What Labour women should know about feminism

A friend of mine, a couple of years ago, when asked what she would like for Christmas, requested some books on feminism. It was time, she decided, to get up to speed with what feminism meant in today’s society. The present giver looked for such books and could find none, just works from the seventies and eighties.

If you are interested in feminist and cultural history, these are great. But if you want a look at feminism in the noughties, they are not much help. For although we have much to thank previous generations of feminists for – our great grandmothers secured the vote, our grandmothers made it normal to go out to work, our mothers could have the contraceptive pill, have an abortion if they needed one and own property without a male signatory – feminism has moved on somewhat. We need books that help us understand our place in today’s world, where women are free to behave badly, but are judged more harshly than men for doing so, where ‘having it all’ when it comes to work and the family, is possible, but at a price, and where dungarees are out and yummy mummies are in.

So I started thinking about what feminism means to me and my friends. Some of us, for example, have married, and some have not. Of the married ones some have changed our names upon marriage and some have not. I am a Ms, others kept Miss for as long as possible and others use Mrs with pride. We all work, some have children. We are financially independent. Some of us share our money with our partner, others don’t. Some of us wear high heels, some of us refuse to. The same goes for short skirts and strappy tops. Some of us do all the washing and cleaning in the household. Others of us share it. Some of us pay someone else to do it. But the more I thought about this the more I realised how much we had in common. After all, we all want to be treated equally, to be able to make our own decisions about life, to be able to feel safe walking down the street, to enjoy our careers and not to be judged by our marital status. And I realised that whatever decisions we make in our own lives, as long as we make them freely then we are all feminists, whether we use that word or not.

And in fact there are good books for my generation out there. Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs is excellent. So are Manifesta by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards and Full Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valenti. But these are all by Americans. I wanted to do the same from a British perspective.

The result is my book, published this month, The Noughtie Girl’s Guide to Feminism. It looks at areas that occur in our everyday lives and ponders upon what this means from a feminist perspective – from who washes the underwear to what jobs you apply for, from whether vibrators should be shaped like a penis to why we need more public toilets.

The issue of feminism is hugely political, but it is not necessarily party political. My Labour politics inform my thinking, and therefore the book, at all times. And my definition of feminism is largely focussed on the concept of choice, a key New Labour concept (and of course a key Thatcher one, though I reject her use of it). But one of the problems with Labour is that it gets bogged down in thinking about feminism as being just about childcare, working hours, health and carers, and in thinking about feminism in terms of the dungarees and placard that typified British feminism thirty years ago. But as all noughtie girls know, women’s live are about far more than that. Those issues are important, of course, but we also care about defence, about transport, about farming and about foreign affairs. And we no longer conform to the dungaree stereotype.

I’m hoping my book helps bring together feminists from across the political spectrum. But above all I am hoping that Labour women, and men, read it, and realise that in feminism, like in Labour politics, although there are disagreements and factions, we ultimately have more in common than we have apart, and that by accepting this we form some common goals to work towards.

Women on the Web

Without a shadow of a doubt, the internet has become a hugely powerful part of everyday life. We use it to access information, to shop, to socialise, to plan our lives, to campaign for change to be a part of distant online communities and now thanks to this great initiative to start getting women’s voices heard – in our own words, on our own issues.

Whilst it has annoyed me greatly that the political blogosphere has fast become a “bloke –o –sphere”, it came as no great surprise really. Politics after all is still not a place where women are in their rightful number. But just because there is a shortage of women in political positions, there certainly isn’t a shortage of women’s energy, ideas and passion to do politics – to improve the lives and opportunities of people and communities. And women on the web is one way, I think, to get more women “doing” politics.

Which makes me think about the women’s organisation within the Labour Party as its chief objective is to do exactly that: to help more women into politics. And I pause for thought and consider how we use new media to encourage, develop and support Labour women. Looking at the list of what the women’s organisation of the Labour Party seeks to do,

· Ensure equal representation
· Support and enable women to play a full and equal role in the mainstream of the Party
· Campaign on issues that affect women’s lives
· Bring women together
· Encourage women to become members of the Labour Party

it is made perfectly clear that there is definitely space for new technology and the online world to play a role.

Take just one point: campaigning with women voters – traditional school gates and supermarket campaigning does work and by no means am I suggesting that we should stop reaching out to women in this way. But we should also appreciate that there is a new generation of women, who perhaps aren’t the ones dropping their kids off at school or perhaps don’t have kids to drop off, aren’t doing the weekly family ‘big shop’ at the supermarket but all still should have them Labour Party engaging with them. Letting them know that thanks to Labour, their chances of being discriminated at work are less, they have more opportunities to continue in education or training and that Labour is committed to ending violence against women. But more importantly, also asking them about what else needs to be done to make better their life chances.

But, I feel a need to note a word of caution. We should remember that whilst the internet is growing at a phenomenal speed, we can only make it a part of what we do. Not least because there’s no better way of keeping in touch with people than actually meeting face – to – face. Personal contact goes a long way. But also because not everyone has access to the internet or have not learned to use it. This may very well include the old and the ill, the least educated and the generally vulnerable. They are often the very people who we, as Labour, want to be engaging with.

So, all in all I applaud the much needed space this new blog has given women’s voices. But still do believe in the power of offline campaigning, organising and support. I'd be really to hear other people’s thoughts on how best to use new media and new technology to add value to Labour’s women’s organisation. So happy posting sisters!