Feminism revisited

[voxwoman]

I'm not sure when it was when you grew up, or what options were available to women at that time, but when I was a kid, we were taught in school that women could could grow up to be

(1) Wives/mothers (preferred lifetime occupation)
(2) Teachers
(3) Nurses

To be anything else - to want to be anything else, labelled you as "weird" at best and "deviant" at worst.

I was one of 4 women in the EE program at my college. There were 2 female Mechanical Engineering students (and they were really harrassed by their classmates). It was very hard for women to be scientists, even in my youth - I can't imagine the hazing that occurred for women in prior generations. I learned to be "one of the boys" - and perhaps that's where some of that attitude towards feminism comes in - the corporate overlords would denigrate you for having "womanly" attributes (i.e. sensitivity, menstrual cramps, emotions) and use those as reasons for overlooking you for promotions and keeping women out of "sensitive" areas.

Even now, God help you if you cry in the office.

However, (at least in the US - I don't know the history of employment in other countries) you have to thank the Women's Movement for things like: Family leave (used to be maternity leave - before that "maternity leave" meant "quitting your job"), women executives, and women not being excluded from classes of occupations.

I'd write more, but I have to get to work.

Comments

Well, as i said, I got lucky.

[saminz.livejournal.com]

Around me, I guess, these restrictions applied for a lot of people, still. My family was a bit "different", though. Even if my mom actually stayed at home, she also worked - as a child psychologist. And she wrote articles and reviews and led courses at the Jung Institute. And - well, how to put this - the spirit was at least a little *elitist* :-). So she might sneer about a little friend of mine - "look at her family, no wonder she's that confused, I am sure her mother never read anything but Betty Bossy (our Martha Stewart, I guess)...." For me, there never were any restrictions, not in profession and not in behaviour or hobbies. I got my toolbox just as naturally as I got dolls - which I hardly bothered with... And by being around my parents it seemed completely evident that a woman was at least twice as clever, autonomous, strong and able as a man :-). My mom was older than dad - and in fact thought so, too. Which is probably a big part of why he finally ran away, of course ;-)! Another anecdote: When I was still very little, Switzerland would not even let women vote! So mom showed her protest by never going near the "Gemeindehaus" (village-administration-building) on these days. But she was firm in making dad take me with him. I was lectured about this fact being a scandal and promised that when I got old enough to vote, I would be allowed to and of course expected to go every time. I was, and I still do, by the way... And every step on the way to equal rights was discussed and cheered - but not only for women, but also for gays, coloured people and for the socialist "Internationale" and a secular world view, so feminism was one concept among many that seemed to be meant as a beneficiary plan for the "masses" - to which we neither belonged, nor did we actually bother with such concepts much among ourselves, or something ;-).
I'd write more, as well - but it would only grow weirder, hehehe...

My mom was also a "career woman"

[voxwoman.livejournal.com]

and didn't get married until she was 30. And worked until about 3 week before she died (when she couldn't get out of bed anymore).* I think that has something to do with my feminist tendencies, as well.

* I didn't realize this until I intercepted a phone call from one of her composers (she was a lyricist as well as other things), calling to ask where the revisions were for some song they were working on. When I told him she'd died the day before, he said "I guess that's why I haven't heard from her in 3 weeks"

Re: My mom was also a "career woman"

[saminz.livejournal.com]

That is/was one unsensible bastard...!
When my mom died, her brother and I staged a rather cool "funeral" with secular speeches, one from the brother, one from a party guy and one from a leader of an NGO. And the sheer mass of people that turned up, and the incredible letters I got, and articles in all kinds of publications made me fully realize that it wasn't just *my* loss... (I was 21, then).

[krikkert.livejournal.com]

When I grew up, my mother had a variety of jobs. She was a teacher at one point, that's about what I remember.

Women have been able to vote for 92 years here(1913, 1901 for the municipality elections). In comparison, men have been able to vote for 107 years(1898) - before that, all that mattered was how much land you owned. The first woman to sit in the National Assembly did so in 1911, and the first woman to be elected was actually elected for the Conservatives, in 1921. Women also voted in the Union Dissolution in 1905, though they technically were not allowed to.

Norway was the first independant nation in the world to declare suffrage for women.


As for the Women's Movement over here, I've got the impression they didn't actually accomplish much. Women executives and women being allowed into all classes of occupations have gone through because of Norway's largest labour union(fittingly called LO - Landsorganisasjonen(The Nationwide Organization)) backing the suggestions. I don't know about maternity leave.

Norway is a much more egalitarian and cooler society than the US

[voxwoman.livejournal.com]

but you knew that already, didn't you?

[krikkert.livejournal.com]

I think I've been told, yes.

Technically, Finland had us outdone(1906), but at the time they were a Grand Duchy of Russia so we were the first sovereign nation. :)

You left out WHORE!

[naruki-oni.livejournal.com]

I think that has been a valid career option since Adam knocked up Lilith.

If it weren't for diseases and abuses, I'd declare that the most noble and self-sacrificing career one could aspire to.

Re: You left out WHORE!

[voxwoman.livejournal.com]

You are absolutely right. But I think they want to be called "Sex Workers" these days

Re: You left out WHORE!

[saminz.livejournal.com]

Well, sorry to burst your romantic bubble - but those who are not driven into this career by sheer necessity and missing other options tend to be all else but noble and self-sacrificing :-). They are some seriously tough, cynical and calculating ladies - cool to the core :-P. But a valid career it certainly is. Especially us women should be more grateful and respecting to them, methinks.