I went to a speaker event today, a speaker with many intelligent and empowering things to say. The speaker was a writer, television person, and a deep thinker too. The speaker was Jane Caro, and even though it was a hot day today, I, and many others, were happy to travel to the Burnside Library, in the eastern suburbs of Adelaide.

Jane has a book out, hence the Speaker gig, but she also had many relevant things to say, and she held the audience captured in her story, and then happily answered the many questions asked, from members of the mostly female audience.

The relevant ‘new book’ is Accidental Feminists, and while I haven’t begun reading it yet, I was more than happy to part with my money, to get myself a discounted, and author signed copy. Feminism has been cast as a bad guy, by some, and it’s difficult to see any rational reason for that. Plenty of irrational reasons though, holders of white male privilege would have more than a few of those.

Private single sex schools seem to produce the kind of politicians who have little knowledge of the ‘real world’, as can be seen in Canberra at the moment, where ideas of fairness are thrown out of the window, and ‘merit’ seems to be gained by the size of your bank balance, and the number of similarly privileged ‘friends’ you have. When feminism is ignorantly or purposely misunderstood, and those who are feminists, called ‘ball-breakers’ and other names, that’s when you know our society is still a very long way from being equal, which is what feminism is all about.

Equality, what is so hard about that, to have a society where all are treated equally. Same pay for the same job, but also understanding that the society we currently have is far from equal. Universal Basic Income was talked of, and the reality that women are poorly served by the mish mash of working life options most go through in their lives. The further reality of homelessness of mature women also was talked of, and ideas on how things really are, even though we’re less likely to see homeless women on the streets.

Jane spoke well on the subject of schooling, firmly standing on her belief that co-ed and public is the best way to go, for many reasons. When children play together, they learn from an early age how to deal with others, and gender issues can be dealt with well before the messiness of raging hormones ever come into the equation.

I certainly agree with that one, being co-ed and public all of my way through school system, I even went public with my tertiary education, and am glad of it. I’ve been toying with a vocational course of some kind, but unless I can go through TAFE, I probably won’t do anything more, unless it’s Uni SA. I am certainly not going to go to a private college, I don’t think, they seem far too interested in getting me signed up, and grabbing my money …

OK, where was I? Ah yes, several times, Jane Caro reminded us that Climate Change was happening, and if we didn’t get going, we may not have anywhere left to live … A sobering, but necessary reminder, I feel. Too many people are pretending Mother Nature isn’t hurting, and they’re taking no action at all to assist in the healing that must occur, As Soon As Possible!

This event was well worth the money, and I hope I have learned some points I may be able to use, when I move further into the Public Speaking realm. Getting the audience to add content, but giving them the opportunity to ask questions is a good idea, and especially if you have a handy person to provide the microphone, if you have a large audience!