Ask people about Feminism today and you usually get responses that range from “you mean those bra burners in the 60s”, “you’re not a man hater are you?” or some rant against Germaine Greer. Occasionally you get responses acknowledging the good work that Feminists did in the past. Almost never do you get responses that say feminism is still relevant for young women and men in Australian society today. These responses reveal that there are deep misconceptions within Australian society about what feminism stands for and for what feminism still has yet to achieve.
What is a feminist?
A feminist is a person who has an “interest in understanding and undermining gender inequality”. Despite being painted as being dominated by man hating, society destroying radicals, most feminists are just people who believe that women and men should have equality. For example anyone who looks at a new born girl and boy and says that they should both expect equal opportunity and treatment throughout their lives is a feminist. You don’t have to hate men, you don’t have to never shave your underarms and you don’t even have to be a women to be a feminist. All you need is to believe that gender should not determine a person’s life opportunity and outcomes!
But didn’t feminism achieve all this in the 60s?
The feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s certainly achieved a lot in terms of ensuring that women no longer could legally face discrimination based on their sex. It became illegal to pay women less, to hire or fire them based on their sex, to sexually harass them and to force sex on them within marriage. These achievements were massive and have gone along way toward ensuring that Australian women achieve today a greater equality with men than they have ever before. Yet nearly 50 years later women’s choices and life outcomes are still being affected by their gender.
Where are the inequalities then?
Given that in the eyes of the law women are equal to men and in the dominant politically correct discourse women are equal to men, it is sometimes hard to identify women’s inequality as still existing. Growing up today girls are told that they can achieve as much as the boys and that there is nothing standing in their way. While legally this is true, what is actually happening today in society does not prove that it is actually true. Below are some examples of where women still suffer inequality in Australia.
The work place
• Women on average earn 80c for every $1 that men earn
• Women make up the majority of casual workforce with minimal entitlements, while men make up the majority of the full time work force with maximum entitlements.
• Gender separation by occupation is entrenched with women working in lower paid occupations and men in higher paid occupations
• Women enter retirement with less superannuation than men on average and are more likely to rely on the Aged Pension
The Home
• Women(including the majority of women who work) continue to perform more household labour than men creating for them the ‘Double Day’ of work
• Women continue to perform the majority of child care with 70% of men preferring women to stay at home to take care of the children
• There are more poor women in single parent families than men by far(104,000/34,000)
Leadership
• Only 28% of Federal Parliamentarians are women
• Women in politics are more likely to face criticism based on their dress, speech, emotions and home life
• In Australian companies 50% of graduates are women, 44% are managers, 10% are executive managers and only 2.3% are CEO’s
Sexual choice
• 1/3 of women have at some stage in their life experienced some form of sexual abuse compared to 1/10 men
• A double standard still exists in which women are put down for having multiple sexual partners, while men are encouraged and celebrated for doing so.
Why do these inequalities still persist?
There is much debate within and without the feminist movement about why these inequalities still persist. Yet there is one major factor that most feminist agree is playing a significant part in the continuation of gender inequality today. It is that many of the inequalities that still exist are due to an entrenched belief in society that men naturally posses biologically determined masculine characteristics and that women naturally posses biologically determined feminine characteristics. For example men are by nature seen as rational, strong, unemotional and sexually driven, while women are by nature seen as nurturing, emotional, soft and more sexually modest. Feminists have shown that this can be clearly linked with the above inequalities that still exits in our society. For example men earn more than women because they choose careers that are seen as suiting men more naturally. In turn these careers are paid better because pay levels were set in a time when men were legally paid more than women. Women still continue to choose occupations that are paid less because they are seen to suit women more naturally. Women also tend to earn less because they are not promoted or chosen as much as men into leadership positions because leadership is seen to require masculine characterises. For example a study has shown that male workers hold perceptions that “women going into upper management could not cope with the position”. Women are also often not promoted or do not seek promotion because they are expected or assumed to be the ones that will care for their children. Caring for children and by extension home making is seen naturally better performed by women and therefore is not assumed that men will naturally suit it. Men then tend to do less and therefore have more time for paid work and leisure. Finally women are seen as less naturally sexually aggressive and needy as men and therefore are criticised when they seek causal sex, while men are either excused or encouraged because it’s seen as naturally what men do. Rape is also often excused or tolerated due to the belief that men can’t control their sexual needs and therefore should not be provoked or ‘dick teased’ by women.
But if it’s natural then we can’t change it?
This is arguably the biggest misconception that prevents women and men from achieving true equality. While there is biological difference between men and women, the reality is that it is quite small and not necessarily in the areas that we think they are. Historical and cross cultural studies have shown that our understanding of masculinity and femineity are not fixed, but have actually changed with time and with differing socioeconomic and cultural situations. This means that if you’re a man your not naturally a better leader, more rational and more sexually uncontrollable because you’re a man and if you’re a women you’re not naturally a better nurturer, more in touch with your emotions and sexually modest because you’re a women. You are these things because that’s how you’ve been brought up and taught to be by society. This means that the above inequalities are not natural and therefore do not need to persist. They can be changed and they should be changed because of the continuing real life negative effects they are having on women’s lives right now!
I’m a man, so why should I care about this and feminism in general?
While it is women that have been disadvantaged most by the way in which our construction of femineity and masculinity has created gender inequalities, there are areas in which men are disadvantaged. Due to masculinity being seen as better suited to working, leading, being unemotional and sexually needy, men who do not wish to do these things or do not display these characteristics are often ridiculed as not real men. They are also limited by societies expectations from seeking to take on roles that are seen as more naturally suited to women. A man who wants to care for his children, do housework and be sexually modest is often looked at as strange and unnatural and is not encouraged to do so. The feminist movement is working toward men not suffering these inequalities as much as it is working toward women not suffering the inequalities that they suffer, therefore it is just as relevant to men as it is to women.
Feminism: Still fighting for equality between men and women!
It should now be clear that feminism is not dead as a movement. It is alive and well and still has a lot to achieve to reach its goal of undermining gender inequality once and for all. For both young women and men in Australia today feminism is as relevant as it was for our parents and grandparents who fought the battles of the past. We should not let ourselves be scared of this significant movement due to the false stereotyping and labelling that it has been given by those who wish to see inequality persist. We should be proud to be feminists and proud to continue striving for equality between men and women!
How do I Know this?
The Victorians Women's Trust
www.vwt.org.au
Office for Women
www.ofw.facs.gov.au
Women's Electoral Lobby Australia
www.wel.org.au
Freedman, Estelle, B.
No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of women, Ballantine Books, New York, 2002
Curtin, J. 'Feminism, Power and the Representation of Women' in Parkin, A. , Summes, J., Woodward, d. (eds)
Government, Political Power and Policy in Australia, Pearson, French Forest, 2006.
