Tag: feminism

On wage gap, equality and the future of feminism

This one is for the ladies on International Women’s Day

There are no hard and fast rules about what makes a feminist. Short hair or long hair, high heels or flats—women who believe in equal rights come in all shapes and sizes.

In honour of International Women’s Day on March 8, let’s take a moment to talk about the status of women in Canada today.

Although women’s rights have greatly improved in the last hundred years, there is still so much that needs to change for men and women to be equal. While we like to imagine that Canada is a place where gender divide, sexism and inequality is a thing of the past, this simply isn’t the case.

We probably don’t need to remind you, dear reader, of the many headlines of late ranging from issues of sexual harassment, domestic abuse and violence against women.

Feminism, yes the “F word,” does not necessarily mean burning bras, or letting your leg hair grow, anymore.

All feminism means is equality. That means getting rid of the glass ceiling. That means understanding what consent is. That means not judging a woman because of how she looks, or the length of her skirt.

We are lucky enough to live in a society where rape culture and victim blaming are actually being talked about in the public sphere. It may seem disheartening, but these important discussions are a sign of increased awareness about the realities of how bad it really is out there.

Canadian women have many rights that women elsewhere in the world do not, and for that, we should all be proud, but that does not mean that our society is perfect—far from it.

Women in this country still get paid 74 cents on the dollar (according to a 2011 Ontario Pay Equity Commission study) compared to men working the exact same jobs. Women of colour and women with disabilities make even less. This is a stone cold fact, and it’s an injustice of epic proportions.

So on Sunday, take the time to do a little research before condemning feminism as a dead or outdated movement. The second that we stop talking about feminism will be the day that the struggles of our foremothers are forgotten, and that history repeats itself.

Categories
Student Life

Who (could) run da world? Girls.

Workshop will discuss the role of feminism in pop culture

In today’s modern age, celebrities have the power to make their fans think critically about their views and beliefs. In the past few years alone, pop culture queens such as Emma Watson and Beyoncé have expressed their views as feminists and have inspired people to fight for gender equality.

UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson and UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Photo from Flickr by UN Women.

On March 7, The School of Community & Public Affairs, with the support of the Political Science Student Association (SCPASA), will be hosting a full-day event at Concordia: “Modern Feminism in a Beyonce World.” The day will be filled with interactive workshops discussing several topics under the umbrella of feminism, particularly the influence that pop culture has on women’s empowerment.

Seven presenters of different educational and cultural backgrounds will speak at the event, but they all have one thing in common: students can relate to them. “We wanted to find speakers who reflect ourselves and who were like our peers,” said Aminka Belvitt, the event coordinator. “They all identify as feminists and they all have a goal to seek out more feminist leaders.” They are also all under 28 years old.

Speakers include Amy Kishek, who will discuss the politics of feminism, Katlyn Harrison, who will explain how to become a corporate feminist, and Junior West, who will link science and feminism, to name a few.

Discussion will also surround Beyoncé ’s documentary Yours and Mine, in which she proclaims her views on gender equality and how the focus should be not only on women, but on male vulnerability. “We’re going to discuss the place of men within feminism and how we can work with men to understand gender equality,” Belvitt said. “Gender equality considers both men and women and we need to start having that full conversation.” With that said, Belvitt explained that it is just as important for men to attend the event as it is for women. “Both genders need to be involved.”

Participants will learn about societal roles that people fall into and how they translate into oppression. Why do women allow men or children to hold them back? How can women find equal partners and healthy partnerships?

Participants are encouraged to discuss, debate and really think beyond what they have been taught about feminism. “We want participants to leave with the understanding that coloured women, queer women, transgender women and men deserve a place,” Belvitt said. “We want everyone to have a voice and be included. There’s no longer this mainstream western perspective that feminism is just for the elite, academic white woman. It’s for everyone.”

The event will take place at JMSB in room 2.210 on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is free but registration is mandatory with aminka.belvitt@gmail.com. Lunch will be served for $5.

Categories
Opinions

TIME magazine is behind the times on feminism

The women’s movement is not a laughing matter

A few weeks ago, TIME magazine published its annual word-banning poll.  The list of words it suggests is meant as a joke, in order to create—ironically—more discussion about overused buzzwords in this era of constant provocation to attract an audience.  Last year the lucky winner of this “worst word war” was “twerk”.  The nominees for this year included various choices of annoying culture-related terms such as “bae,” “I can’t even,” and…“feminist.”

Not only was it in the list, but it also made it to the first step of the podium. Feminist, a word to ban? After a petition from angry readers—because, let’s face it, some feminists are known to lack a sense of humour—TIME apologized for including the term in its list.

But what’s so wrong about including it in the first place? Let’s get started: first of all, feminism isn’t slang or a brand-new trendy word. Feminism is a movement striving for political, economic, social, cultural equality between genders. Feminism is an ideology promoting respect, equality of chances, rights, and duties, for both men and women. Feminism has history. Feminism is history. How can anyone neglect all the progress made thanks to this movement, by outrageously, casually, including it next to words empty of meanings like “obvi” or “sorry not sorry”? The association is disturbing.

Their justification was that the “f-word” made a loud comeback this year, and it was overused by a lot of celebrities. It cannot be denied the frequency of its use increased these past few months. We remember the beautiful speech from Emma Watson, leading the #HeforShe United Nations campaign, reminding us that anyone who is against gender discrimination and believes in equality should take action and consider themselves a feminist. Because this is the only meaning of the word.

And yes, plenty of other celebrities like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Beyonce, Lena Dunham, and Taylor Swift all took a stand and defined themselves as active feminists. The question is: in 2014, how can it be “hurtful” or “annoying” to speak out about equality?

The truth is, no matter how many people speak out, the situation stays the same. The gender wage gap exists everywhere. Women are not paid the same as men for equal qualifications. Women still don’t control their own bodies and have to fight for contraception or abortion. Women are still discriminated against, harassed, or blamed for their sexuality. Women are still victims of the glass ceiling, and face archaic sexist structures in the workplace. Women still deal with violence and sexual assault every day.

When all of this isn’t a problem anymore, then we can stop talking about it. Until then, it is our duty not to ban the word, but the injustice. When that day comes, the word “feminist” should not be banned but remembered, because of the meaning it carries, and the accomplishments it represents.

For now, let’s work to make it obsolete.

Categories
Opinions

Editorial: Feminism—when did the meaning of this word change?

Feminist. In 1895, the Oxford dictionary defined feminism as “advocacy of the rights of women (based on the theory of equality of the sexes).” It is now the year 2013 and although at its core, feminist principles have remained about the rights and equality of women, the connotation of the word has changed.

Groups like men’s rights activists believe that feminists paint a negative portrayal of men. Just recently, a men’s rights group in Calgary started a “Don’t be that girl” campaign wherein they created posters advocating things such as just because a woman doesn’t remember having sex doesn’t mean it wasn’t consensual. These groups wish to dispel the idea that men are responsible for rape and many of their websites disparage feminists as “man-haters.”

However, it is not only men’s rights groups that have this misconceived notion of feminism. Maria Peluso, who has taught several classes where the focus is on women, noted that many of her female students say they liked feminine thought but did not want to be labeled as feminists.

Writers Beth Larson and Lara Orlandic of the University of Illinois’ paper The Online Gargoyle feel that one of the reasons why the title ‘feminist’, has a negative connotation has to do with the idea that men and women are already equal in North American society and therefore feminists are just complaining needlessly.

“Since the Women’s Liberation Movement changed women’s status in society so drastically, people tend to overlook the present-day gender inequalities. Even though men and women are considered to be politically equal, there is a long way to go until both genders are socially and economically equal” (Larson and Orlandic, “Our favorite “f-word”: The misconceptions of feminism in Uni and mainstream culture,” The Online Gargoyle. Nov. 29, 2011).

At Concordia, we are fortunate to have The 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy and the newly created Sexual Assault Centre working tirelessly to promote awareness of gender issues and advocating for an end to sexual violence. The centre’s latest workshop series, “Another Word for Gender,” is an example of how even though many of the events focus on issues facing women, these issues are not exclusionary to men nor are they meant to blame men. Rather, these workshops look at constructive solutions to problems such as gender oppression and sexual violence. The workshops are pegged as “an intro to feminist organizing and action,” and yet they in no way support the negative connotation associated with the word. Instead, these workshops support the official definition of feminism by promoting equality for all genders.

Nevertheless, women and men hesitate to call themselves feminists. The hypocrisy of media has had a strong influence on the millennial generation, convincing many that to call oneself a feminist is to align oneself with bra-burning extremists. Although people like this do exist, they do not represent all feminists.

The key to defeating the stereotypes surrounding feminism is education. As previously noted, Concordia has excellent resources for this and perhaps by taking the opportunity to learn what identifying oneself as feminist really means more people will proudly declare themselves as such.

 

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