A feminist future

FINN MACKAY sees a dark present but a bright future for women's rights

I see a great future ahead for feminism. Here in Britain this is partly because of the gains that feminists have already won. But there has been a price to pay for this progress, and while that price is very visible, feminist tactics have become ever more subtle – as we move into cyberspace and work behind the scenes in town halls, charities and local authorities.

Feminist voices do not ring out in the media, workplaces or schools, and journalists write about the disappearance of the women’s movement in Britain. The future of feminism depends very much on whether feminists are able to change this, and make their efforts more visible.

More women today are in formal employment than ever before, they are entering industries that were previously barred to them, they are paid more and they are in higher positions in society. However, this feels like a very contradictory time, because such progress has to be seen in a context where the gap between rich and poor has hugely widened. Women, often being the lowest paid and burdened with caring responsibilities which are not valued or rewarded, fare worst in such an economy; especially those women facing multiple discriminations: black women, immigrant women and poor women.

Yet this is also the government that has brought us for the first time a national debate challenging the inevitability of prostitution, and has turned an eye on the demand side of this violence against women through “Paying the Price” (2004). The Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004 brought tougher measures to prevent and respond to domestic violence. In London, where the Feminist Network is active, we have been lucky enough to have a mayor who is committed to women’s rights.

The current Greater London Authority has overseen some very important initiatives benefiting women. Domestic homicide rates have fallen by more than 50% in the city. The licensing of cabs alongside safer travel campaigns in the city saw the numbers of women raped by illegal cab drivers drop from 18 every month to 10 just three years after its introduction.

In the future, the women working ‘inside the system’ on these achievements must continue to be supported so that more progress is made. However, it is only now that the women’s liberation movement is starting to bring attitudes up-to-date with this progress. Feminists will need to focus more attention on this vital element of feminism because there has been a price to pay for the recent gains, and sadly, this is currently far more visible than the existence of feminist resistance.

Rates of pay and numbers of women in parliament or on boards of directors (which still leave a lot to be desired) are only one way to measure progress. In recent years, women’s bodies have perhaps become the fiercest battleground. Levels of sexual violence against women in our country are at epidemic proportions.

week two women and one child loose their lives to domestic violence from a male partner or ex-partner. There are an estimated 80,000 rapes every year and 300,000 sexual assaults. The numbers of young people being raped is on the rise, yet our conviction rate for rape is currently the lowest it has ever been and one of the lowest in Europe at 5.3%. When the “Reclaim the Night” marches in the UK began in the late 1970s they were appalled that only 1 in 3 rapists were ever convicted. Today that figure is 1 in 20.

Much of this violence against women is now being sold as entertainment; as pornography becomes ever more mainstreamed and the fine line between sex and violence is erased yet further. Young people play computer games where bonus points are gained for raping and murdering prostitute women; pre-teen girls wear t-shirts emblazoned with the Playboy bunny. The backlash against feminism is clearly still active, using the language of liberation turned on its head to promote pole dancing as empowerment, or the study of porn stars as a way to explore female sexuality.

It is in the sexual violence directed against women, in reality and in images, that women pay the penance for their achievements in other spheres of life. The way they are represented in the media, in advertising and in film, is a way of reminding them that they are not yet equal. It is an attempt to maintain the state of fear that all women are meant to live in. It also sends messages to men, telling them that no matter if their boss is a woman, no matter if their girlfriend earns more than they do, women are still sexual objects for their use and abuse and at least that one thing has not changed.

This is why we need a visible, activist feminist resistance. While we cannot afford adverts on the sides of buses, or spreads in magazines, we have to make our resistance visible in other ways. The revival of the “Reclaim the Night” march is one way of doing this. For many women, especially young women, the 2006 march was their first experience of political action, and certainly women-only political action. As one young woman said after the march, “nobody has ever shut down the streets for my issues, just for my voice”. The future of the movement will largely depend on whether feminists can make more women aware of the existence and continued growth of the movement.

Young women are already disillusioned with the scale of pornography in mainstream society, and with the violence portrayed as entertainment in glorious technicolour. Young parents are increasingly disgusted by the expectation that they should dress their baby daughters in clothes with messages such as “future footballer’s wife”; or their teenage sons in tops with slogans like “you read this while I stare at your tits”. If women ever found these things funny, they have certainly stopped laughing now.

And this is partly why I see such a great and growing future for feminism here in Britain, because things have got as bad as they have. But also because things have improved as much as they have. It is a strange time of such opportunity on the one hand, and such regression on the other.

As feminists challenge more and more aspects of the status quo, the backlash against them grows stronger. But to secure life opportunities, women just need to know that there is a whole movement behind them.

I look forward to a future where women and children are not battered, raped and killed. I look forward to a future where we can truly begin to explore what sexuality and identity are, free from the base and patronising fabrications of pornography.

Feminism provides all of us with a vision of the future, and a method to get there. Now we have to make it happen. And if the young women I meet and campaign with every day are anything to go by, then the future looks very bright indeed.

Finn Mackay is involved in the women’s peace movement and the London Feminist Network. The London Feminist Network is a group designed to bring together London-based feminist groups and individuals in activism. It organises the annual “Reclaim the Night” march as well as conferences and other events in association with other feminist groups.