Why I am a feminist

[Note: The following was written and posted by The Birdwoman on 03.08.05 8:57 pm at her blog, A Bird's Eye View. That blog has closed; this essay has been republished here with the author's permission.]

Why I am a feminist

(I confess. I wrote this ages ago and posted it on my LiveJournal. I've been busy lately and not felt much like blogging, but I re-read this today and still liked it, so I'm posting it here.)

Feminism (n) advocacy of women's rights and sexual equality. Feminist n & adj.

This is all that The Pocket Oxford Dictionary has to say on the subject. As far as I can remember, I have always called myself a feminist. In response, people have often questioned the relevance and necessity of feminism. Some say that it increases divisions between the sexes, that we should all be fighting for the rights of all people. That concentrating on the ways in which society discriminates against women ignores the ways in which it also discriminates against men.

This is my response.

My feminist beliefs can be summed up as follows: I believe in, and want to see enshrined in the consciousness of societies worldwide, the statement that men and women have equal rights and equal responsibilities. I do not believe that: a) men and women are the same, that they necessarily want the same things and have the same strengths and weaknesses or b) that women are superior in any way to men. I also believe that human rights in general are important. I do not want to see men's human rights neglected. Let me get this straight: I like men, on the whole. I like people, and I firmly believe in their inherent rights to dignity and freedom.

There is a clearer case for the role of feminism in some cultures - cultures in which women are held to be inferior to men, and about which I know very little. For the sake of argument, in this piece of writing I am talking about the role of feminism in modern Western culture, and British culture in particular. This is the society in which I was brought up and in which I live, and I feel more able to comment on it than other cultures.

As far as I can tell, many people think that feminism is unnecessary now, that it has done its job. Women have, in theory at least, access to high-level jobs, birth control, and other staples with which feminism is associated. To my mind, however, there is still a large discrepancy between theory and practice. There is a well-known slogan, which goes as follows: "I'll be a post-feminist in the post-patriarchy." I am not denying that women are much better off now than they were fifty or only twenty years ago; however, we are still living in a man's world. I don't blame this on men, per se. We live in a culture that isn't good for anyone. It has, however, developed under the control of men.

Our careers

Men still earn more than women. The figures that get bandied about vary, and I'm not willing to quote them without knowing more about the way in which they were calculated. The overall message, however, seems clear: on average, men earn more than women. One average, men occupy more senior positions than women. Women comprise the majority of the casual and part-time job sector. Every year, my faculty* publishes the proportions of men and women at each level, from the lowest technician grade through to professors. The lowest grades are always overwhelmingly female, with the figure rising to 50/50 at PhD level. Over 90% of professors are male. And this is a biology faculty, a traditionally "softer" science that attracts more women than, say, physics or chemistry. (Incidentally, young women may well be discouraged from higher studies of "harder" sciences by the prevailing masculine attitudes. In my sixth-form chemistry class the boys took bets on how long it would take all of the girls in the class to drop out. The teachers never prevented this and soon I was the only girl in the class.)

There is nothing to suggest that similar patterns are not found in most sectors of employment, not just in universities. Women who want to get ahead, to occupy those senior positions, have to prove themselves in the masculine culture. Childbearing has to be put off until later in life while a career is established. The incompatibility of having a career and having a family also penalise men, it's true. But women are constrained by the simple biological fact that they must carry and bear the children. And because the rules and traditions of having a career have developed in an entirely male environment, now that women are having careers as well they are having to build them in an environment that was just not designed for them. Conversely, our society assumes that the woman will be doing the childcare. Even if fathers want to assume most of the parenting duties, it will not be easy, and they can expect to be constantly questioned.

Children and family life aside, the majority of women are uncomfortable with the intensely competitive environment that they must contend with if they want to get ahead. Women in positions of power remain relatively rare, and when they exist they must often emulate the methods of men to get ahead. I once heard it argued in a debate that Margaret Thatcher was not a woman for this precise reason. She once said that she owed nothing to the women's movement, so desperate was she to be "one of the men." Margaret Thatcher owed everything to the women's movement. Without it, she would not even have been allowed to vote.

Our appearance

Women are expected to look good. Women in public positions are exposed to commentary on their appearance, the likes of which men do not suffer. Politicians, newsreaders, any woman in the public eye is expected to be slim and well-groomed at all times, and if she is found wanting she is mocked. I was horrified, while watching a television programme about would-be aeroplane cabin crew, to hear one of the recruiters say something along the lines of, "We like them to wear full make-up, and they should wear a skirt, not trousers. We like to see a bit of leg."

While I appreciate that looking smart may be part of the job, I completely fail to see how one's ability to do one's job as an air stewardess is helped by wearing full make-up (surely not comfortable in the extremely dry air of an aeroplane cabin). And the comment about "showing a bit of leg" demonstrates that these women are expected to be seen in a sexual light by the passengers. Male cabin crew were expected to be well turned out, but, not surprisingly, were not expected to expose areas of their flesh for the delectation of others.

The other side of this coin is that, while women are expected to measure up to certain standards of beauty by the prevailing culture, we are also taught that our bodies are ugly, shameful, even unnatural. At work, we must often meet higher standards in our appearance than our male colleagues. In the world at large, we are expected to be young, tall, preferably white, slender, pert-bottomed and full-breasted. These are not inconsiderable pressures, especially for young women growing up in a culture immersed in these unrealistic expectations. Why else would women starve themselves and pay money to surgeons to cut into their bodies and artificially bring them closer to the approved standard? I don’t wish to imply that men do not feel such pressures - indeed, I believe that they are becoming more of a problem for men as well - but they are certainly more of a problem for women.

Our bodies

So we are indoctrinated by our society to be unhappy with the bodies that we have. But it isn't just the appearance of our bodies that is a source of stress for women: our perceptions of the ways in which our bodies work and our physical sexuality are also twisted by society.

The latest trend in advertising menstrual products (tampons, towels and the like) is to emphasise the discreetness of the product in question. One memorable advertisement shows a man mistaking some discreetly packaged tampons for sweets. The overwhelming message is that nobody should ever have to be reminded that, yes, women bleed. Another message that we receive is that our bleeding is unclean, smelly, and disgusting. Look at the language used by the manufacturers of menstrual products: "sanitary protection" and "women’s hygiene." This is despite the fact that so-called "sanitary" products are no more than bleached, artificial, scratchy fabric; they are no more sanitary or sterile than any other items that you might buy at the supermarket, and probably less so than many.

Menstruation is inconvenient. Nobody is denying that. But that one fact should not lead to the dread and loathing with which young women regard their periods. It should not make us feel ashamed, or like we have something to hide. It should not be a taboo subject. And it should not be an excuse for multinational corporations and governments to make an awful lot of money out of women by selling them (with sales tax) expensive, disposable "sanitary products" that don't even do the job particularly well.

Another issue is that of body hair. People have hair. It's a biological fact, and not something that should cause any surprise or disgust. Yet many women find body hair - their own and other women's - disgusting. The idea that women should be hairless and smooth is so ingrained in our society that most women would not even think of exposing less-than-hairless legs or armpits. It's all very well for a woman to decide that she prefers to shave (assuming she doesn't find shaving irritating, inconvenient or just plain pointless); it's not something that she should be forced to do by the expectations of society.

In terms of our sexuality, a sexual double standard still exists. Society looks askance at women who are promiscuous, while there is no male equivalent for words like "slut" and "whore." Yet we are continually bombarded with sexual imagery that tell us that, in order to be real women, we must be sexy vixens at all times.

Meanwhile, we are not trusted to take responsibility for our own fertility. In Britain, it is at least relatively easy to gain access to contraception. But the likelihood remains that, until recently, any woman unfortunate enough to require the morning-after pill will have had to endure a sanctimonious lecture about taking proper precautions, regardless of the circumstances.

Our lives

Women are continually told how we should live. We face the expectations - no, the assumptions - that we will marry and have children. We suffer from a culture of fear in which we are told that we are too fragile to walk home in the dark or without a personal alarm, regardless of the statistical fact that men are more likely to be attacked than women. The subordinate nature of women is assumed by many cultures and is (at least widely perceived to be) a central tenet of several religions. There are few or no real role models available for young women. And the chief beneficiaries of the advances in women’s rights are educated, middle class women.

Until all women do not have to face these issues, until we can all feel free to live our own lives as we please, to express ourselves intellectually, emotionally, politically and sexually as we wish, there is still a role for feminism in our society. Yes, there are problems inherent in society that affect women and men, and about which we should all be rightly concerned. But for those issues that solely or primarily affect women, unless women fight to see those inequalities corrected, it's not going to happen.

(*This was written some time ago and I no longer work in a university)