Don't be fooled – feminism today is as relevant as ever

Published on Wednesday 7 May 2008 10:22

Edinburgh is about to host Ladyfest, a month-long celebration of modern womanhood. But Gina Davidson asks why are so many young females snubbing the F-word?

LADYFEST. The very word is probably enough to make men screw up their faces, either at the thought of a festival just for women – what about Manfest, where's the equality? – or perhaps at the idea that it might have something to do with those Bangkok Ladyboys who tend to turn up in Edinburgh every summer.

Yet Ladyfest has just arrived in the Capital and aims to celebrate women's role in culture, comedy and the arts.

The month-long event bills itself as a "community-based, not-for- profit global celebration of women in the arts, culture and society", and aims to celebrate female creativity and create a space to rejuvenate discussions about feminism and its relevance today.

For it seems feminism has become something of an F-word in the last decade. It appears that young women don't want to describe themselves as feminists – even when they have lofty career ambitions in male-dominated industries – in case they're bracketed with those 1970s harpies who burned their bras and shunned lipstick.

While they're aware they can thank the Suffragettes, Simone de Beauvoir and even Germaine Greer for the rights they now have, they already believe themselves to be on a par with men, which for some includes the right to binge-drink and act increasingly violently.

Is it, as Australian author Kathy Lette puts it, that "younger women are post-feminist: they kept their Wonderbras but burnt their brains"?

Margaret McGregor, former chair of Edinburgh District Council's Women's Committee, believes that young womenthink the war is over. Yet, she insists there's as much a need for a women's movement today as there was back in 1984 when the committee was set up.

A Labour Party initiative to promote the welfare and interests of women, the committee gave real focus to issues like childcare, women's health, and domestic violence against women. These issues have not gone away, but the committee has – it was subsumed by an Equalities Committee in the 90s. This was a shame, as it took away the focus on promoting women's issues, and there is still a need to promote the long-term interests of women.

She points to the lack of female representatives in Parliament, the higher echelons of education, law, industry and medicine. Something is wrong somewhere – girls are doing better at school and getting the university places, but what happens to these gifted, intelligent women? They just disappear.

That's why there's still a need for feminism and a women's movement. Society has to find a reason for that. There shouldn't be discrimination against women because they are of child-bearing age.

And pay is still not equal. The council has a major problem – it's having to give back-pay to women because they were underpaid for years. That alone shows how obvious the need for feminism is. Women are certainly still paid up to 43 per cent less than men and make up only 18 per cent of key decision-makers in European institutions. Women also still perform more than 80 per cent of household chores.

Yet not all women find that last statistic shaming. Thanks to the likes of domestic goddess Nigella Lawson, and Cath Kidston and her floral aprons, peg bags and oven gloves, symbols of oppressive domestic drudgery, are being reclaimed by women, and turned into something positive. Feminisim-lite perhaps?

One of America's leading feminists, Jennifer Baumgardner, believes there is still a major need for feminism in today's society, although a feminism which has changed.

"Assumptions about feminism were that you wouldn't get married or you wouldn't take your husband's name, that your kids wouldn't play with a Barbie doll. That's not the point. There isn't a laundry list of things you do?"

Furthermore she says feminism is no longer just for women. "It's the belief in the full political, social and economic equality of all people."

One woman who is perhaps the epitome of the feminist movement is Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander, below. Yet it's not just her policies that have been scrutinised by the media – her clothes, style and competence for the job as a woman with twins at home have all been targeted.

Michelle Mendelssohn, English literature lecturer at Edinburgh University with a special interest in gender and sexuality studies, knows first-hand that young women don't think of themselves as feminists.

"Feminism is unfashionable because people have forgotten what it's about," she says. "My experience of teaching 18 to 21-year-old women is that when I use the word feminism they are not interested, but about issues like equality and other life issues then they're very interested in it.

"Ariel Levy, a young American author who wrote Female Chauvinist Pigs, has raised another interesting issue in her exploration of feminism, and that's that women are involved in porn culture because they want to be associated with a more male aesthetic, going to strip clubs and to be seen in that way.

"The whole cosmetic surgery industry is also being promoted as something that's good for women's health, as if keeping your breasts perky is the same as looking after your teeth, when it's not. Women need to start unpicking that. However, most young men I've come across in Edinburgh are not chauvinists and they're pretty aware of the issues."

Feminism has evolved, and will continue to do so.

But as Ladyfest suggests, women still need to stand up and use their voices politically, creatively and in everyday life.

&#149 For more information on Ladyfest Edinburgh visit www.ladyfest.com or attend a workshop every Thursday at the Waverley Bar on St Mary's Street from 7.45pm.