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Am I a feminist?

Am I a feminist?

Last updated on: February 22, 2017 at 7:31 am by Jane the Actuary

Am I a feminist? 2017-02-22T07:31:36-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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This is a genre of posts that’s reappearing again (e.g., Rebecca Hamilton at Public Catholic and Rebecca Bratten Weiss at Suspended in Her Jar), perhaps as a result of discussions around the “women’s march,” so here’s my take:

You can’t just proclaim that you are (or aren’t) a feminist without the word meaning something in particular. And, near as I can tell, there are three competing definitions for the word.

A person who holds the belief that women and men should have equal rights under the law, in such areas as employment, education, criminal justice and the like.
A person who supports a given set of policy prescriptions, as identified by groups who call themselves “women’s organizations”; these include ready access to abortion, affirmation of casual sex, affirmative action and special programs for girls in schools, social welfare benefits for single mothers, and the like.
A person who actively campaigns for the policy prescriptions in #2.

Now, in terms of items number 2 and 3, I am decidedly not a feminist. But what about definition #1?

To be honest, I go back and forth on this. There are plenty of people who will proudly claim the name “feminist” to mean that they support equality for women, and their own particular take on policies that help women in their role as mothers, or to the degree that they are at greater risk of domestic violence, for instance.

But to use that label is either trivial and meaningless, or it implies that it’s something out of the norm, that to believe this is something that requires its own label.

Do we need to claim an identity and a label for supporting equal rights for racial or religious minorities? No, of course not. Do we pat ourselves on the back for objecting to child abuse? No.

It seems to me that adopting the label “feminist” to refer to garden-variety equality suggests that it’s not the norm, and that comes a bit too close to saying that it is normal and perfectly acceptable to believe that women should, indeed, be discriminated against. In reality, I believe equality under the law is pretty nearly universally accepted, which then returns us right back to the same questions of policy prescriptions.

Perhaps it’s a matter of differentiating oneself from traditionalists who believe that, regardless of what the law permits, women should choose to stay at home to care for children? But, if so, then what does the “feminist” label mean? — that you believe that women should be making the decision to put their kids in daycare and work, that staying home with young children is the wrong decision?

So I don’t really see the point in claiming the label, or rather in fighting with “public policy feminists” about what the word means. They can have it. To be sure, I’d prefer they acknowledge that they have defined the term to mean a certain political/public policy agenda rather than a generic belief in equality.

But what, then, about the label “pro-life feminism”?

My opinion on this is a big, unqualified . . . maybe.

Again, multiple meanings:

Do those that use the label do so, in order to say, “we oppose abortion, but don’t get the wrong idea; we’re not those crazies who think that women should stay at home and wait on their husbands”?

Which I understand as an impulse, though what aims at rejecting a stereotype might in the end reinforce it, to the extent that those that hear the message think, “the majority of those who are pro-life are exactly those crazies.”

Or is this, again, the support of a set of policy prescriptions, namely, state-funded medical care, parental leave, child care, and a broad set of social welfare benefits? That is, the same set of policies as “public policy feminists” profess, except more focus on mothers, and, without, of course, deeming abortion (and the celebration of casual sex) to be a key ingredient in women’s equality?

And, to clarify, the issue becomes not the basic yes/no of whether the state should be funding any such benefits, but it’s a matter of degree, of level of generosity, and there is no easy answer here.

So it irritates me to hear the recurring claim that one is insufficiently pro-life unless one does, indeed, support all such benefits to such a degree of generosity that no women feels a financial pinch, let alone a squeeze, from having a child.

So the phrase “pro-life feminist” doesn’t seem like much of an improvement on just “feminist.”

Third try . . .

What about the use of the label “feminist” to identify the fact that I personally consider myself to be of equal worth to any man, of equal value in the workplace, and that I’ve tried to achieve success in my career? Well — except that I have been on a “mommy track,” working part-time since my oldest was born, first to keep my kids out of full-time daycare, and afterwards knowing that trying to manage a household with children, even school-aged children, is much more difficult with both parents working full-time, there’s no real financial need, and I’m sufficiently satisfied with work to not be upset about the lack of career advancement that I’d be seeing if I was working full-time, willing to travel, etc. Do I earn considerably less than my husband, or than my colleagues who put in longer hours? Yes, of course. Does it bother me? No. After all, someday I hope to be earning even less, once I figure out how to get a job at a think tank rather than at a pension consulting firm.

This is my “generic housewife” image. Is she a feminist? Can a housewife be a feminist?

Oh, and what’s more, with three boys, I’m much more concerned about making sure they find success in life than worrying about whether girls are discouraged from seeking out STEM careers, for instance.

So I’m not sure that I’d qualify as a “feminist” in that sense, either.

So there you have it. You probably thought I was going to come up with, as a twist, a way in which I am a feminist after all, but, in the immortal words of Jeff Probst, “I got nothin’ for ya’.”

Images: 1) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ATrump-WomensMarch_2017-top-1510075_(32409710246).jpg; By Mark Dixon from Pittsburgh, PA (Trump-WomensMarch_2017-top-1510075) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

2) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHOUSEWIFE_IN_THE_KITCHEN_OF_HER_MOBILE_HOME_IN_ONE_OF_THE_TRAILER_PARKS._THE_TWO_PARKS_WERE_CREATED_IN_RESPONSE_TO…_-_NARA_-_558298.jpg; By Villalobos, Horacio, Photographer (NARA record: 8464479) (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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