Feminism: Alive
and Well by NOW President Kim Gandy February 4, 2005 This week I was asked to write an op-ed for Sunday's Arizona Republic with the theme "Has Feminism Lost Its Way"—with a rebuttal from one of the usual suspects, presumably saying the usual things. It always strikes me as ironic when women who have benefited from feminist gains declare feminism irrelevant. My favorite argument of theirs is that the women's movement "used to be" important, but is no longer necessary. Sometimes upon hearing this I think, oh good, I can stop marching (because, hey, my feet are tired) and spend more quality time with my family. Unfortunately, a quick glance at the state of women and gender equality makes the vision of packing up my desk and calling it a day melt away. Surely we can all be glad that Susan B. Anthony, whose original calling was temperance, didn't limit herself to one cause. And we continue to honor Alice Paul, who helped win the vote for women, for knowing that the vote was not enough, and turning her attention to writing the (yet-unratified) Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. We're all better off for the ceaseless efforts of the labor movement women, from Mother Jones to Dolores Huerta. And thank goodness insightful poet Audre Lorde and writer Robin "Sisterhood is Powerful" Morgan didn't decide that they'd already "come a long way, baby" and stop speaking out. So many women have blazed a trail on issues of deep concern, from reproductive rights, to racism and homophobia, to violence against women, to economic justice—and each of them tailored her feminist activism to her time and place, and each had a larger vision of a better world for us all. None among them would have set out to climb a mountain and decided, halfway to the summit, that that was good enough. And neither shall we. 2005 is no different. We're doing what we've always done. The central premise of feminism has not changed from its inception. At its heart, feminism means that women are people. We have fought for the same things all people should have: the right to vote; the right to be employed, and earn the same as anyone else doing that job; the right to an equal education; the right to decide whether to have children and when; the right to live free of violence and fear; the right to love or marry whom we choose; and the right to protest and petition when we are treated as anything less than full persons. Now more than ever, we have invoked that right to protest, as we see our health, our rights, and our democracy teetering on the brink. This is a nation founded on the promise of liberty and equality. This is the country where generation after generation of activists battled for inclusion in that promise. This is where Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed he had a dream. Well, we too have a dream. We dream that our children will able to walk down the streets and not fear a violent attack because of their sex, race, gender identity or sexual orientation. We want them to have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, affordable houses to live in, and good jobs that pay a living wage. We want our girls to grow up knowing they could be President, and we want fair treatment for them in whatever walk of life they choose. We want quality public education accessible to all; universal health care with full access to reproductive services for all women; media images that teach us to love, not hate, our bodies; affirmative action to right the wrongs of past and present discrimination; and a peaceful world where war is the last, not the first, resort. This is the vision that sustains us. This is the mountain we set out to climb—and not only are we nowhere near the top, now we're being pushed back down. Our hard-won gains of the past 30 years are in jeopardy, as George W. Bush tries to rob from the poor and give to the rich, as Bush and the radical right seek to appoint judges determined to take away our rights and our choices, and as an increasingly loud and empowered backlash to feminism takes hold. The next four years are going to be tough, but luckily, so are we. Has feminism lost its way? It's a silly question. We're still on track, still working toward for the same ideals, and making progress. We're not the ones who have changed. The real—and more important—question
is: Has our country lost its way? |
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