I often catch the first few minutes of CBC Radio One’s The Current on my way to work in the mornings. Just the other day, Anna Maria Tremonti interviewed Gloria Steinem in her series on Gamechangers (both women I greatly admire, by the way), and the bit of the conversation I heard was about young women’s reluctance to call themselves feminists. (Specifically, I believe Steinem was referring to a talk given by Stanford Professor Michele Elam, called “The New F Word (Feminism) and Beyond: Gender, Race, and other Classroom Unspeakables”.)
It really got me thinking, because I remember feeling that way myself as a younger woman. Saying incongruous things like, “I believe women should have equal rights to men, but I wouldn’t call myself a feminist“, or “it’s not like I hate men or anything…” and somehow equating feminism with radicalism, hatred and militance.
I don’t get queasy about it anymore, though. Now I wear my labels honestly. Feminist. There. I said it. And despite being a woman in a woman-dominated profession (hello, elementary school teacher?), I know that I had the opportunity to make that choice because of generations of women who fought for their rights before me. I can vote because of the suffragettes in my great-grandmothers’ generation. I can work outside the home because of the women in my grandmothers’ generation (both of mine were teachers). I am paid the same salary as the men in my profession because of the women in my mother’s generation. And I hope that both my daughters will be able to proudly say that they have been able to make important and equal choices in their lives because of the work women in my generation did.
It seems timely, this talk of feminism, on the heels of the announcement earlier this week that three women have been awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, for their “non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.”
The Nobel Committee continued that, “we cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society.” And perhaps I’m just a starry-eyed optimist, but it seems to me like maybe, in a not-so-small way, the world is finally starting to take notice of women’s potential to influence positive change. Movements like the Stephen Lewis Foundation’s Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign and Plan’s Because I am a Girl Campaign give us ways to promote peace and human rights at a grassroots level by supporting women and girls through education and financial support.
And if you step back and look at it from a global perspective, there are women out there putting their lives on the line every day for the right to live without the fear of violence, for the right to have a voice, for the right to get an education. And what about us? We live in privilege and take for granted the struggles of our mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers. So much so that our daughters are afraid to even call themselves feminists.
The new F-word? I say eff that. Say it. Be it. Own it. FEMINIST. You’ll be in great company.
I was so thrilled with that choice for the Nobel prize. I mean LOOK at that middle woman. Look at the tilt of her chin. That, that pride and confidence, that is a beautiful thing. that is what I hope for all our daughters – and the too-many adults who don’t wear themselves with pride, too.
It will be lovely when the word feminist isn’t needed because it’s all just considered an obvious part of human rights, period, won’t it? Backlash is inevitable, and reaction to the extreme ends of things makes for pendulum swings, but standing up for the rights of any group should should never equal a dirty word.
So true, Desi! In fact, in my eyes that is a feminist issue, too. The right (and financial support) for women (or men!) to choose to be home with young children. Canadian mothers contribute millions of dollars in unpaid labour each year. And hand-in-hand with that should be the ability to return, unhindered to our professions when we choose. These definitely ARE feminist issues!
Damn right! Someone once asked me how I could consider myself a feminist after leaving my desk-job to look after kids. Because housewives have no interest in advocating for their own – or their daughters’ – social and political equality, right? Because wearing a suit with shoulder pads all day is the only way to demonstrate our “feminist” values, right? Piss me off. Feminism = choices for women. Full stop. Yes, I’m a feminist. And proud of it! Great post!