Grappler Racist Filth wrote on Jun 20
th, 2012 at 11:14am:
Big Donger wrote on Jun 20
th, 2012 at 10:19am:
Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on Jun 19
th, 2012 at 11:25am:
It has achieved what it set out to achieve. The vast majority, if not all, the reforms outlined by the 1st and 2nd wave have been accomplished. Can you show me one area where women aren't allowed equality of opportunity?
Sure. The vast majority of the world. India, Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa.
Less than 20% of the world's population live in developed countries. The rest live in rural villages or rapidly industrialising cities.
Equal wages, child care, shelter from domestic violence, etc, rates a mention in a few places, but not many.
Take India. The middle classes are well-educated and informed. Women's issues get a fair bit of airplay on TV, in parliament, and in general political debate.
But in 80% of the country, women are still little more than chattel. Even wealthy, Western-educated professional women have their marriages arranged by their parents.
So - in 20% of the world, women are entitled to equality of opportunity. In the rest, it's business as usual.
Feminism is still relevant.
ADDS:- So - er - in that 20% - where you cite the absolute difference between the Indian middle classes and the poor - exactly how much better do men fare overall?
You cannot compare the middle classes with the rest and make that your blanket statement - and you provide support for the old contention that 'feminism' is a middle class movement designed to privilege that class.
REPEATS:- As for the rest of the world? Feminism, with its rhetorical intrusions into other nations, is abrogating the rights of those nations to self-government, and is creating a situation in many where we of the West, because of the never-ending feminist virulent verbal attacks, are seen as 'crusaders' and 'cultural imperialists' - which, in turn, creates insecurity and potential terrorism for the West.
You raise a good point. I remember Laura Bush having a pivotal role in US politics after September 11 in championing the rights of women in Afghanistan.
While the Hawks led the security crusade and the War On Terror, Laura was on Oprah selling the soft campaign - the cause of Afghani women and girls.
Thank Gud for Uncle Sam.
Still, feminism's "rhetorical intrusions into other nations" is not all Western imperialism. There are plenty of grass roots women's organisations spearheading development campaigns in Asia and Africa.
Vananda Shiva, for example, leads a movement that protects local seed strains against multinational patent crops in India. Her ideas are based on Vedic philosophy, feminism and Western thought on biodiversity and ecosystems.
For Vananda Shiva, women's issues are not separate from the economy or the environment. You'll find the same ideas in microfinancing - the project that won the Bangladeshi, Muhammed Yunus, the Nobel prize for economics.
In the developing world, women's groups are leading the push against globalization, cultural imperialism and foreign ownership of land and resources. It's a completely different take on feminism to the "second wave" of equal employment rights in the West.
In many developing countries, women are both child-rearers and farm labourers. While men in rural areas often move to cities to find work, women are left to tend to the children and the crops. They often run small family businesses - a shop, a cow that produces milk for neighbours, piecemaking for the clothing industry. They often do the bulk of the work in families and communities - while the men are off harvesting or producing goods for us in the West.
In the West, women have largely earned equal rights. It's a different matter entirely in many parts of the developing world.
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