The new frontier of feminism
posted Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Zora Simic
A short while back The Weekend Australian featured an article about the demise of feminism and ‘girl power’. The article featured some insights from the book ‘The Great Feminist Denial’ by Monica Dux and Zora Simic. These authors’ findings suggest that many women today are afraid to publicly identify themselves as feminists. This is no surprise with the negative stereotypes and narrow clichés that have been associated with feminism and perpetuated via the media.
So it seems for many feminism has fallen out of fashion, out of favour, a ‘dirty’ word, trashed and abandoned in an era of disposability. However, if you are prepared to go beyond the surface hype, dig a bit deeper, look around the blogosphere for instance; you will find feminism is alive with flourishing debates.
Indeed the whole work life family (WoLFi) debate has become an important focal point for feminist concern. As Jane Caro and Catherine Fox, authors of ‘The F Word’, write:
‘Mothers in particular are charting new territory, juggling parenting
and housekeeping with paid work’.
It seems mothers in paid employment are part of the new frontier of feminism challenging the norms, and reshaping patriarchal moulds. Some mothers do fall into ‘super-mum’ trap along the way. Trying to do it all, without adequate support, respite or compensation.
But others with a feminist agenda are campaigning for tangible solutions to the work-life-family conundrum including strong support from government (eg: paid parental leave), from workplaces (eg: flexibility, family-friendly policies & pay equity), and from partners (eg: equally shared parenting). It’s a challenging battle, and not nearly won. I’m glad to see WoLFi is a driving force forward in this new feminist frontier…
You know, I am not convinced that the only reason the label feminism has fallen out of favour is the way it is represented in media and stereotypes. For me, the biggest problem with the label is that it just seems… too random. Given all the inequity of the world, I just don’t see why women need their own cause, distinct from other social issues. It seems just so interconnected to me, that singling out any particular group feels counter productive. I feel much the same way about Aboriginal issues and others. I support the abolition of inequity, I just don’t think that looking at any group in isolation will ever work.
Ariane said this on October 20th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Ariane, I think that’s a gross oversimplification of what feminism is, and a good example of the kind of media misrepresentation that makes it difficult to identify as a feminist. I don’t think that feminism is about “championing women” (and only women) so much as asserting that women are human beings and trying to bring to light the degree to which our entire socialization is predicated on the assumption that women are ‘other’. You know, the idea that “women’s rights are human rights”; feminism (ideally) is about wanting to treat women’s rights as a part of the whole instead of like special interests.
Megan said this on October 21st, 2008 at 1:45 pm