Feminism - happy Women's Day!

It's probably appropriate to write about my stance on feminism on International Women's Day. This is what my oldest sister wrote on facebook today: “Ponders where I went wrong, as my daughter spent the eve of International Woman's Day finishing her essay about feminism. Her conclusions included that maybe the feminists really believe what they are saying but that they really aren't needed anymore... ARGHHHH...”

Is feminism still needed? My oldest sister would surely think so, since she's very ambitious and has run into the difficulty of getting ahead in her career (in a very male-dominated field) because of her gender. My middle sister denies being feminist although I'm guessing that she would strongly protest against blatant discrimination if she faced it. I on the other hand have a bit of a different stance than either one of them – maybe due to my circumstances. Having studied philosophy and women's studies I see a couple major problems, and I feel that to address those we still need feminism.

First, a clear and physical thing: violence against women. Violence in any form is a dreadful thing, and in so many countries in the world women are completely helpless in the midst of war and turmoil, victims at all times, never able to decide over how their body is used. So is this only a problem of Third World countries that are at war? No, unfortunately. Even in Finland violence in relationships is so common that explanations are needed – over 30% of Finnish women have during the last five years experienced either physical or sexual violence, threat of violence or similar (http://www.stat.fi/tup/tietoaika/tilaajat/ta_10_01_naisvakiv.html). There are theories about how this is possible in a country like Finland – for instance that women are so much more verbal and under verbal abuse a man retorts with violence – but none of the theories or explanations can explain away that this is a disgrace. With these numbers, how can we say that women don't need champions anymore – and why couldn't we call those champions feminists?

I'm not going to talk about the situation of women in non-western countries, since there are always problems when western women tell others how women should live. I would prefer the intellectuals and wise women of those countries to decide for themselves what the rights of women are and what feminism could do for them.

My second issue has more to do with equal respect and is a more difficult issue. In this I often run into conflicts with other so-called feminists. During my studies of philosophy I read a lot of Luce Irigaray, and from those writings developed a feminism of my own. (I don't want to credit this to Irigaray, since I can't remember everything anymore and so have mixed my own ideas with hers.) The main point is that women have through the ages been defined by men as their opposite, and often as the weaker opposite. Women, since they haven't had a chance to express themselves in public, have been made the mirror. I want to see women's own attempts to define themselves – and it's not easy, because all women won't really agree on anything, but why should they? In order to do this there needs to be friendship between women, love between mothers and daughters and less of a competitive atmosphere. And one thing that really shows the difficulty of the task is the disrespect and even sneering at qualities traditionally seen as female. Don't get me wrong, I don't want any of the respect that lifts women on pedestals and leaves them there while men go do other things. I think that part of the reason for not respecting women (and not respecting ourselves) is because compassion is valued less than aggression, that careful driving is silly and aggressive driving better and so on.

As a result, women shun those qualities they might see in their mothers and try to achieve those they see in their fathers (obviously not always the case) – and, in my mind, think that male is better than female and therefore want to become male and forget about the female. Sure, this female might only be a mirror of the male and therefore not real at all – but if we in our hatred turn to the male, what becomes of the female? There will never be such a thing as the female defined by women. Something could be permanently lost from the world.

Finally, Julia Kristeva, philosopher and psychoanalyst, was once asked why she doesn't call herself a feminist, and she answered that feminism is a project for “all women” and that “all women” doesn't even exist. I would still not discard the concept feminism. I would like it to become a concept of plurality – feminisms – and no group should be in the right to define it so that it leaves outside anyone who champions for women, for the feminine, for their equality or for their difference.