What if we actually achieved gender equality?

Childcare workers would be paid a LOT, and we'd have new words to describe strong women.

By Samantha Graham, playwright

Credit: Dynamic Test Center, AGU Zürich

Indulge me, if you will. What if, in 10 years time, gender equality is a done deal? 

I know it might be a fantasy. But I let myself travel into that future for Unbelievable, a play I wrote and am currently producing at the Edinburgh Fringe.

It’s set in the year 2035, in a world where we have reached true balance between men and women, and we look back on years like 2024 with a mixture of horror and embarrassment.

In that fictionalised world, many issues we see today have been resolved through simple but profound changes. 

Here are three examples, from symbolic to systematic:

1. Childcare workers are paid a LOT

Childcare workers and primary school teachers are paid a minimum of £120,000 ($152,000) a year in 2035. They also get 18 months fully paid parental leave and an amazing pension, which has attracted many men to the profession, creating gender balance in the sector. (The funding for that salary boost came from moves like skimming the bonuses of CEOs in the banking and investment sectors, because we recognised that quality engagement with children in their early years is essential for a flourishing society.)

2. New words for a new time

We didn’t just ditch words like 'spinster', and other terms that were subtly used to undermine women. We created new words, like 'pelz' (a noun or an adjective) which means a physically and mentally strong, confident woman over 50 who knows her value, loves her age and takes sh*t from no one.

3. No more ‘Mr’ leading dropdown menus

In 2035, gone are the days of having to scroll past ‘Mr’ to get to your title of ‘Miss’, ‘Ms’ or ‘Mrs’ on a dropdown menu for an online form. We’ve realised that randomising the order of those options ensures women are not subconsciously relegated to secondary status.

And, looking back at the 2020s from 2035 in the play, we see how bad things really were… thanks to factors such as:

1. The unequal sharing of household labour between couples 

Women were still doing the vast majority of domestic chores in the 2020s, up to 10 hours per week more than their male counterparts. And that was on top of the invisible emotional labour and mental load of doing the thinking and planning for everyone else, just to make the household run smoothly.

2. No-one thought to study women

Women were all but invisible, due to a staggering lack of research into our bodies and our lived experience. For example, crash test dummies had been modelled only on male anatomy, resulting in a 47% higher chance of serious injury for women in car accidents. When they were asked to create a female version, companies simply used a smaller male dummy as a proxy for a woman and only tested ‘her’ in the passenger seat!

3. Heart surgery outcomes were pretty unfair

Women had poorer outcomes than men after heart surgery, a situation which took decades to resolve, despite studies showing that more female surgeons could have made a difference. In 2016, Canadian researchers discovered that a major factor was that, on discharge from hospital, male patients received post-operative care from their wives, while females resumed caring for everyone else the moment they got home!

While the play might be wishful thinking, or as I call it, “a dose of collective therapy based on wild imagination”, I hope it is a powerful reminder taking a good hard look at the state of the inequity can help us creatively undo elements of the patriarchal systems that stand in the way of gender equality.

Samantha Graham is a playwright who previously spent decades designing leadership development and climate communication programs for businesses. 

‘Unbelievable’ is one of two plays she is taking to the Edinburgh Fringe (31 July – 24 August) Both are playful and upbeat, with live music and immersive projection. 

More info and tickets: https://www.vegasnerve.live/unbelievable