Is feminism about equality?
Absolutely NOT!
Q: But I always maintain that feminism is about equality?
Equality legislation on its own, without a significant change in patriarchal culture, does not achieve liberation. It leaves the status quo unaltered. Equality legislation is but one tool in the box.
Q: But what is feminism if not a campaign for equality?
A: Feminism is about liberation of women from male oppression and all hierarchical systems. Feminists seek to challenge the status quo, and to overturn systems and structures which oppress women, rather than achieve equality with men under the existing social order. We have to level the playing field before we can have meaningful equality.
Q: If women were given complete equality with men under the law then everything would be fine.
A: Iceland has been given the title of the ‘most feminist country in the world’. It has the best equality laws imaginable. Yet its rates of rape, domestic violence and child sexual abuse remain the same as prior to the legislation. Legal equality does not mean women’s liberation.
Q: Equality means we would all have the same rights. Why is that not enough?
A: Liberation is different from having power over another group. It means to rid women of the shackles of male supremacy. Equality should indeed mean that all have the same rights. But until the underlying power structures are changed, it is often those from privileged groups that are most likely to use equality legislation (and the language of equality) to further their own interests, such as black people being charged with racially aggravated crimes against white police officers.
Bragg, being equal to a muppet…
Q: If all governments ensured that 50% of its representatives were female, that would solve the problem of sexism.
A: That would certainly be welcome. However, only liberation from patriarchal control will solve the problem of sexism and misogyny. Even with equal numbers of women, the men would shout louder, be heard more clearly and exert more power.
Q: Equality means that anyone who is discriminated against or treated unfairly on the basis of their sex can challenge this. Isn’t this a goal of feminism?
A: Feminism is a movement for women based on the fact that women are a sex class dominated by men as a sex class. Therefore, men cannot possibly be discriminated against on the basis of their sex. Just as white people cannot be discriminated against by people of colour on the basis of their race. The law does not recognise structural power differences, so a black defendant can be charged with a racially aggravated crime against a white complainant; and men have taken cases of sex discrimination regarding areas of work traditionally done by women.
Q: Trans women are discriminated against by ‘cis’ women and deserve equality with women.
A: Trans identified males (transwomen) are targeted (primarily by men) because they break the rule of gender, which is that men should be ‘real men’. Since women are not equal to men under the current structure, what would it mean for a trans woman to be equal to a natal woman? In what sense are trans women not equal to women? If it is because they are not accepted as women then that is NOT about structural power.
Q: Equality between women and men would see the end of women’s subordination. Men would take responsibility for half of the childcare and household chores within heterosexual family units.
A: As Beatrix Campbell writes in End of Equality (2014), despite 50 years of equality legislation in England and Wales, men are doing barely any more childcare or domestic chores that they were immediately following World War Two.
Q: Striving for equality is a perfectly reasonable goal. No-one could dispute the justice of this pursuit. However, liberation sounds like a revolutionary goal and most women won’t want to appear man-hating and aggressive.
A: Feminists that strive for equality lack ambition. Only liberation will free us from the shackles of patriarchy and bring about a world where feminism is unnecessary.
I'm so glad that you are doing this Julie. "Equality feminism" has been an utter and complete failure of liberation . It has just given us ubiquitous, degrading and abusive porn, even more prostitution, surrogacy, the elimination of women as a sex class, the loss of words that describe us, and the lunacy of men calling their sex envy and desire to be women a "human rights" issue, not to mention a bunch of well paid women whio call themselves feminists serving, and being highly rewarded by, the patriarchy. It's about time a high profile feminist tackled this - and of course it has to be you, because you are the bravest of the lot! Huge admiration to you. ❤️
And of course equality between the people who make and feed the babies, and those that are free of these extremely time and energy consuming tasks, can never be achieved in any simple manner. Financial compensation would help, especially if it was a tax on the sex that doesn't have to contribute this vital work to society, but that's not ever likely to happen. In the conclusion to my thesis on justice for women who defend themselves against their abusers (https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/3429?show=full ) I wrote that what these, and all women need is a constitutional right against gender domination (now I'd make that sex domination) so that domestic violence, rape etc, could be prosecuted as an abuse of women's rights and punished much more severely - while prevention strategies would be more likely to be properly funded and implemented. Thanks to patriarchal media and political bias, most people in the West, even many who call themselves feminists (including my daughter), don't begin to realise the comprehensive harms that male domination wreaks upon women and girls (and boys) in our so-called sex-progressive West. If we could change this, and I think the trans movement has actually helped to begin to expose the dirty woman-hating attitude of a significant number of men at all levels of our societies, as well as women's readiness to appease these men in the name of being 'kind', I think we might begin to create a more sex-'equal' and truly feminist society.