March 8, 2011 marks the centenary of International Women's Day. All over the world, women and men are celebrating the achievements and progress women have made in social, political, and economic spheres in the past century. Additionally, people are calling for attention to be paid to the areas in which gender equality is still lacking, has stagnated, or has been outright ignored. The concept of International Women's Day however, is NOT based out of feminism, and it's important to keep this in mind. In fact, maybe capital-F Feminism is what's holding women back.
The idea of IWD was based out of a Socialist political demonstration, beginning in Germany. In 1911, Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland were the first countries to commemorate the day, which at the time was meant to draw attention to the sad state of labour and working conditions in increasingly industrialized societies, still undergoing the growing pains as seen with any societal advancement. In Russia circa 1917, protests by women demanding bread and peace sparked the October Revolution. Even up to 100 years ago, women have been standing up, making their demands heard, and affecting change when faced with a seemingly unresponsive, apathetic political and social hegemony.
Through the years since, we've seen first, second, and third wave feminism. Feminism as a concept is nebulous and vague at best, with some deriding it, some subscribing to it, and some doing everything short of tattooing the word on their forehead in the name of the ideology. However, we've reached a juncture in time that maybe it's time to throw out ideology, rhetoric, and the lofty and often exclusivist tenets of Feminism.
Often when the word is heard, it's met with groans, smirks, the rolling of eyes, or on the other hand, a self-righteous smirk akin to football players slapping each other's buttocks after a great play. The ideas that feminism is supposed to represent - equality, choice, and freedom - have become distorted into a sort of 'us and them' battle. I know from personal experience the feeling of being 'written off' after self-identifying as a Feminist.
I think for the sake of achieving goals that are ever more pressing in the world at present, we need to critically examine the state of our society, and our global village as a whole. The problems lay not in the oppression of women by men. Rather, the problems lie in social and political structures that allow both men and women to keep the have-nots of our society from accessing their own liberation. It is these structures that we need to audaciously and actively address. Let's put aside the never-ending debates about femininity and masculinity for a moment. We've reached a point where we need to very jubilantly and proudly celebrate the achievements of women thus far. Using these achievements as our ammunition, we need to consider and pursue what worked well. Generally, the greatest gains were spearheaded by women, but women eagerly sought the support of like-minded, progressive men. And children. It seems that many a Feminist today sees Feminism itself as a sort of sacrosanct, clandestine society of women. An example of this is Edmonton's own Take Back the Night march, which disallowed men from participating in the actual march portion of the event. These exclusionary tendencies are not doing women any favours. While it's important for women to have a safe space, we need to acknowledge that it's both men AND women who make the world safe (or unsafe) in the first place.
Our first question with the dawn of feminism was 'how can you exclude an entire gender - half the population of the world - and expect progress, stability, and sustainability?' Now, we have to ask that question again. We cannot make gains by ostracizing men, or by painting all women with the same brush. We can't ignore the women in positions of power who do nothing for women's rights and who do not support women's causes. Just because a human being happens to be born a female, this does not indefinitely predetermine her to be the same as every other female counterpart, with the same goals, ambitions, and motivations. This is brutally apparent when we look at debates surrounding abortion, birth control, and sexuality in general.
Further, we can't ignore the plights of impoverished and vulnerable men and boys all over the world. When thinking about International Women's Day, it would serve us well to think also of the gay rights movement, and the struggle that millions of gay men and women fight daily. We need to remember that regardless of gender, 1.4 billion people live below $1.25 USD a day (a conservative estimate surely, coming from the World Bank). This degree of extreme poverty is abhorrent regardless of gender. Of course, we need to identify the social determinants, such as gender, that prevent upward mobility, but at the same time, we need to address the problems affecting humanity at a human rights level - not a gender rights level.
Perhaps it's time to throw away capital-F Feminism and instead focus more on a return to idealism and bright-eyed optimism. We need to address the issues of our modern world with a compassionate heart that works to promote equality and justice, for everyone. Surely our discourse will be nuanced by gender, but it should be no more or less nuanced by gender than it should by race, religion, culture, or sexual orientation. And by no means should our discourse exclude anyone based on the arrangement of a couple lousy chromosomes.
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