A room of one's own.

The Grange City hotel in central London is planning to open up a women-only section (This link will launch the BBC article in a new window). My initial response was enthusiastic but I've since cooled to the idea. Although the Grange seems to be moving on this with the best intentions--and I'm impressed at the amount of money they're willing to sink into a project like this--I'd much rather see them incorporate some of these ideas into their main hotel. Are their doorstaff sensitized to the needs of women travelling alone? Are all of their grounds well-lit? Does their staff receive sexual-assault awareness training? And what's the deal with every "woman's room" having a chain on the door for added security? Don't all hotel doors have chains on them?

The road to segregation is paved with good intentions and I hate to see good money wasted on a token gesture that could ultimately do more harm than good.

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A few days ago I talked a bit about the Telus labour dispute. The Tyee has an update on the story: apparently, in addition to leaving their employees without a contract for five years, the management at Telus has created an environment where lascivious misogyny is, like, totally cool.

Most of the article is a dry rundown of conflicting rumours, but the juicy stuff at the beginning suggests a familiar corporate culture where any kind of respect for female colleagues is a cheap charade, dropped the moment plausible deniability ("hey, I had a few--gimme a break") is established. Pricks.