FEMINIST LETTER NO 16
To all feminists
Finally what so many had been waiting for actually happened. After a span of time corresponding to a fairly normal pregnancy the Feminist Initiative(FI) saw the light of day. There were a few of us proud parents who introduced ourselves at a press conference, well aware of the fact that we share parenthood with a broad, nationwide feminist movement. We now have ”shared custody” of the movement to be formed.Not everyone was equally happy and it is quite clear that some feel threatened. How should one otherwise explain why so many were convinced that a feminist political alternative is wrong, regardless of what shape it will assume. Despite the fact that w e have not yet decided whether to stand for election, nor even adopted a political platform, we have redrawn the map of domestic politics.
The very fact that FI has come into existence has already made a difference. Seminars on women’s rights, already advertised for some time and as usual sparingly booked, have suddenly found that they have no places left! Women from other political parties approach me to say that they all of a sudden find acceptance for demands they have put forward for years without success in their respective parliamentary groups!
The reaction from those of you who so far have been outside the political sphere has been fantastic! Cheers, accolades and greetings have poured in, from home and abroad. Many have been personally moved and describe vividly how it felt to wake up to hear the news on the radio, to sit on the couch at home and watch the press conference on TV, or what exciting conversations happened in the coffee break at work. The fact that what is personal is also political was suddenly given a practical implication. The feeling described by many was one of liberation!
That is exactly what feminism is. And is even more; more than gender based injustice that can be expressed statistically, such as the fact that there is a difference of 3590 crowns a month between wages in the workshop and the caring profession, that women use 83% of parental leave, have 79% of part time jobs, do 60% of unpaid domestic work, answer for 64% of long term sick leave, while ridiculously few resources are destined for women’s crisis centres etc.
Feminism helps us to understand what we experience and feel on a much more private level. What does it mean to me personally always to be seen primarily as a woman and not as just a human being? How does it feel always to have a subordinate position as the starting point, what does it entail constantly to have to defend one´s right to be on the scene. Feminism is concerned with how self confidence is undermined as one asks ones self - am I good enough, or should I be different or do things in another way. Feminism is about self assurance that has to be reconquered again and again, every day, in different circumstances, at home and at work, at school and among friends. Make sure you are accepted and fit in. If things do not work out, then it’s your own fault!
In every society where patriarchal power withers the soul and hold back women by means of various forms of oppression and injustice, a feminist commitment will emerge. Women give each other the strength and the understanding to perceive the source of the repression and to turn their anger towards the outside. To see gender as a political dimension is still a radical challenge for the current political order, but it is a very necessary step to take if we wish to create a society that can truly be called democratic.
This is why the Feminist Initiative was both a well planned and much longed for child! Sign on at www.feministisktinitiativ.se, or at my web site www.schyman.se where you also can follow which questions I have asked in Parliament.
Gudrun
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