Is feminism still needed?

(I wrote this a number of years ago. One of my friends from uni decided to start an email debate about whether or not feminism was still needed. As I recall, I was the only one arguing in support of feminism. I recall one of my female friends saying that feminism was no longer needed because in her workplace, there were more women than men. My thoughts on this topic are far from firmly settled, but I think it's an important issue to consider, so I decided to post this here to see if anyone has any thoughts to share...)

There is a problem with this topic, though. It assumes that there is only one feminist argument/movement. Feminism can not be characterized as a single viewpoint. There are many different views within feminism, from radical anti-male feminism, to a more moderate view that might not even be recognized as feminism. So, the question is, what feminism are we talking about? However, all these different viewpoints have something in common. As Kaz Cooke puts it, “The myriad variations on feminist belief all revolve around equality of opportunity and freedom of choice: choice to be a full-time parent, a rocket scientist, a labourer or a florist, and the freedom to be respected for any of those choices.”

This is something women still do not have, and this is partly the fault of feminism. Women are now often expected to be able to do it all – have a family and a successful career. It seems, though, that there is just not enough time in the day to do this. Also, women who try to juggle family and career are discriminated against. Employers prefer men who don’t have commitments outside work – who don’t have to leave by 5pm on the dot so they can pick up their kids from day-care, who can work more overtime because they don’t have kids to look after, etc etc. Employers in general are more likely to hire a man who won’t be requiring maternity leave at some point. Australia is also behind most of the world in offering compulsory paid maternity leave. Unfortunately, in some ways compulsory paid maternity leave would make things worse – employers may be even more reluctant to hire women. This is a real problem for women in the workforce. Women are often demoted after returning from maternity leave. Of course, women have to be the ones to give birth, but there is nothing wrong with a man taking paternity leave to look after kids while the woman returns to work. It does happen, and perhaps if it happened more, there wouldn’t be as much discrimination against women.

But then, men are generally paid more. Wages are not equal yet. The salary for women is often much less than for men – tens of thousands of dollars less in some cases, for the same qualifications and the same work. Rob said “There are many positions that socially only women (and homosexuals) can fill, whereas traditional male strongholds such as the construction industry are now falling under siege from female recruits.” Which positions are these? Describing the construction industry as being "under siege from female recruits" only continues the problem. Why shouldn’t women enter these industries? If they can do the job as well, what’s the problem? Is it that men feel they are losing their authority and exclusivity? Women should have the same opportunities as men, unless they are genuinely inhibited by physical aspects. Some form of feminism is still needed to fight for this. One workplace favouring women does not mean that the problem has been solved. And even if there is a ‘filter effect’ at work, feminism is still needed to make sure it happens!

Even if you think that women have equal opportunity in the workplace, there are still many other issues facing women today: domestic violence, pornography, rape, sexual harassment, ‘the beauty myth’, eating disorders…

In short, I think feminism still has its place. It depends on what kind of feminism we’re talking about, though. If feminism means that women are anti-men, and want to keep men under their feet as inferior beings, this is no different from what feminism is fighting against. However, if feminism is taken as a fight for equal opportunities and freedom of choice, then it is eternally valuable. I think feminism has a tendency to come in cycles. One group of women will rise up against the oppression of men and fight for their rights. The next generation, however, tends to take for granted what has been won for them, and feminism dies out a bit, and women become oppressed again. Then, the next wave of feminism comes, and fights for those rights again.

I think at the moment feminism has taken a bit of a down turn. We’ve all grown up taking for granted the rights that have been won for us – the right for education, equal pay etc. It’s perhaps not until these things are denied, or we come across some discrimination that we take up the cause of feminism again. However, I think it would be a good idea to keep in mind what feminism has done for women (although there are negatives) to ensure that things don’t go backwards.