Women Feel the Backlash |
| Nearly 40 years after the dawn of the women’s liberation movement the vast majority of women’s lives are still beset with difficulty, discrimination and danger. Evidence of the backlash is everywhere. Rights so long-established that they seemed beyond debate now have to be defended as never before. KATHY LOWE The women’s movement emerged in response to the exploitation of women as second class citizens in many walks of life and to their treatment as sexual commodities. Women recognised that they would never be able to make real choices about their lives unless they could control their own fertility and become economically independent. In the UK, at the Ruskin conference of 1970, this translated into four key goals: free abortion and contraception on demand; equal pay for equal work; equal education and job opportunities; and free 24-hour nurseries.  In the UK today abortion is far from freely available and pro-choice campaigners have been forced to mount a determined rearguard action against continual attempts to reduce the abortion time limit of 24 weeks. Amendments (fortunately unsuccessful) to the 2008 reproductive rights bill were tabled to bring down the time limit to 22 weeks, 18 weeks, 16 weeks, 14 weeks and even 12 weeks.The latest attempts to put the clock back on abortion rights have been bolstered by advances in medical technology which allow a foetus to survive outside the womb from an earlier stage than before. New medical advances do not in any way change the right of women to decide what happens to their own bodies but attacks on abortion citing the medical arguments are often sophisticated and demand a vigorous defence of “a woman’s right to choose”. Women still shoulder the bulk of caring and housework at home. The long working hours’ culture, plus lack of flexible working and very expensive and poorly organised childcare mean many are torn between looking after a family and working to survive. And when they do find a job they often work in a segregated labour market where equal pay legislation either doesn’t apply or would require trade unions and equality quangos to fight to prove entitlement to “equal pay for work of equal value”. The Equal Pay Act of 1975 was one of the great victories of the feminist movement but according to the latest government figures released in November 2008 the pay gap between women and men doing the same job is now getting bigger. Women in full time work now earn 17.1 per cent less than their male counterparts and 36.6 per cent less in part-time wages. Katherine Rake, director of the equality organisation the Fawcett Society has admitted that “after years of painfully slow progress in closing the pay gap, we have now actually gone into reverse gear…”  Some captains of industry boast openly about how they get around legal requirements to treat women equally at work. Business magnate Theo Paphitis, who appears on the TV show Dragon’s Den, has publicly hit out at what he reportedly calls “all this feminist stuff” and the way women “get themselves bloody pregnant” to claim maternity leave. “Are we seriously saying that 50 per cent of all jobs should go to women?” he asked. Alan Sugar, Amstrad founder, government adviser and star of The Apprentice TV reality show says the law against women being asked at interview whether they plan to have children poses no obstacle for him. ‘You’re not allowed to ask, so it’s easy,” said Sugar, ‘just don’t employ them.’ In the hay-day of the feminist movement millions of women refused to play their traditional role as appendages of men and began to express and celebrate their own sexuality.They rejected the treatment of women as sex objects in pin ups and porn and demanded the right to be safe from violence. Today’s reality is, however, that harassment and violence directed against women has reached epidemic proportions. Sexual harassment at work and on the street is a common occurrence for many. Sex traffickers kidnap, abuse and force into prostitution hundreds of vulnerable young women from abroad. Domestic violence figures tell their own story. A shocking 86 per cent of domestic homicides are committed by men, and the victims are their female partners. Two women in England and Wales are killed by their partner or ex-partner every week. The most recent British Crime Survey reported 12.9m incidents of domestic abuse against women.  The Ministry of Justice recently proposed to change the law on murder, making it possible for people who kill their partners after years of abuse to use a new defence of “fear of serious violence”. The plan was attacked in the popular press as giving women a “licence to kill”.Nothing illustrates the backlash more starkly than the abysmal conviction rate for rape in Britain. Of the 14,000 rapes reported each year only 5.6 per cent end in a conviction – the lowest rate of any major European country. Recorded rapes rose by a massive 247 per cent between 1991 and 2004 yet solicitor general Vera Baird suggests these are only the tip of the iceberg. Only 10-20 per cent of all rapes, she estimates, are brought to the attention of the authorities in the first place. The old prejudices about raped women “bringing their plight upon themselves” by dressing “provocatively” or drinking too much are gaining currency again. According to an ICM poll undertaken for Amnesty International in 2005, 33 per cent of those interviewed believed a woman was at least partially responsible for rape if she was wearing sexy clothes, flirting or drinking. Several raped women had their compensation payouts reduced in 2008 by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) because they had been drinking before they were attacked. The battle to put responsibility for rape where it belongs – firmly with the perpetrator – has been hard fought for decades. As Guardian columnist Julie Bindel puts it: ‘All rape is “real rape”, even if (a woman) is wearing a skirt up to her neck, has her breasts on show and is drinking and flirting like crazy. Rape is sex without consent. Which part of that is difficult to understand?’ While refuges and rape crisis centres struggle to survive the sex industry is thriving, selling women’s bodies as male entertainment. Brothels and lap-dancing clubs are more routinely accepted than ever - regular ports of call on stag nights. Consumption of pornography accounts for a huge slice of internet traffic. The world of film and television provides much of the ideological underpinning for the backlash. The portrayal of women as strong and independent remains a rarity. In the main they are shown as somebody’s girlfriend going gooey over an engagement ring, nameless victims of hideously violent crimes or as pieces of meat to be drooled over. The proliferation of images of women being beaten, raped and murdered helps to create a climate in which all women are dehumanised and violence against them begins to be seen as “normal”, even “acceptable”. Women themselves are not immune from this conditioning. Having researched young women’s attitudes to sex for her new book Rape: A History from 1860 to the Present historian Joanna Bourke says, ‘There seems to be an acceptance that boys’ sexual aggression is somehow normal, genetic. The boys think that too, they’ve normalised it.’ The reasons for the backlash in Britain lie with successive defeats of the left, the weakening of the labour movement, the consequent breakdown of social solidarity and dissipation of the women’s movement. The new culture of consumerism and individualism and pressures of this neo-liberal era have resulted in widespread alienation and lumpenisaton, allowing misogyny to re-surface with a vengeance. Vigorous campaigns on issues like abortion led by women’s groups and socialist organisations are still defending the gains of the feminist movement. And women are still a vital and visible part of the anti-war mobilisations, leaders of environmental campaigns and prominent activists in many trade unions. However, the rebuilding of an autonomous women’s movement outside of the emergence of a strong mass movement of the left and of new socialist parties looks unlikely. Defending the gains that women have struggled for so long must not be left to women themselves. It must be a central part of the wider fight to put socialism and socialist values back on the agenda, to challenge reactionary attitudes in every sphere and to create a more just and enlightened society. On a personal level men have to be seen to be the champions of women’s liberation and provide positive role models for young men. Sources: |