Celebrating the past achievements of feminism immediately places me as a tribal elder or less eloquently an old feminist. I prefer the first with its implicit assumptions of experience and wisdom.
I am reminded of the opening lines of The Go Between the past is a foreign country – they do things differently there.
And we did.
We fought to have our voices heard and imagined a world of equal pay; a society where all girls had the opportunity to complete secondary education; where there was universal access to safe contraception and abortion; where child care was accessible and affordable; where a mantra of political action for women was ‘A woman’s place is in the House and in the Senate.’
As a young woman I marched on the streets to demonstrate how much the feminist agenda meant to me. That frequently incurred a high degree of public disapproval but like the women I marched with we had no doubt we were on the side of the angels.
Political parties were forced to add women’s affairs to the political agenda and this together with the activity of the Women’s Electoral Lobby resulted in a decade of consciousness raising and a political climate of change being exciting and possible.
WEL created a methodology for change and the energies and skills of hundreds of women were channeled into research, public pressure, media relationships, telephone trees (it was a pre internet world) and we delivered high level well crafted submissions to pretty well everything, demonstrations and marches.
WEL was the GET UP of its time.
Governments responded and by the end of the eighties many people thought we had achieved all that was needed for women to be leading responsible citizens. It seemed that grass roots activism had worked.
The balance sheet of the feminist movement is positive and the landscape has changed in regard to: Equal pay, Contraception, Abortion, Maternity leave, better quality and more affordable child care, anti discrimination legislation, no fault divorce law and women in political leadership and decision making beyond our wildest dream.
It is education, however, which is the crowning achievement of the early feminists. Women and girls have fallen in love with educational achievement and the statistics bounce off the page of schools, universities and TAFE colleges. Education has become part of women’s lives across all demographics as a recognized way out of the ghettos of poverty and prejudice.
And for those in doubt I ask that you think of the alternative – a society where these changes had not happened.
Where bright girls left school at 15 because there is no point in wasting the family income on you.
Where scholarships to university favoured males.
Where women worked as volunteers after marriage in jobs they were trained to do because of the marriage bar.
Where abortions were almost inaccessible and women died from desperate botched attempts.
Where women’s voices were not heard and certainly not reading the news.
And you might also think about how easily much of it could slip away.
When we lose the voices of women in government we wonder how it could have happened.
When domestic violence and rape are accepted as almost intractable in some communities. How can we not be enraged?
Where measuring our progress or not is seen as an impost on corporations and of little value in a world that insists on what gets measured gets done.
And that might help you understand why the F word still matters
Glass ceilings have been shattered, sticky floors have been smoothed, male champions have emerged but those annoying statistics tell us there is a long road ahead for the women of Australia to hold up half their sky.
My dream is to encourage young men and women to hang in and enjoy the journey. Sharing the load. The fun is worth it.
This is an edited extract of the 25th Anniversary Pamela Denoon lecture Wendy McCarthy is due to give on March 11 2014 at ANU. The full transcript will be available available at www.pameladenoonlecture.net following the event and will be broadcast on the ABC’s Big Ideas.
Tickets to the event are available here.