FEMINIST LETTER NO 18
To all feminists
Since the climate on the whole is coldish I shall start with rather a cute story:The English teacher wrote the following words on the board:
“Woman without her man is nothing” and asked the pupils to add punctuation.
The boys wrote:
“Woman, without her man, is nothing.”
The girls wrote:
"Woman! Without her, man is nothing!"
The climate being, as I said, pretty cold, we can start by stating as a fact that we are now in the midst of a media debate that describes nearly all feminist effort in terms of extremism and fundamentalism. This is happening elsewhere too. When women from Sweden, France, Italy, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia met at a conference last weekend, their experiences proved to be on the whole similar. This calls for a broader perspective in viewing the current situation:
At the national level: Starting off with the debate between party leaders on television that rounded off the parliamentary spring session last week, we can see that block politics are leading on to what is becoming a practically two-party system as in Britain and the USA. Since it is on the whole the same voters that are being appealed to, the right wing often presents itself as left and the left wing often as right. An increasing number of people apprehend politics as something of a grey mass, perfectly predictable, where it soon will be impossible to distinguish any major differences. A feminist analysis and practical politics are conspicuously absent in the debate over unemployment, over security and welfare. The debate on how to strengthen the labour market focuses on qualified workers such as electricians, metal workers and engineers. In places where women are employed there are no such people as qualified workers. That is where caring takes place. Period. Women’s part time employment isn't even included in the statistics.
At the European level: EU policies, including amongst constitutional demands for conformity, in the political as well as the economic field, have resulted in a growing gap between the political elite and the citizens; an empty space that can quickly be occupied by democratically less scrupulous forces when unemployment figures continue to rise. There is a Le Penn to be found in other countries besides France. His ideas are embedded in every shabby suburb in Europe. A feminist analysis has, however, not been one of the prominent features of the Union’s work so far, neither in the work of the Commission itself, nor has it featured in the negotiations with new members. Since reproductive rights such as abortion, contraception and sex education are human rights, as confirmed in Peking ’95, these demands should have been included in any assessment of prospective new members. The countries that have not already introduced these rights, should be required to do so.
At the international level: When Peking ’95, the great international women’s conference that furthered the rights of women, was to be followed up by a new conference in New York the following spring, there were such serious doubts as to whether such a conference would be able to defend the progress made that it was seriously considered to cancel the conference altogether. What would happen if the documents were reopened? Maybe this would involve loosing ground. Such was the general apprehension. Even Hilary Clinton was heard to express herself in vague terms on the abortion issue. As it turned out, the conference was held, however, and the documents were defended, but further progress has since not been achieved. The women’s struggle at an international level has turned into a defensive struggle and there is plenty of evidence that ground has in fact been lost.
Governments fail to mobilise the necessary political will and the leadership to fulfil the promises made in Peking. The result is that many women all over the world are today actually in a worse position than they were ten years ago. Women find themselves facing growing poverty, a build up of military capacity and opposition from fundamentalists to their rights. More women have been infected by AIDS and women carry a heavy burden in providing for their families. They are the victims of rape, in every day society, also in war and when humanitarian disasters strike. (Reuters and TT)
Back to Sweden. We belong to the world and the eyes of the world are watching. The myth of Sweden as a country where gender equality reigns has made an international impact. Hence we have a responsibility to continue to work for a society where equal rights are practiced. Many people look up to us.
However, we see a backlash even here. It isn’t difficult to provide examples from bedrooms, kitchen tables and pay-checks! Certainly we have achieved more than some in several areas such as legislation, employment, child care, the number of women in politics, etc, but it is quite clear that this is not sufficient. The basic concept of men’s superior position and women’s subordination lives on. Formal rights have not been matched by rights consistently practiced. We must now move on from the right to vote, from child care and political representation to address the issue of how power is exercised. It is a development that is both logical and necessary for a women’s movement that has been successful only by dint of its own efforts in the political arena.
Just think if we at any time had heard men stand up and say – Sorry, of course you women should have the right to vote. We just didn’t think. How silly of us. Or –Sorry, of course you women should be paid the same as us. We’ll have that fixed in no time….I have never ever heard one single apology! There is exactly the same sort of talk on the issue of pay nowadays as there used to be in the old days! When women during the war left their kitchens and went into the factories to replace the men who were called up, it was decided just like that that women’s wages were to be a certain percentage of men’s wages (around 60-70%)in order to underline that this was a temporary arrangement and no mistake about it. Basically that is the way things still are. Women are seen as temporary visitors to the labour market. Their wage is a temporary reinforcement of the household budget, with temporary forms of employment, temporary schedules, (a few hours in the morning and a few in the evening, that is when we have our “peaks”) etc, etc. The campaign to get women to seek employment during the war was named “Mrs Loyal” and this campaign is still going strong.
The difference today, however, is that we know so much more and have more information, both basic facts about the present situation and the mechanisms at work. So instead of allowing ourselves to be pressed back, we must now push forward, in the shape of a Feminist Initiative. What we now are about to do is to start a movement that will involve a forward thrust in the progress of civilisation. We do so at a time of strong global regression. We wish to proclaim a necessary paradigmatic shift, with the purpose of revitalising democracy and opening up politics for the most basic issue of who exercises power and to address the most destructive forms of global oppression.
Now that we can see in what ways the opposition against this initiative is being met and articulated we are led to believe that the feminist veneer is rather thin here and there. Who can feel threatened by fair wages? Presumably those whose position of power rests on an unfair wage system. Who can feel threatened by women being given permanent full time employment with a living wage? Presumably whoever bases his or her position on a welfare system that systematic exploits women’s labour. Who can feel threatened by a system whereby the state assumes financial responsibility for the social problem caused by men’s violence against women? Presumably whoever has a position based on the point of view that this is “a low priority” issue.
That is why it is a good thing that those who in fact only support the principle of equal rights, all those who think that OK, gender equality is fair enough, but let’s not exaggerate! that these voices are beginning to be heard in the debate. It then becomes clear what we all implicitly understand, namely that we are not at all in agreement. If we break down the ”myth” of gender equality it will be a lot easier to achieve change. This way we can see more clearly, elucidate and define. This way we can also understand the background as to why the whole judicial system has been caught with its pants down!
Finally – summer is here and I intend to slow down and relax. This is the last letter this term. The next one will be in September.
Have a nice summer!
Tillbaka till Tidigare Feministbrev
