The subject of feminism has been on my mind a lot today. A lot of people I know think that feminism is a bad thing, and I find this both saddening and frustrating-- so I'd like to put in words exactly what (I think) feminism is.
I believe that, at bottom, feminism is exactly the same thing as "liberty and justice for all", applied to a specific group that had some trouble getting liberty and justice. Feminism states that women are, legally speaking, persons. The word "person" has certain legal implications (as indicated by the fact that legal documents use the nonstandard plural "persons," rather than "people," in the interest of precision of language). Susan B. Anthony's great address in 1873, "Are Women Persons?" addressed this topic. If you are a person, you have certain rights, privileges, and obligations-- in fact, if you are a person, the Constitution and Bill of Rights apply to you. You have certain inalienable rights, among these being life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
All this seems quite obvious to me-- that women are persons, and as such have rights equal to those of men. The question is not one of gender, but of personhood. Gender is irrelevant to personhood.
All this means that, as persons, women have the right to vote (which was recognized legally with the 19th Amendment in 1920). They also have the right to make their own choices regarding their lives-- to marry or not to marry, to work in any field they choose (and receive pay equal to that of a man doing the same work), to have children (or not), to stay home with those children (or not)-- in short, they have the same choices, and the same options, that men do.
That's all well and good, and I'm sure that nobody would disagree with me, as far as I have gotten. The trouble comes when you start to think of the "feminist" as a bra-burning, family-spurning, career-obsessed, man-hating minx. There's a reason that this image springs to mind, but it's not what some people seem to think.
The problem is this-- feminism is a philosophy, and that philosophy, just like any other, can be and has been interpreted, implied, and reworked, for both good and ill. I think that it has been reworked for ill (and, in fact, against itself) in two ways.
Firstly, some feminists have taken the "women are equal to men" too far, and insisted that women are superior to men. This is in fact contrary to feminism itself, the basic premise of which is that all persons are created equal.
Secondly, feminism has sometimes been interpreted to mean that all women should be career women. However, this also goes against true feminism, which states that women, as persons, have the CHOICE to live as they see fit-- if they see fit to pursue a career, that's wonderful. If they see fit to stay home and raise a family, that's wonderful. And if they see fit to do both (whether simultaneously, or at different seasons of life), that's wonderful, too. It's all up to them. Any person, entity, or philosophy which tells women (or any other sort of person) that in order to be "good enough" or "fulfilled" or "worthwhile", they MUST do or be ______, is trying to take away the freedom of those persons, and as such is violating the very meaning of feminism. Such an ideology is a tyrant in liberator's clothing-- but to look at these people and conclude that feminism is bad is to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I agree wholeheartedly! The Feminist Movement was a great achievement, but it's sad to see so many women lose sight of their divine callings as mothers because of it.
ReplyDeleteVery thoughtful. You are right, feminism has been given a bad name because of the actions and agendas of some in the last generation but at its root it is about women being "persons" like everyone else and having the same rights as citizens. In spite of all the good that was done in the beginning under the name of feminism, there have been some not so nice things come of it in recent years by those who want to define the role of women too narrowly in the other direction. For some of us in my own generation, we had to come to terms with and fight against society telling us that we were "less than" because we chose to stay at home and raise our families rather than pursuing "a career"...quite the opposite of the early years when women had less freedom to pursue meaningful work outside the home. Perhaps the pendulum must swing both ways before we find equilibrium.
ReplyDeleteAs long as my own daughters feel that they are valued simply because they are, and make decisions for themselves and their families that are true to themselves and their families...without worrying what "society" says they are or should do, I am content.