PHM-Exch> Food for a feminist thought (2) Comments received

[Claudio Schuftan]

Comment #1: Is it that women cannot win this struggle, is it too hard for
them to keep fighting it when, for example, no one will ever see them as
competent as their male peers in the workplace? Is it time to stop waiting
for ‘someone’ to set this right? Or should women act themselves? The latter
is the advice I would give my daughter.  Don't wait to be chosen. The men
will always win that way.  Choose yourself.  Create value separate from
your persona as a woman and put it out on the workplace.  Let that value
speak for itself.



Comment #2: Hi Lori, Thanks for the feedback. I read some aggressiveness
between the lines; that is good for beliefs strongly held.

Not trying to excuse myself for sins committed in the piece, let me tell
you that my Readers are partial windows at any given time. I collect info
on the topics I follow and then each Reader is sort of an update or a new
insight. Never a full rounded coverage of the respective topic. I wrote the
chapter of a book on women and HR rights where things are more rounded.

Let me go through your comments:


Thanks Claudio for the latest installation of thoughts.  I read your
collections of thoughts and your diatribes is this meant pejorative? quite
regularly -- But I felt I needed to write back as this analysis, and your
suggestions of 'who needs to do what' to address gender equality is off
kilter.  *We do not need a feminine thought.  We need feminist thought and
analysis. Touche’. Got'ya.*





You have suggested that:  "*women-must-propose" and that "*women have to
fight for their right to more and better standards of living"…etc, etc.
 Subtly and not so subtly you have stated that not only
does the problem unjustly affect women, but that THEY are the ones that
need to address it. not only though. I think I say that.



Women have enough to do already, thank you very much.  I am more than
aware, but maybe room needs to be made to fight this fight.



Instead here are some more radical thoughts: How about MEN relinquishing
their patriarchal power by stepping down, making room, getting out of the
way; how about MEN staying home with the kids so women can go to meetings
and rallies, how about MEN losing sleep thinking about what to cook on a
limited budget, and where the hell the food and the firewood is going to
come from for tomorrow;  how about women taking Sunday off (maybe to visit
their buddies or watch some sports or just sleep in the hammock) instead of
catching up on all they couldn't get done vis-a-vis the laundry and the
food and the kids and the community meetings…  How about MEN staying silent
and REALLY listening to women at home and in workplaces; how about MEN
taking the responsibility for changing their own patriarchal norms of
thought and behaviour; how about MEN working to re-think labor analysis to
include reproductive labor  - I.E.— unpaid how about MEN reading feminist
authors and analysts, getting caught up on the history of women who have
carried their and their communities'  weight in every single social
struggle in the world – but who are invisible in the historical records of
those struggles…. How about MEN sharing the damned domestic load for
change?  I am all for all these How Abouts! Shouldn't women be involved in
asking these how abouts? Yes, men too, but not only.



Patriarchy is a system of thinking that has been a necessary tool to allow
both colonialism and capitalism (and now globalization) to function.  could
not agree more. It also has held back every (attempted and actual)
socialist revolution from truly creating equity for all.  Your
diatribe (pejorative
again?) doesn't even mention feminism, hardly touches on the intersections
of the MANY oppressions that implicate all people, and forgets all the
gender assignments beyond men and women. (there are also trans gendered
people, for eg). explained such omissions above...



To me the analysis is a good start, merci. but also illustrates why there
is such a long way to go before any kind of equity is even envisaged. never
thought otherwise.  Our socialist and left-leaning political economists
forget about kitchen politics. share your disappointment.  66% of the
world's Unpaid work is done by women — where is that in your analysis?  And
have you any idea what that means in terms of health?  explained such
omissions above...



Disappointingly, the analysis offered shows me yet again why our
traditional political-economic analyses of health fall short.  In general,
our leftist leaders don’t think through this stuff — by and large they
don't have to, maybe because there is nothing as blinding as male privilege
itself. Strong, and totally true.  While they are writing their socialist
critique and standing on the podiums of power, whether with a megaphone or
in a suit, in the boardroom or the bar, their women partners are raising
their kids, doing the housework, and keeping communities alive.  THAT is
the crux of where change is needed if people really want to act toward
gender equity and HR or  'health for all'.  agree.



Here is a suggestion: try on some feminist economists for size — see what
they add to the picture.  Listen to the Queer theorists. Question how
colonialism, capitalism, globalization -  and also the socialist
experiments - have all benefitted from patriarchy together with class
privilege and the racializing of peoples around the world.  Maybe throw in
some historical examples of how rape has been a fundamental tool for the
'mixing' of races and for ethnic cleansing …. I have done quite a bit of
this elsewhere.



As you said "Women are fighting back." this is my current contribution to
that fight.  taken for every ounce of its weight.





 Claudio
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