This is a post I've written in response to a forum discussion about the fact that, even with progress having been made, women today still don't have equal power in this world.
The title of the thread is, "I'd Hate to Be A Woman".
The OP (original poster, for those who don't frequent online forums) pointed out that the intent of the thread (discussion, again for those who don't frequent forums and know "forum terminology") was intended to start a discussion about the fact that many women don't view themselves as more than "second-class citizens".
That thread aside, I've recently become aware of a few authors who suggest that the reason women have taken so long to become "first-class citizens" (at least in more ways than some of them may have, or at least in higher numbers than many have) is the fault of women, themselves.
This post is a matter of responding to that thread, and then some. The first part of what follows is my direct (and inspired by that discussion) response. The latter part of what follows is more the "then some".
Here's the response to the discussion:
The OP's premise here is very much centered on how others (particularly over history and not necessarily in the present) view and treat women. Today, women do still deal with people who view women with ignorance, aggression, and an oppressive attitude (but women aren't the only group who deal with that, and men are in some of those groups as well).
Who we are, and whether we like who we are, isn't about how others view us or treat us. That's about others. Who we are and whether we like who we are is about us - not others. Those of us (women or men) who know that what we are is well worth respect and value, and who know that we are often/can be equal and/or better than a lot of other people (men or women) in a lot of ways, place value on what we are and generally like what we are for those things.
The questions posted:
"Why don't women vote for women?
A: Many women have been raised to actually believe women aren't capable of high office. Also, there are a lot of men women won't vote for either. A lot of people don't like the choices that are put out there and choose the least of two "evils".
Why are gynecologists in the western world mostly men?
Why is equality taking so long?
A: I'm guessing there are several reasons related to how the school systems haven't always valued girls, women not wanting jobs that involve being in call, and maybe even women not finding the specialty a particularly "life-saving" one (as compared to other medical specialties). Either way, that's an isolated point/issue that doesn't reflect the larger picture women face.
Why are most religions trying to demean women?
A: "Ages-old ignorance and believing words that written by men who thought the way men thought thousands of years ago (and THEN - scaring everyone else into thinking if they don't believe those words they're going to hell).
"
Why do women in the first world not stand up for women in the third world?
A: Give examples of how you would propose more women do that, and consider the reasons many men don't seem to be able to do much for women (or men or children) in third-world countries either.
Why are there no purely female issues or parties in politics"
A: In a fairly enlightened country, most people view all areas of politics as "human areas" (either "family-related" issues, "community-related issues", "business-related issues", or "tax-spending/collecting issues"). Abortion already is a huge issue and has been for decades. So what are those "specific-to-women" issues - whether public buildings have enough feminine product machines in the restrooms? whether there are lactating rooms required in all businesses? fighting breast and ovarian cancer? (Most people also view prostate cancer and testicular cancer as serious issues and common aims. So are the ever-universal heart disease and diabetes.) Most people are aware of these problems. There's only so much any government can do about them (and if it doesn't do what it can it's often because of lack of resources).
and here's the "Then Some":
None of this stuff, by itself, is the measure of how women are viewed in society. Having said that, what IS the measure doesn't show up in the public eye much of the time. It isn't about what laws have been written in an attempt to guarantee equality. What IS the measure of what women live with each day and how others view and treat them has nothing to do with anything political or any of the issues everyone can see discussed over and over again. It has to do with the small, day-to-day, ignorance that women deal with because people keep looking to the wrong problems and in the wrong places for solutions to any of the ignorance and oppression women do still have to fight off and deal with today.
Having said ALL that, though, the trouble is not just because some women do still believe they're second-class citizens. Even for women (like me) who have always had all kinds of people who respect and care about them in their lives, and who tell them they can do anything they want to do; and even for women who know how capable and strong or intelligent they are; it can be a real challenge getting past the ignorance and superior attitudes of even the otherwise and seemingly most respectful people. Hateful and obviously hostile attitudes toward women are often easier to fight than the more hidden, insidious, kind of misogyny that disguises itself in either thinking women need protection from their own thinking; or else is so ingrained in some people's hard-wiring that they can't/won't get past the fact that a woman is a woman.
I could write a book (kind of started one here, it looks like :lol:) about what people still don't get about women. I can tell you, though, some of the things in human nature that have meant women have remained oppressed (to this day, and in perfectly nice suburban homes where it sure looks like everyone around them treats them well and thinks well of them) are the things that have always been, and remain, a reason women (in general) don't seem to have equal power in this world (and in their own, smaller, world). In so many cases, it has truly nothing to do with how women view themselves; and everything to do with how those around them view them.
Yes, the world is full of women who don't believe people of their own sex can possibly be anything but second-class citizens (although many will "grant" that women can be "first-class citizens in their own womanly way, but not in the same way as men "always have/always will" be simply by virtue of their anatomy and/or "nature"). Sometimes you can't blame some of those women because they weren't raised to even think in terms of being equal. Their range of abilities wasn't nurtured. Instead, all anyone nurtured into them was nurturing, itself. Many women were directed either into being stay-at-home moms or else into professions usually associated with care-taking roles. Many girls were raised to hear, "If you're only going to be a stay-at-home mom at some point anyway, there's really not much point in spending a lot of money on getting a college education." A whole lot of women were raised being told, "Dad is the head of this house, and no matter how stupid about one thing or another Dad may be, what he says goes."
When I was in school in the late 1960's, teachers and classmates generally saw the kids who excelled in math and science as "the smart kids". It was a time in society when technology was "the big thing" and when kids headed into fields in technology were seen as those headed into careers that would earn the "Big Bucks". Excelling in verbal skills (generally associated with girls, both then and now) wasn't seen as anything other than "nice". The school world seemed to have life and intelligence all summed up in a nutshell: "The kids (most often boys) who excel in math are generally headed into technology, maybe medicine - where they'll make lots of money." "Everyone else" (the non-math-wiz boys and most of the girls) are the "not-quite-so-academically-outstanding" (sometimes even the "not-particularly-smart") kids and can settle into less lucrative fields (and if they're girls, if they work at all).
The role of words and verbal skills in the founding of the United States was generally respected if anyone took the time to think about history at all, but whether or not anyone truly valued the ability to use words often remained within the context of only those Founding Fathers (who were, of course, "men of words and principle and courage and brilliant thinking", as far as a whole lot of people were concerned). However, how important skills like verbal skills (and the thinking that can be behind them) was, to a lot of people in a lot of average schools (teachers and students alike), was a "that-was-then/this-is-now" kind of thing. Words had had their time, place, and day.
Technology was just beginning the process of claiming its own time, place, and day in this world. So, just at a time in American history when The Women's Movement was gaining momentum, technology swept on in as well. Sure, words (those written by men) had come in handy when the nation was in the process of being established. Here we all were, though: In a well established and mature and thriving nation that no longer really needed words as it once did. After all, with the exception of Abraham Lincoln, political leaders got less powerful people (sometimes even women) to write their words for them. People (at the time still predominantly men)in business (even those capable of thinking up their own words, and even when their words weren't anything more powerful than a simple business letter) got the less powerful (and "clearly less capable") to type those words for them. Ah! - A great use of those otherwise not-very-impressive verbal skills girls often have was to be able to check the spelling of those more "worthy" and "respectful" people whose words they typed.
In spite of all that, I see others' ignorance about women as their weakness and lack of intelligence - not mine. I'm pretty darned happy that I'm a woman (even if this post is a sign that I live with a life-long need to vent anger at what I've lived with, and even if I learned a long time ago that if I want my words taken seriously and respected, I'd better not attach a picture of my un-intimidating and completing-lacking-in-any-traits-associated-with-males face to them).
Introduction
Although feminism and the matter of women's rights existed long before the 1960's and early 1970's, what we think of as "The Women's Movement" is something we generally associate with that time period. It was in the 1960's and early 1970's, of course, when The Women's Movement had gotten into full swing. That was also the time frame within which I grew up. It was also a frame-of-mind and a major frame-of-reference; both of which provided a backdrop against which, and foundation on which, my life (and thinking) as young, adult, woman would be built.
As a second-wave Baby Boomer, the women who had become well known (and both respect and detested) for their very public and pivotal roles in The Women's Movement had already cut some substantial paths for their slightly younger "sisters". As a result, as I reached adulthood and looked down that path that I saw as my future as a woman, I saw possibilities that women not all that much older than I had not seen.
This isn't to suggest, by any means, that I "had it made" by the time I reached adulthood. The Women's Movement, after all, wasn't something that took place in a matter of a few years. It was more something that came into full swing and became the beginning of many changes that would take place in society, as well as offer increasing opportunities to girls and women. Maybe it's most accurate to describe The Women's Movement of that era as "a giant leap forward" in a society/world that had previously pretty much been dragging its collective feet.
To give you an idea of how little progress had been made by the time I was in secondary school, there was very little by way of athletic programs for girls throughout my secondary-school years. As I'll get into in future posts, the matter of athletic programs for girls was the least of girls'/women's problems. Since this is only the introduction to "Unfinished Feminism", however, I won't get too far into the state-of-affairs for girls and women of my age and that era. The point here isn't what was going on at that time. It's that I became and a teen and young adult at a time when so many things were beginning to change for women.
So, by the time I reached my late teens/very early twenties and was of the age when most people young are figuring out who/what they will be "as an adult", I was looking at path that offered enough possibilities that it required, perhaps, a little more figuring-out than the same age had required of women a little older than I was. I'll get more into that aspect of things at some later time as well.
There are so many things I've wanted to write about women's rights and The Women Movement over the years; and as the years have added up, there have been more and more added to my list of things about which to write as well. That's one reason I decided to set up "Unfinished Feminism", but it not the primary one. No, my primary reason for putting this site together is that with approximately forty years having passed since The Women's Movement (and with my living those years as a former young girl who once was so sure that The Women's Movement would mean I'd live my life with equality not enjoyed by women of previous generations), barely a week goes by when I'm not made painfully aware of how little progress has been made by/on behalf of women.
Oh, a lot of laws, policies and public attitudes have changed since the 1960's (at least in countries like the US). There's no doubt about that. Women have, of course, made some real progress since those days. Still, things like laws, policies, and public attitudes are "surface things" in a society. They're the things we can all see; and when there has been something about any of them that has needed some fixing, they're the easiest things to fix (even if fixing them hasn't been all that easy, by any means).
The thing is, for all the progress that has been made by women over the decades (and there's no doubt about it a lot of progress has been made), what may well be some of the most serious and insidious prejudice and/or oppression towards women may make up a percentage of "what needs to be fixed" that would shock most people (including a lot of women).
The Women's Movement, that feminsim so often associated primarily with the later 1960's and early 1970's, was a start - a beginning, that giant lead forward. The problem, as I see it, however, is that far too many people today overestimate the progress that has been made by women. Much of the perceived progress is a matter of lip service, on-paper laws and policies (the value of which should not be underestimated, of course) and fixing a lot of the problems that have been on the surface - not the ones beneath that surface.
That's what "Unfinished Feminism" is about.
As a second-wave Baby Boomer, the women who had become well known (and both respect and detested) for their very public and pivotal roles in The Women's Movement had already cut some substantial paths for their slightly younger "sisters". As a result, as I reached adulthood and looked down that path that I saw as my future as a woman, I saw possibilities that women not all that much older than I had not seen.
This isn't to suggest, by any means, that I "had it made" by the time I reached adulthood. The Women's Movement, after all, wasn't something that took place in a matter of a few years. It was more something that came into full swing and became the beginning of many changes that would take place in society, as well as offer increasing opportunities to girls and women. Maybe it's most accurate to describe The Women's Movement of that era as "a giant leap forward" in a society/world that had previously pretty much been dragging its collective feet.
To give you an idea of how little progress had been made by the time I was in secondary school, there was very little by way of athletic programs for girls throughout my secondary-school years. As I'll get into in future posts, the matter of athletic programs for girls was the least of girls'/women's problems. Since this is only the introduction to "Unfinished Feminism", however, I won't get too far into the state-of-affairs for girls and women of my age and that era. The point here isn't what was going on at that time. It's that I became and a teen and young adult at a time when so many things were beginning to change for women.
So, by the time I reached my late teens/very early twenties and was of the age when most people young are figuring out who/what they will be "as an adult", I was looking at path that offered enough possibilities that it required, perhaps, a little more figuring-out than the same age had required of women a little older than I was. I'll get more into that aspect of things at some later time as well.
There are so many things I've wanted to write about women's rights and The Women Movement over the years; and as the years have added up, there have been more and more added to my list of things about which to write as well. That's one reason I decided to set up "Unfinished Feminism", but it not the primary one. No, my primary reason for putting this site together is that with approximately forty years having passed since The Women's Movement (and with my living those years as a former young girl who once was so sure that The Women's Movement would mean I'd live my life with equality not enjoyed by women of previous generations), barely a week goes by when I'm not made painfully aware of how little progress has been made by/on behalf of women.
Oh, a lot of laws, policies and public attitudes have changed since the 1960's (at least in countries like the US). There's no doubt about that. Women have, of course, made some real progress since those days. Still, things like laws, policies, and public attitudes are "surface things" in a society. They're the things we can all see; and when there has been something about any of them that has needed some fixing, they're the easiest things to fix (even if fixing them hasn't been all that easy, by any means).
The thing is, for all the progress that has been made by women over the decades (and there's no doubt about it a lot of progress has been made), what may well be some of the most serious and insidious prejudice and/or oppression towards women may make up a percentage of "what needs to be fixed" that would shock most people (including a lot of women).
The Women's Movement, that feminsim so often associated primarily with the later 1960's and early 1970's, was a start - a beginning, that giant lead forward. The problem, as I see it, however, is that far too many people today overestimate the progress that has been made by women. Much of the perceived progress is a matter of lip service, on-paper laws and policies (the value of which should not be underestimated, of course) and fixing a lot of the problems that have been on the surface - not the ones beneath that surface.
That's what "Unfinished Feminism" is about.
Showing posts with label women's issues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label women's issues. Show all posts
Sunday, October 9, 2011
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