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Feminist Movements and emancipation of Women

Ishara Jayawardane

Daily News Gender Forum spoke to Dr. Subhangi Herath, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Colombo, on the Feminist Movement and its role in the Emancipation of Women.

Feminist Movement is a movement that supports and expects women to achieve equality in the society. It is a movement which strives to promote and upgrade the lives of women.

“It is wrong to understand the Feminist Movement as a movement that inculcates hatred against men. At one point in the history of the Feminist Movement there was an extremely radical section of the movement that went against men. There was a reason for that. Women have been struggling hard for many decades to achieve equality in which they failed due to different social reasons. Because of that they decided if we are together with men it is not possible for us to achieve our emancipation,” said Dr. Herath.

They decided that they had to be separated from men. They decided they had to have their own goals, not to support the goals of development, the goals of society, goals of humanity that have been created by men. They decided to create their own goals and to do that they decided to be separated from men. That was the idea behind this radical movement.

“In that radical movement they gave up male female relationships, entering into marriages and lesbianism was promoted. And they thought by separating themselves from men and having their biological and social needs from among women, that is the way to achieve emancipation. That was the dominant movement in the US during the 50's and 60's. However there were sections of the movement that really questioned that kind of radicalism,” stated Dr. Herath.

In a way that radicalism turned women into men; you give up your reproductive ability, you don't have children, you don't reproduce biologically, you don't involve yourself in male female relationships, you dress like men, you behave like men.

Dr. Subhangi Herath

“Someone may ask me what do you mean by behaving like men? It is again a gender construction; a maleness and femaleness.

But I’m talking about biological maleness. Giving up your biological femaleness. You have the reproductive capacity, you have your body created in such a way that it is different from men. But without accepting that reproductive ability, the nature of your body and your physical ability, you convert yourself into a male mould,” said Dr. Herath.

Biological maleness is there, biological femaleness is there. It is a fact it is there. It distinguishes from one another mainly because of the reproductive capacity. The woman has a particular reproductive capacity, the male has a particular reproductive capacity. So it is very natural this union between men and women in order to generate the human kind. Because of that it is very natural the attraction between men and women.

“I'm not denying that other forms of sexuality can exist but this natural reproduction supports the continuation of the species. So then you deliberately give that up, deliberately prevent yourself from being attracted , deliberately prevent you becoming attractive and put a barrier for your reproductive ability. You change your ways, you change your walk, change your thinking, change your habits and behave like a man. It could be you find your emancipation through changing your femaleness into a maleness. That is why I do not think that extreme radicalism is something that helps us bring real emancipation for women,” explained Dr. Herath.

Dr. Herath stated that Emancipation of Women has to be achieved through being a woman and trying to bring justice to womanhood; femaleness. So you have to be a female, you want to be a female, you want to be a woman and you want to safeguard your femaleness while trying to achieve all the goals. That is actually which should be the agenda of the feminist movement.

All sorts of feminist segments of the old feminist movements are still there. There are still some extremely radical feminists as well. Ultimately whatever the form of these segments of the feminist movements - liberal feminism, radical feminism and socialist feminism, the ultimate goal is to promote and advance the status of women and create equality and equity.

“When you look back in history you can trace the origins of the Feminist Movement about two centuries back. Traces of the feminist movement can be found in 1700's; however, this becomes a full fledged movement in the early 20th century. Even in the 1700’s you find books written by women talking about the exploitation of women, talking about the underprivileged position of women in society. In the 1700's a book called “The Vindication of the Rights of Women” by Mary Wollstonecraft appeared. At that time to talk about the vindication of the rights of women I suppose is a very great step. At that time the Victorian norms about women had totally pervaded the Western world. At that time it was like a sin to talk about emancipation of women because woman was defined in the society as a second class citizen and it was very well accepted that women had to be behind men,” elaborated Dr. Herath.

The words “rights of women” were not relevant for that context. And because of that, the book did not attract any attention at that time. There were a number of books following that, but none of these were taken seriously until the early 20th century. It was only after a hundred years that they became important. It was not that the language used was very attractive or the writing style was very attractive, but the idea that women's rights should be thought about and discussed was very important.

“Then from the late 1800's there were a lot that were written specially with the Industrialization, Urbanization, these two historical processes go hand in hand with the emerging Feminist Movement at that time because at the beginning as we know industries had only men. Men were included. In the agricultural economy in the feudal system there was a big place for women.

Because the agricultural economy always needs labor, so men and women and children have to be part of the agricultural labor it is very difficult to identify a breadwinner in the Agricultural system. But as soon as the industries start, people go to the cities. that time cities were emerging so people go to cities where the industries were started. They had to abandon their families leaving women behind. Woman becomes the total caretaker of the household. Man becomes the breadwinner. So there is this separation of private and public,” clarified Dr. Herath.

Private is the world of women; the household; the family. Public is the man's domain; man goes to the public; man goes to the industry; man is the breadwinner; man goes to the city. So there is a very clear public and private dichotomy. Household and economy both were shared by men and women for many centuries in the agricultural system. Public and Private both were there for men and women and both men and women had to be part of it economically.

With this separation woman becomes a dependant. Women have to wait for whatever is earned by the man. But ultimately because of the very poor salaries that were paid at the beginning in the industrial system man could not support family alone. And also there were opportunities created for women at the very lower levels of the factories : cleaning and packing; lower minor work where men could not be recruited. So women were recruited for this. In one way additional income was needed for the family, on the other hand the opportunities were available for women.

“So women also went to work in factories. This is when there was a very clear visible vaccum in the household and family. There is nobody to take care of the children. No one to take care of the household. This is where the church and the women in the upper class/upper rungs of the society stepped into this scenario. What they said is we have to support these women, they have to do double work.

They have to work in the factories and take care of the children and do the household work. That is when the Conservative Feminist Movement -the first feminist movement that stepped into with their agenda of advancing the status of women. The idea was to help women to both activities, not to take women out of the subordinate position but to help women do all the activities. Then it changes into Liberalism, at that time society was becoming politically liberal and with that liberal feminism started” explained Dr. Herath

The whole idea was to promote the education and employment for women. Then emerges the radicalism. By educating women or giving them better employment or giving more opportunities in employment didn't help women's position. The more they get the more they were exploited. The more they get the more tasks they had to complete. And because of that radical feminists thought that they had to give up the household and that is what the barrier was.

Female power and male powerlessness

Aditha Dissanayake

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Time for Men’s Liberation?

Why is it difficult to admit that men could use a little help learning how to redefine themselves in today’s world, and how to “man up” in a new way to meet the challenges of our modern lives?

Definition of the “Superior Man”

David Deida the author of the book, “The Way Of The Superior Man: A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Woman,...” argues “It is time to evolve beyond the (first-stage) macho jerk ideal, all spine and no heart. It is also time to evolve beyond the (second-stage) sensitive and caring wimp ideal, all heart and no spine. Heart and spine must be united in a single man, and then gone beyond in the fullest expression of love and consciousness possible, which requires a deep relaxation into the infinite openness of this present moment. And this takes a new kind of (third-stage) guts. This is the way of the superior man.”

Come on, let's say it together suggests Dr. Warren Farrel, the author of the award-winning international best-seller, “Why Men Are The Way They Are”. Dr. Farrel admits the words do not roll off the tongue all that easily. “It sort of sticks in the back of the throat, and we almost need to look around to make sure no one is listening before we say it out loud.” But let's say it anyway, “Men are being oppressed”.

The way of the superior man

Social scientists believe when it comes to recognizing and developing their power, men are in a similar position today as women were in the late 1950's, at the dawn of the Feminist movement. If feminism can be defined as freeing females from being coerced into traditional female roles, then the same work needs to be done for men as well.

“As long as men do not rise to the challenge of redefining themselves for today's world, says Dr. Farrel, “women continue to be pressured to learn how to “row on both sides of the boat,” while men keep to their own side. The result? The boat just keeps going around in circles....” . He feels “feminism did a great job of exploring issues of male power and female powerlessness, but not a great job at exploring issues of female power and male powerlessness.”

“We’ve got to wake up,” says Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, chief executive of a gender management consultancy, in an article in the International Herald Tribune. “We’ve got to start focusing on the guys.” The only thing that can level the playing field at work is a level playing field at home. And that requires a major shift in public policy and corporate culture.

More and more governments all over the world protect female jobs during maternity leave, and several offer mothers a right to cut back their work hours.

In the corporate world, (female) human resource officers lobby for flexible work time, while other (female) executives organise female mentoring programmes. Female executive networks where the ladies can bond are booming. At countless women’s conferences, women debate with women about women and bond some more.

What about the men? Surely the liberation of women has made massive implications for men. It is clear that the women's movement together with economic independence have changed the relationship between the sexes making drastic changes in the expectations of how men should behave as fathers, husbands and sons of the “liberated” women.

In the past men were supposed to be strong hunter gatherers because this was how society survived. With the changes brought through the women’s movement however, today, the focus is more on the feminine values like sharing and caring.

The result? Confusion where once confidence reigned. Confused, unsure, angry and threatened by the gains women have made, (in some households, being supplanted as top wage earner) has, according to social scientists, triggered men’s insecurity. Some men feel they’re paying a steep price for sharing power: not just losing control but self-respect as well.

Infinite liberation

Others believe the advances women have made, increased job and career opportunities, improved wages, better child care, have come at men’s expense.

But the sad truth is men, wrestling with the same issues women used to have four decades ago, usually do so in private. While women have been public about their struggle to balance the world of work and career with that of relationship and child rearing and have public conversations in the media showcasing they are not alone, men have too often been silent and isolated. “In groups I’ve facilitated and with individual men I’ve counseled, I’ve heard the same refrain: “I was always too ashamed to talk about it.” says a psychologist in the online publication, “Women's enews.”

Enter the men's liberation movement; The social movement that includes a number of philosophies and organizations that seek to support men, change the male gender role and improve men's rights in regard to marriage, child access and victims of domestic violence. In other words, according to “Time” magazine “hundreds of men have joined groups that hold monthly or weekly “consciousness-raising” sessions, discussions in which they air their anxieties and strive for better understanding of women—and themselves.”

Concerns often raised by men's rights advocates include; the neglect of male issues and structural oppression of men (often citing issues such as the fact that in the Western world, men succeed in committing suicide much more often than do women,that men constitute over 90% of the prison population and represent a majority of alcoholics, and drug addicts.

If this is so, who is the most liberated sex right now? Women, surely. In which case, women must give up thinking “If he has it, then I’ve lost it,” and share this new found freedom with men. For, liberation, like love has an infinite supply.

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