Thesis, thoughts and photos

It's been about a year since I started my thesis. I never thought I would still be working on it, but I am, and for a lot of reasons I won't go into here and now, that's actually alright. I guess there were things I needed to go through first to get to this point of where I am right now. And that doesn't mean I am never fed up with my thesis, because believe me, I have been plenty of times and I will be plenty of times too until it is done. Sometimes you just have those days where every sentence you write down doesn't seem to make sense at all in the big picture of your thesis and things simply don't flow. Nor does it mean that I didn't wish it was finished by now. But the fact remains that it is not, and like I said, for now that's alright.

Quite a few people have asked me to send them a copy of my thesis when I finally do have it finished. Apparently I have chosen a topic that speaks to the imagination of many people. I couldn't agree more, there's so much more to the Defence Force than most people know, and there's also so much more at play in gender relations issues than most people realize. All of us have an idea in their head of what the armed forces are like, and what they are like for women working in them, but all we ever really get to see is the stuff that makes it into the newspapers. Which is usually only the military missions like Afghanistan or the humanitarian relieve operations in our own country or overseas. Unless of course someone close to you is in the armed forces. The day-to-day stuff the military men and women do when not on operations is barely visible to the public. I had a totally different view of the armed forces too when I first started my research.

As for the gender relations issues, despite what it might often look like, gender is not just about women, it's just as much about men. And it's not just about how men and women percieve each other, it's also about how women and men percieve themselves. I'm the first to admit that men and women are not the same, and I don't think we're meant to be, but it's so hard to untangle what's nature and what's nurture. I do believe that men and women should have the same choices and opportunities though, should be able to pursue the same things if they choose to, and should be valued at the same level for what they do regardless of their sex. I mean, really, why is it that men who choose to be a full-time dad and women who choose to pursue a top-level career are looked at so differently from when it's the other way around?

This ( http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders.html ) is a video of a so-called 'TED-talk' my friend Lea posted not too long ago on her facebook (thanks Lea, it's very interesting and I hope you don't mind me passing it on through here...) It's a 15-minute talk on why we have too few women leaders, and although there are also many other issues that play a role in gender relations issues, it touches on just a few things that I believe are the same everywhere. It shows it's not just the men that keep the so-called 'glass ceiling' intact, it's the women themselves too. And that to some level it's society that teaches them to do so and a lot of it happens on an unconcious level, which is why it's so hard to break out of. And sure, this talk, like so many on issues relating to gendered differences, is directed mainly at women. But men can learn something from it too. Because like I said, gender is not just about women, it's just as much about men.

Anyway, that's my ramble of the month. The photos below are from my two recent visits to Groningen, up north in Holland, where my Melbourne friend Kim and her boyfriend Matt live for the next few months. First was a lovely lazy Sunday of seeing Kim again after almost a year, and second was for Australia Day celebrations. Good times, and so so lovely to see Kim again and have her and Matt 'close' for a while :) The rest of the photos are some from last night, when one of my housemates got kind of snapper-happy, with lots of random photos as a result. I don't have any photos of other recent happenings, but I've had plenty of 'Kodak-moments' and plenty of laughs between everything else recently, and I'm doing pretty good :) That being said, I would love to hear how you're all doing too,so please leave a message. Hope you're all having plenty of laughs between everything else too.
Love Carine
xx