FEMINIST LETTER NO 5
To all feminists
First a practical matter. Those of you who have received this letter, check if you have received it from me directly or whether it has reached you via somebody else. If the later is the case and you would prefer to receive mail directly from me in future, write to me at the following address: gudrun.schyman@riksdagen.se and tell me so. Those of you receiving this letter for the first time I can inform you that this is letter nr 5. My intention is to write approximately once a month.Both via mail and at meetings in various places I am often asked: What can I, or we do?
Now!
Those of you who have read my previous letters know that I am convinced that we must build a broad anti-patriarchal movement, based on both the practical and the theoretical knowledge we have. So many of us have!
Here follows a broad outline as to how one might set about such a project at a municipal or at a regional level.
The point of departure is simply to state the facts of everyday reality. In spite of all the knowledge that has been accumulated in the area of gender inequality and despite all the political objectives formulated as to how to deal with them, progress towards equal opportunities is very slow. In certain sectors progress has come to a halt altogether, in others it is even regressing (differences in wages, cases of dismissal from employment for pregnancy, men’s violence against women, the climate in schools, the sexualization of public space etc, etc). This backlash is an international phenomenon, but is perhaps more of a paradox in Sweden which for a number of years has enjoyed a reputation as the promised land of gender equality, showing, for example, impressive figures for the participation of women in certain areas of political life
So why is so little happening when we know so much? I think we must reflect on who knows what and where this knowledge lies. In universities and colleges there are excellent essays and thorough research to be found. Generally speaking, that is where this knowledge stays. In the government paper “Jämt och ständigt”(a play on words which does not easily translate, with the double meaning of “all the time” and “equal all the time”(2002/03 :140)9, produced in collaboration with the Left Party and the Green Party, there are very good texts on the subject of how gender power structures influence the choices we make in life from the cradle to the grave. The paper also declares that “The gender system limits the way women and men can develop as individuals, it restricts the scope of democracy and prevents growth, since women and men’s full potential, their competence and resources are not fully exploited. (p.7)
When wage discrimination was discussed in Parliament last autumn, a public hearing being one occasion, it was generally pointed out that the construction of the parental leave system plays a central role in determining patterns for unpaid and paid work.
Negotiations at the kitchen table are of course subjected to the same kind of (gender) power structures as are to be found in society at large, even though at the time (of the hearing)
the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman was the only person who dared put the awareness of this fact into words, thereby questioning talk of the “free choice” that parents exercise. In Parliament discussions have been carried on as to how to get fathers “with child”, in the sense of getting them to want to be with their children and to allow their role as parent to have consequences, also for their working life.
In most nursery schools, with one or two notable exceptions, the well-known gender patterns are still being reproduced. Demands for change are all too easily checked with reference to lack of funding. What we know about gender power structures is not taught in schools, but in quite a few places there are feminist groups (several of them including boys) which by their own initiative, in their spare time, discuss their school’s lack of equal opportunity strategies both as to the content of what is being taught and work methods and they try to do something about it; groups that at the same time create “a room of their own”, (since the classroom is “closed” to them) in order to seek a gender identity of their own. Feminist self-defence as part of the curriculum, in accordance with decisions in Parliament, is still considered a provocation by many teachers and pupils.
Centres for women and young girls, often run by hardworking idealists on an entirely voluntary basis, take care of the most destructive consequences of the gender power structures, men’s violence against women. Here there is a sea of knowledge and experience. The trouble is many of the idealists drown in it. The job is too demanding. Studies and reports all show that this is one of our very worst social problem – and the responsibility to cope with it rests with a voluntary set-up which has to compete with sports or stamp collecting clubs for local financial support. This is a scandal!
What I want to say is that knowledge exists, both practical and theoretical, but it is often scattered about, like stars that shine and then fade. But it lacks a widely based and broadly spread presentation - the knowledge that helps one to place one’s own experience and one’s own efforts in a broader perspective; the mental journey from being a victim (it’s all my own fault) to being a person who acts (it’s not my fault, there is a structure here, a pattern that can be changed), this needs both knowledge and coherence. This amounts to popular education in the classic sense, participatory, voluntary, based on an eagerness to learn, on individual needs and experience, the subject matter shaped by a feminist analysis, offering a varied programme of activities and areas of learning, flexible in form and able to meet needs.
Popular education can bring what is hidden to the surface and make for change, inspire people to perceive and wish to change gender inequalities in their every day lives, create debate and put feminist key issues on the agenda, strengthen, draw together and mobilise the many actors within different sectors of society who are committed to creating a society of equal opportunity. Popular education can change knowledge about gender inequality into a tool we can use to change our lives. The issue of gender and power must come alive and influence all our doings, all areas of action large and small, everywhere in society, simultaneously!
The idea is to rally all individuals, groups, networks, organisations and institutions interested in gender equality, with the municipality or the county as the organisational base, in order to get a process of cooperation going through the education of its citizens. The objective could be, for example, to let enlightenment explode like a festival, lasting a month maybe,(the result of say a year’s cooperation)reaching into every corner of the municipality or county. Seminars, debates and workshops abound, theatre groups act plays, art galleries have exhibitions, feminist rock bands compete and give concerts, forum acting and role-playing succeed each other; schools devote whole days to gender-related topics. There are courses in feminist self-defence in the square, women’s centres hold a tribunal on men’s violence against women, entrepreneurs with foresight surprise their surroundings by discussing the pros and cons of shorter working hours, quota systems for recruiting board members, etc, etc. The media are of course pro, not anti. No one is uninstructed or uninfluenced at the end of this month. Many will be prepared to turn their (newly) acquired knowledge into practice. Some will have made contacts across previous dividing lines. New projects of cooperation will follow.
It is all about initiating necessary processes to improve democratic practice. Or, if you like, we need to join forces on a large scale in order to tackle the greatest democratic problem of our time – the patriarchal power structures!
Greetings
Gudrun Schyman
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