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by Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham

Have you ever listened to women speak on a variety of issues that make you admire them greatly? Often they have worked hard to achieve their successes, have fought against biases shown to them based purely on their gender, and at times have had to give up a great deal to achieve their success.

And yet.... Some will backtrack quickly and apologetically deny any overt sympathies with feminism. At some point they will stutter "but..but, I'm not a feminist." This is when you freeze with surprise and wonder how they can say this. Have you read a creative writer's novels, and admired the feminist content of her work, only to be let down by her denials? Recently on speaking to some women working in a gender based organization, I could come up with no firm show of hands of women who embraced the feminist stance.

Why such hesitations? After all these years, why is this label still taboo? Have deniers really thought about what feminism means?

Let's recount some of the stereotypes regarding feminists. They are often referred to as bra-burners, family breakers, man haters, lesbians, unhappy women, plain Janes, neurotics, as aggressive viragos.

Furthermore, feminism is now seen as passe. It is boring, and it is about a group of women who just go on about the same old things. Some would claim that what feminists are really interested in, then, is serving their own selfish interests under the banner of feminism. Others would claim that feminists just talk about equality, but are really elitists.

Disapprovers of feminism would ask: you get equal pay now don't you? What more is there to say about feminism? After having read this column, a colleague of mine on realizing that it dealt with feminist issues, actually asked me how I managed to be a feminist and rational and reasonable at the same time.

If feminism is not about the above categories, what is feminism about? Early feminist Rebecca West says: "I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute." The simplest definition claims that inequalities between the sexes exist. So feminists are committed to changing this equation to bring about a more egalitarian community.

This definition has expanded today, as feminism is a field of study that has diversified and has spread into many areas of life. Hence, the descriptions of equality and gender vary according to different feminist ideologies. One thing is for sure. No bras were burnt! That little stigma was an invention of American media and part of the backlash against feminists.

We notice that there are Liberal Feminists, Marxist Feminists, Radical Feminists and Post-structuralist feminists, eco feminists and a host of others. Each group may have a different ideology and different ways of tackling inequality.

Let me mention one such difference. When feminism went through what is called its first phase in the 1920s and 30s, feminists demanded equality in certain spheres. For example, they wanted equal pay, the right to vote, and equality in legal aspects.

It is the second wave in the 1960s onwards that saw radical feminists question motherhood and the institution of family. It is during this time that the UN commenced its women's conferences in places like Nairobi, Mexico, Copenhagen, and Beijing. The decade from 1975-85 was further declared the Decade of Women by the UN.

Marxist feminists, on the other hand, see feminist liberation possible only if there are positive changes in society as a whole.

If not, they often argue, liberation can only come piece-meal. Often, when people chastise feminism and its exponents, it is done without actual thought of these varied streams of feminism and its multiple manifestations.

How can feminism be passe, when many of the demands of the early feminists are yet to be met? Have women got equal pay today? Does equal pay mean the end of feminism? To this, Sheila Rowbotham would answer: "Equal Pay is not Enough. We want the Moon." Rowbotham, a seventies British feminist, claimed that simple demands of equal pay, and the right to vote barely scratched the surface of feminist needs.

Women need more and the fight for equality even today is hardly over.

How can society criticize feminists as being neurotic, when they simply fight for certain rights that today have become common sense.

Do you believe that rape is wrong? Do you believe that no person has the right to batter and psychologically torment another human being? Have you ever advised any female relative, friend or individual to leave a relationship in which the male is an alcoholic and is abusive? Do you thinking that treating girl children badly simply because they are girls is wrong? Do you believe that women should have access to education so that they have the opportunities to work and make successes of their lives?

If so, here is some news for you. You are a feminist.

These are some of the key issues that feminist struggles have focused on for decades.

If you agree with the above mentioned, then you do so because of the massive changes feminism has brought to the world. It is only because of feminism that women were liberated from their gilded cage.

Feminism has transformed the way we perceive the world. What is common sense to us, is only so because of the hard struggles of courageous women. So, next time you dismiss feminism by labeling it, and the next time you are ashamed to accept the label of feminism, think about it.

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