Feminism is about choice, not power

Subject: Feminism is about choice, not power Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:15 pm

The very word "feminism" conjures up the cliched images of the 1970s: radicalised, bra-burning women marching and shouting through the streets. Second-wave feminists were incensed by their position as second-class citizens, subservient to fathers and then dominated by husbands. They had a revolutionary agenda and demanded far-reaching social change.

Now that this generation of feminists is approaching retirement, the world is a very different place. Young women in Australia are free to pursue a career, to get married or not get married, and to decide to have or not have children, without a social stigma being attached to their choices. Due in no small part to the cultural shift in attitudes to women that Australia's greying "sisterhood" encouraged, many young women are now empowered and influential.

Yet this is the frustrating thing about the F-word today: so much of the feminist debate still assumes that women are powerless. If a man and a woman are in a relationship, then he is in control. If a woman is in a workplace, then she is a target for harassment. If a woman wants a career and children, then she is destined for a life of doing the "double shift". Obviously, you cannot trust men to step up to the plate.

For young women of my generation, the brand of feminism which says that women are disempowered and harassed just doesn't have much resemblance to real life. A quick scan of my friends and colleagues renders the idea that we are all dominated and subordinated by our partners and husbands laughable.

One of the biggest victories of feminism was freeing women from the compulsory domestic drudgery of being a housewife. Now, getting married or having children does not automatically consign you to a life in the kitchen.

In 1982, 48.3 per cent of women were employed. By 2005, that number had reached 67 per cent. By international standards, the gender wage-gap in Australia is quite small.

As women do more paid work, they do less housework. Researchers at the University of Queensland recently found that women in dual-income couples in the 1980s did significantly more work (paid work and housework combined) than their partners. By 2005, the gap had largely disappeared.

But feminism focuses on these facts and says we have not gone far enough. It says that we are still victims, and we will be until women work - and earn - as much as men. We will be victims until every husband does the dishes exactly 50 per cent of the time. And this is where feminism is getting it wrong.

LNK

Feminism is about choice, not power

Feminism is about choice, not power

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