--they obviously didn't poll librarians!
Sports and exercise:
11 minutes or 4% of free time
Resting:
23 minutes or 8% of free time
Hobbies and games:
15 minutes or 5% of free time
Volunteer work and help:
14 minutes or 5% of free time
Entertainment and culture:
6 minutes or 2% of free time
Other or unspecified:
10 minutes or 3% of free time


For each of the other sections, I will write the heading and put some of the interesting information as bullet points under it.

Having a voice

• Since 1918, only 253 women have been elected as MPs
• 28% of local councillors are women
• 25% of British MEPs are women

Beauty

• In 2004, the top cosmetic surgery procedures for women in Britain were breast augmentation, breast reduction, eyelid surgery and face/neck lift.
• Around 1 in 100 young women has bulimia nervosa.
• 55% of men rate looks as the most attractive thing in a woman and only 1% said intelligence
• 22% of young women admit to staying at home because they think they don't look good.

Equality of work

• Women now make up 46% of the labour force in Britain and 70% of women are in employment.
• Since 1975, when the Equality Pay Act came into effect, the full-time pay gap has closed considerably, from 29.5% to 19.8% in 1997 and from 21.2% in 1998 to 18.4% in 2004.

Safety and Security

• The number of rapes reported in England and Wales is rising, but only 5.6% of 11,766 reports in 2002 led to a rapist being convicted.
• There were approximately 13 million incidents of domestic violence against women in 2000.

Freedom and Independence

• Use of the oral contraceptive pill was highest, at 28% in the mid 1970s and early 80s. Usage then fell and has never since reached the same level of use. In 1998, 24% of women aged 16-49 used oral contraceptives.

Home Life

• In 2000-1, women spent over 2 hours a day doing housework, cooking, washing up, cleaning and ironing, one hour more than men.
• The average number of children per household has declined to 1.8 in 2001 from 2 in 1971.

I think my favourite thing about this exhibit was the wall where visitors could tack up their thoughts and responses to each of the sections. It was a good way to make the exhibit interactive and I liked seeing what other people thought about it.