I should begin by acknowledging the huge strides that have been made in gender equality in the last 100 years, and what I am about to write does not detract from my sense of gratitude to have grown up as a female who has had access to education, jobs and opportunities in a way that was barely dreamt of a couple of generations ago.
But nonetheless, I feel justified in crying out at how changes in gender equality have slowed and stagnated in the last twenty years, and how the time has come for the pace of change to pick up again. In particular, the change needs to come in the way society thinks and that has to be actively challenged at every opportunity if deep seated change is to happen. As an educator I am strongly aware of the messages that are given to both girls and boys, and am amazed at how hard it is to get away from ingrained stereotypes and attitudes in society. In particular, the media our children are exposed to, almost 24/7 - magazines, websites, films, books, comics - seem to so strongly send messages that continue to reinforce current gender stereotypes and expectations, and this is damaging to both men and women and humanity as a whole. I loved Natasha McElhone's comparison of the speed with which we have adopted technological change to the resistance to accepting change in gender equality. Since the microchip was invented half a century ago, we have built powerful computers, made them fit into our pockets, sequenced the human genome, bioengineered entire species, and 3D-printed kidneys...How quickly we have embraced change, how quickly we have adapted and "appd" our lives because it's liberating for the most part. Fantastically so. We have reinvented the how of what we do in a way that was unimaginable even 20 or 30 years ago. She questions why the same isn't possible with gender equality: I thought about the dream of gender equality erupting around the same time as the internet was first conceived. No one was after sameness, just some equality. If we can sequence the genome, surely we can reinvent our gender roles using all these incredible resources to kick open another space where gender equality is achieved because, like technological advancement, it will benefit everyone...We have hacked so many other spaces in our lives – how we hook up, date, have babies, of same or different colour and raise them in same-sex relationships if we choose. We are getting used to new ways of how to "grow" ourselves, gestate, borrow wombs, buy eggs and yet in this space- gender expectation/objectification persists: the Chinese footbinding and the corsets have surely just been replaced with the full Brazilians and vajazzling. The pace of change will only start to pick up when we all start to first of all recognise the gender stereotyping and expectations that are being portrayed and then start to produce different messages. Like technology, it will change the world for the better - for everyone. In this article, Kat Banyard makes some interesting points about how feminism was boycotted, all be it cleverly, by big industry (particularly the sex and beauty industries), who seized on the messages of the feminist movement pre-nineties such as sexual liberation, economic independence, control over their own bodies, etc and distorted what those looked like:'Throughout the 90s and much of the noughties, we were sold a lie on an almighty scale. That equality had been won, that the battle was over, and now was the time to enjoy our rights. I think what really helped contribute to that was how institutions and corporations who rely on sexism, who rely on women's inequality, adapted and changed. And co-opted the language of feminism very, very cleverly. Feminists of previous generations really got these ideals of independence, equality and agency accepted as standards and values society holds dear. So this didn't escape the notice of people like Hugh Hefner, the sex industry, the beauty industry. They knew that to survive they had to adapt. So all of a sudden putting on makeup was a major route to empowerment; visiting or performing in a lapdancing club was evidence of your independence and how sexually liberated you were. The sex industry held itself up as the promised land of feminism. Everything that feminists had been fighting for – sexual liberation, economic independence, control over their own bodies and so forth. When in fact what they represented was the complete opposite of feminism.'
As I wrote about in a previous blog, knowing how to get involved and act on things that matter to you in a world that is geared towards maintaining the status quo can be really difficult.This article, ten tips to help our daughters change the world gives some helpful tips to young women about how to act on what they believe in, in a way that is both achievable and effective. It urges women:
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AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
July 2014
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