thoughts
Growing up my ideas of feminism was that of women’s rights: the right to vote, workplace equality, and the right to an independent life. When I was young my parents instilled that women should be treated with a great deal of respect and that gender equality wasn’t something to be thought about but something to be practiced
There were a lot of times when they would use various news stories to start a dialogue. A few instances that I remember well were the topics of sexual harassment and single unwed mothers. I remember my father talking about how sexual harassment was unacceptable, that it showed a severe character flaw and lack or respect for others. It was instilled on us that workplace performance was independent of gender, and that not one should use a position of power to make others feel others uncomfortable. We lived in a smaller town where being an unwed mother was a social stigma. My parents talked about how that pregnancy was not the woman’s sole responsibility that it was the responsibility of both partners and that men “shouldn’t be given a free pass.”
So my early encounters with feminism were perhaps reformist. I think like any social movement each person interprets and approaches feminism differently. I think the social rights element of feminism is important. One of my favourite quotes from the reading was when Alice Paul was being taken to prison and shouted “I am being imprisoned not because I obstruct traffic, but because I pointed out to President Wilson the fact that he is obstructing the process of justice and democracy at home while Americans fight for it abroad”(pg 6). I think this quote is very applicable currently as well. Today the United States is touting freedom and democracy abroad while there are still huge inequalities happening at home. For me right now feminism is about social rights but also breaking down they way in which we think about gender; the way that the hegemonic ideas of gender continue to lead to inequality and repression of both women and men who do not fit into traditional roles. So for me feminism isn’t just the rights of women, but challenging the thoughts and ideas of women and gender.