Feminism.
It is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.
Or, more precisely, it is the belief that women should be allowed the same rights, power, and opportunities as men and be treated in the same way, or the set of activities intended to achieve this state.
Not my words, but those of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and the Cambridge Dictionary.
But in both, the notion of ‘equality’ springs forth. So, why is it that on the day commemorating the achievements of notable feminists, the very concept of feminism is still under threat?
Occasionally, you hear of right-wing individuals attacking feminism, such as the news outlet Breitbart publishing a video with the title ‘Would You Rather Your Child Had Feminism or Cancer?’ However, the notion that feminism is only discredited by noticeably right-wing individuals should not be accepted. Rather, it seems that amongst quite moderate Conservatives, and even members of the left, there is significant opposition to the concept.
In particular, it was on the anniversary of the Women’s March on the 21st of January this year, that a friend of mine who I consider to be socially liberal tweeted:
“What rights is it that women don’t have that men do in the UK again?”
Similarly, another friend of mine questioned the need for a women’s march, whilst on twitter, the user @DeepSouthProud rose to prominence tweeting:
“#WomensMarch2018 You want to be taken seriously? Stop demanding special treatment because of your genitalia.”
So, to me it seems that there is opposition to feminism and that it is not misogynistic, but rather derived from the belief that equality of the sexes has already arrived. But has it?
Well, an easy way to understand this concept is to examine the representation of women in the UK.
Within the current UK government, there are nine women who attend the 29-member cabinet, with the current PM and Home Secretary being women. This suggests that women have just less than a third of a say in the cabinet, positions aside.
More broadly, in the House of Commons, women account for just 208 or 35% of the 650 MPs in Parliament. In the House of Lords, this figure is worse, with only 199 female peers amongst the 826 peers in total, making women’s representation in the second chamber stand at just 24%.
So, at least on a national level, the idea of gender equality has not yet emerged in the political forum.
Aside from representation, the gender pay gap is a big grievance. The gender pay gap is the notion that women are paid less than men in companies and businesses, despite being equally qualified.
Whilst some critics have argued that this does not exist for reasons such as that women don’t do the same work, or because of maternity leave, women work for less days per annum, the reality is that this issue does exist. Not only is the maternity leave argument nonsense, some critics have gone so far to argue that due to the nature of the free market, if women were paid less, then they would be hired more than men and since this is not the case, there is no pay gap. Ultimately, some resort to ‘it’s complicated, but it fundamentally does not exist’. When ‘it’s complicated’ produces some actual evidence, then I’ll take the argument seriously.
The gender pay gap has been perhaps most colourfully revealed in the UK recently by the revelation that the BBC pays many of its female staff less than their male equivalents. This has led to some men accepting pay cuts in the name of equality, such as presenters Nick Robinson and Huw Edwards. In particular, an emphatic revelation that the pay gap is real was the BBC’s China editor, Carrie Gracie resigning in January 2018 as a protest against male international editors being paid more.
However, on a national level, it is similarly obvious that a gender pay gap exists. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the gender pay gap between men and women is falling, but in 2017 was at 18.4% when including both full and part time workers in the UK.
So, as well as being unfairly represented, women are still unfairly paid in the twenty-first century. Clearly, the position of women today is far superior to the position of women fifty years ago, but the evidence is clear that there is still very much a need for feminism to be ingrained in the current political climate.
Yet, despite both these issues, people still widely deny that they are feminists or that fourth wave feminism (the current variant in Europe) is a force for good. So, I turned to the wonders of the internet.
The top article to come up criticising third wave feminism is from a blogging group called Odyssey, which opens by stating that “Third Wave Feminists Have Ruined Feminism”.
The key grievance is that a select minority of feminists have carried out questionable protests such as the claim that women engaged in “sexual intercourse with crucifixes right outside the Vatican (yes, this actually happened)”.
Looking at other articles, the similar grievance of third wave feminism being too outlandish and controversial is reiterated. Rather than engaging with creating gender equality, many articles tear into feminists for being lurid and vulgar in their approach.
So, to me the reason that people seem to oppose feminism in the twenty-first century is either that they believe equality of the sexes has arrived (it has not) or because of a very small minority of feminists that have offended them and therefore they refuse to identify with the movement.
To me, it seems obvious that both of these are fairly ridiculous arguments and to find that largely progressive friends refuse to accept feminism as either healthy or necessary has been as disappointing as it was surprising. On the day marking one hundred years since women (partially) got the vote in the UK, the lack of support for such a movement is surprising.
Fundamentally, until equality is achieved, the notion that third wave feminism is an irrelevance should be discarded, and it is right that feminist debate continues to exist in Parliament, in universities and more broadly in society.
Principled Politics 