From the Road to Feminism

We had a rather interesting class discussion yesterday about feminism – about what worked, how it could be improved and what didn't work or were setbacks yet to be solved. It was a lesson that took an hour and a half, and we talked about several interesting points which I shall not elaborate on. What I mean is, I'll only touch on a couple of the points made today.

One point that struck me was the discussion on Kay Ebeling's "a biological thing". The author felt that it was the biological differences between men and women that is the impossible barrier that prevented women from having an equal chance at success.
A classmate of mine agreed that it was the case and went on to explain his views: A pregnant woman who is also a working woman would certainly lag behind her male counterparts as she would not be in the best of positions to do her job competently. Worse still, as mentioned by another classmate, two months of maternity leave would set her even further back as the male employees would have progressed much more in the time she was not there.
Not to mention family expectations: both a bread winner and having to fulfill the normal expectations of being a good house maker and child-rearer. Expectations that only the women are expected to fulfill. Ebeling stresses on this point by claiming that Feminism has in this way added pressure on women's lives by throwing on the unneeded responsibility of holding a job; that because of our biological differences, we women would never be a man's equal.

However, what struck me was where these expectations came from–yes, we are made different physically, but why should that stop us? There are many single women out there who lead successful lives, without children of their own. To me, it is not so much our biological differences that has prevented women from getting that shot to success but the stereotypical roles that men and women still play. Traditionally, women are expected to be the ones to raise the child, cook, clean and maintain the household. Men are traditionally the bread-winners. It is here that the Feminist cause has failed–not because of our biological differences but in its failure to address the issue of gender stereotypes. Women will always be regarded with suspicion (whether saddled with a child or not) if they hold top positions in a company or are the presidents of a country or mingle in what are commonly male-dominated fields. A female soldier in the SAF–few and far between. And likewise for the men. Think about it: what would the normal reaction be if you heard of a househusband?

Another point that came up during our discussion had to do with what feminism stood for – ladies do we really want equality? A fine idea brought up by my classmates [a guy naturally]: If the girls are so determined to get equality why don't they just do NS too? It's voluntary for the girls. I would think they wanted double standards” Yup. As Jane says it, "All we want is a better life." And I agree. Feminism isn't about equality really – it's more of empowering the women to live the life they want, and not be oppressed by society.