FEMINIST LETTER NO 24
To all feminists
The month of February is short. Already we are into March and the International Women’s Day is getting closer. It therefore seems natural also to widen my perspective to include what lies beyond national borders.Sweden is the most gender equal country in the world. That is what many say and that is the way Sweden is marketed abroad. In one sense this is true. We have come a long way in certain areas. In some sectors such as child care and parental leave women in other countries turn green with envy. And rightly so. Without the dogged, indomitable efforts of thousands of courageous and creative women inside and out of political parties, we would not be where we are today. There are no rights that have been freely ”offered” to women, neither by the” left” nor the “right”. We have had to conquer what power we have through our own efforts - from the right to vote to the law on the purchase of sexual services. Let’s not forget this!
So by international and European standards Sweden has come a long way. Yet in comparison to our goal, a truly gender equal society, we still have a long way to go. Thus it is of some concern that there is such a divide between political rhetoric and current policies. The every day lives of women scarcely mirror the proud declarations, whether in our national Parliament or in the European Parliament. We have a long way to go to achieve a society where no one is discriminated against or subordinated on account of their sex -this is as true as ever. And to many of us find we have too far to go, which is the reason why we are taking new political and democratic initiatives to put these issues at the top of the political agenda. This in turn will offer every woman who is concerned with women’s rights a greater potential for action in politics. Together we can strengthen our efforts to take the steps so necessary if civilisation is to move forward to reach beyond patriarchal power structures. These structures have, to be sure, been there for thousands of years and survived every revolution, formed the base of every economic and political system hitherto, and been cherished by every fundamentalist religious movement besides, which is no reason to allow them to shape our lives in the future as well.
In Europe the consequences of patriarchal ways of thinking are manifest. They result in economic and political stagnation. Women who get themselves an education, and their number in steadily increasing, do not intend to become housewives. When society fails to provide social service at reasonable costs in the shape of full time child care and schools, women choose not to have children. If care of the elderly is inadequate, a woman is obliged to abstain from gainful employment and cannot make use of the qualifications she herself and society have invested in. When the economic policies of the EU are based on the ideology that society should not accept full public responsibility for social welfare, then the responsibility will fall back on the (patriarchal) family, that is to say, on the women. The private service sector is expected to provide welfare for those who can afford as a business proposition. In practice this means that women’s unpaid work will increase, and in families that can afford it, other women will “provide services” – under conditions that may have been specified in their own country, according to the country of origin principle, or in a patriarchal European market where men are in agreement that women’s work is worth less than that of men. Quite often women are involved who in turn provide for children and maybe aged parents in a completely different part of the world.
Thus gender power structures are reproduced and made permanent, global in reach and local in character. The pattern is universal - how women are perceived and the resulting codes designating what is women’s work, and evaluating this work at a lower level. Therefore the Bolkestein service directive and the principles behind the Lisbon strategies must be reconsidered and assessed through feminist spectacles. The right to full time paid employment, regardless of sex, should be self-evident, as should the commitment of society to provide the service and care necessary for the ability to combine parenthood with paid employment, irrespective of sex.
Every incidence of is unevenly distributed power bears within it the seed of violence as its supreme expression. Hence men’s violence against women is inseparable from basic gender power structures – anywhere, in Sweden, in Europe as in the world at large. Whoever seriously believes that it is by chance that in nine out of ten cases of violence leading to death the perpetrator is a man, should think again. The resolution signed Maria Carlshamre, recently submitted to the European Parliament and adopted with 545 votes in favour, 13 against and 56 abstentions, points to comprehensive studies in Sweden, Germany and Finland amongst indicating that at least 30 -35 per cent of women between the ages of 16 and 67 have at some point been subjected to physical or sexual abuse. It further estimates that 700 -900 women in the EU die every year as a consequence of violence exercised by their partners. Surveys also show that 65- 90 per cent of women prostitutes have been subjected to sexual abuse either as children or later in life. Many countries lack statistics relating to men’s violence against women, and this the EU Parliament urges the establishment of reliable statistics.
Other failings that the report urges member states take measures to deal with is legislation recognising marital sexual violence as a crime; to make rape within marriage a criminal offence; not to accept any reference to cultural practice as an extenuating circumstance in crimes of violence done to women, especially in cases of gender mutilation and so called crimes of honour and to guarantee the victims(the women) safe access to justice and effective enforcement. Member states are urged, besides, to take necessary account of the fact that children who witness their mothers being battered could be regarded as victims and thus be entitled to damages in accordance with national legislation.
Those who voted for the resolution therefore backed the definition of men’s violence against women as a violation of human rights and this reflects an awareness and realization of the fact that violence is a consequence of the unequal distribution of power between men and women in our society. This is an important step forward and clearly indicates that we will never be able to suppress this violence until power relationships between the sexes are on an even level. This in turn means that we must maintain an overall perspective in order to comprehend that inadequate wages and insecure employment is part of the same pattern that finds its expression in violence. We must understand that sexism, pornography and prostitution are part of the same pattern that finds its expression in the slave trade in women and children’s bodies. We must understand that the lack of women in leading positions in politics and economics, at national and at international levels, is the result of the lack of such an overall perspective.
When the EU member state Germany now prepares for the World Championship in football by constructing mega-brothels and designing fast-sex in the shape of “Performance boxes”, car-port-like little boxes, which, fully equipped with condom and snacks machines, are there to perpetuate the idea that men’s sexuality is indisputably irrepressible, why then the entire Union should stand up in protest. This, however, is where hypocrisy reaches an all time high. In Germany prostitution is allowed. The fact that plans for committing criminal offences in the form of trafficking, since Germany’s “own” prostitutes will not be sufficient in number, this fact cabinet ministers seem to take lightly. Women from different organisations in several countries have reacted and now various forms of action are being planned. I myself have made our Minister of Justice promise to raise the subject with his colleagues in the EU. Things are not moving fast, but maybe they are moving forward, nevertheless. A summit meeting of the ministers is the least one can call for and a decision to cancel immediately all preparations to commit criminal offences and to violate the human rights of women!
So we still have some way to go – both here, there and everywhere. But never give up! I believe that more and more people are coming to understand that the feminist dimension widens the boundaries of politics and vitalises democracy. It is of course obvious that the parliamentary arena must be included. Feminist initiatives are spreading, all over the world.
The address of the European Feminist Initiative is ife@efi-europa.org.
Tillbaka till Tidigare Feministbrev
