Having it all

Well, ladies, you've certainly got it made here in the woolly liberal West, haven't you? I mean, you're allowed to vote, you can actually talk without permission, some of you even have jobs. It's almost as if we've achieved a kind of feminist Utopia that...

Oh hang on, there's this shit.

Second-grade teacher Carie Charlesworth is out of a job, but not for anything she did in the classroom. Her school district considers her a liability and too unsafe to have around following a domestic violence dispute that happened earlier this year.

A letter sent to Charlesworth said that school officials are concerned about her ex-husband's "threatening and menacing behavior," and as a result they "cannot allow" her to continue teaching at the Holy Trinity School. 

"They’ve taken away my ability to care for my kids,” said Charlesworth. “It’s not like I can go out and find a teaching job anywhere.” 

The mother of four children didn’t think this would ever be her story to tell, but she is using her name and showing her face in hopes of bringing attention to a larger problem. 

It’s a story that has domestic violence advocates outraged, fearing it will only reinforce an age-old problem where victims stay silent — but equally concerned are the school's parents, not wanting their kids in the middle of it.

A classic instance of Victim Blaming by a Roman Catholic institution. It's easy to forget that religion is, by and large, about oppressing women, and the weakening of religious power in the West has probably done more to help liberate women than academic theorising or political campaigning.

Not much consolation to women, like Carie Charlesworth, who find themselves beating beaten up by a man, and then punished for it by a misogynist system. As she remarked: “I have not been back to a Catholic church since this happened”. I'm sure they're praying for you, Carie. Prayers are so good at putting meals on the table and a roof over your kids' heads.