Logan Park High School pupil Katharine Woolrych is this year's National Council of Women Dawn Ibbotson Essay Competition winner. The topic
for 2016 was ‘‘Does Feminism still Matter?'' This is an abridged version of her winning entry.
Today, "post-feminist'' dogma surrounds us, but this false and dangerous ideology is putting our rights at risk.
Assertions that women have been liberated and feminism is now redundant pervade our society. However, worldwide, women remain underrepresented in positions of power, underpaid for their work, burdened with domestic duties, subjected to female genital mutilation, child marriage, and the erosion of reproductive rights. Archaic beliefs ensure women are constantly scrutinised.
The claim that women enjoy equality with men is regrettably untrue, for only 22% of the world's parliamentarians are women, and the female population holds little power or wealth. Rape and violence against women prove that deep-seated misogyny still breeds beneath the surface of our communities.
During the 1980s, a backlash against second-wave feminism emerged, silently undermining progress already made. Depictions of earlier activists as angry battle-axes with hairy armpits created widespread ignorance about feminism, with the word becoming synonymous with man-hating. Feminists are needed more than ever to refute these charges and foster awareness about equality.
"Post-feminists'' draw on the notion of "choice'' to oppress and silence women, arguing that women now decide freely about sex, power, careers and family. If a woman stops work to care for her children, it's her "choice'', in spite of constraints such as child-care costs, inflexible workplaces, lack of support, or the expectation that domestic duties are the responsibility of women. Feminists must challenge this myth about personal freedom by spotlighting the external influences that prevent women from making their own decisions.
Critics claim that the goal of women "having it all'' has failed, since women still seem burdened with responsibility for household labour, care of children, and unacknowledged work in the community, together with expectations of excellence in the workplace. It is the status quo, not law, that enforces this unfair division of labour. Institutions and governments ignore the challenges of juggling career and family, since women have "choice''. Why should women complain when it was "their decision anyway''? Thus equality becomes a debate about individuals, choice and freedom, instead of institutions, oppression and patriarchy.
Post-feminism is anti-feminism in disguise, for it sabotages any argument regarding the social barriers that prevent success. It blames women, while hiding behind the propagated myth that women control their own destinies. It undermines discussions about economic disadvantage, workplace sexism, harassment, sexual violence, occupational gender segregation and the pay gap.
For instance, the under-representation of women in engineering (9%) is frequently dismissed as due to girls' lack of interest in science. But gender stereotyping discourages girls from "technical'' careers, and only 1% of parents want their daughters to be engineers. Rape culture offers extreme examples of this blaming. Victims of sexual assault are routinely interrogated about their clothing, alcohol consumption and sexual history.
Our feminist foremothers fought to dismantle institutionalised prejudices. Sadly, attitudes do not change as abruptly as laws. Entrenched beliefs about the ways women should act, look and behave still dominate. Now, in the image-dominated 21st century, it may be harder than ever to be a woman.
Media and advertisements reinforce the age-old, patriarchal concept of the "ideal woman'', ensuring women are scrutinised as never before. Either nurturing and caring, or sexually appealing and complicit - though neither "slutty'' nor "prudish'' - women must either support men, or flaunt their sexuality and play dumb. In women's magazines, the Duchess of Cambridge is the perfect wife and mother, while Kim Kardashian is the triumph of appearance over intelligence. Powerful women are called "aggressive'' or "bossy'' for not conforming to either stereotype. Such contradictions entrap women, insisting they must be both "pure'' and sexually available.
Girls consequently become insecure. They are more than twice as likely as boys to be diagnosed with mood disorders. Striving for perfectionism may lead to the anorexia that is 10 times more common in girls than in boys, while girls are too fearful of retribution to become leaders or innovators.
The myth of "choice'' creates invisible obstacles to equality. Although girls outperform boys at school, women's average pay remains only about half that of men's, and women make up only 4% of airline pilots, 8% of surgeons, and less than 10% of executive directors of FTSE 100 companies.
"Post-feminists'' argue that women have "choice'', but countless unacknowledged barriers prevent women from advancing in male-dominated spheres. Discrimination by all-male executives, exclusion from "old boys' networks'', sexism, harassment, inflexible jobs, or discouragement because of the lack of female role models mean that the glass ceiling remains unseen and unbreakable, while women themselves are blamed.
The struggle for gender equality is far from over. Now, however, ingrained prejudice within society and women's minds is the real enemy. To make progress, we still need feminism to keep the backlash at bay.
