A Feminist View

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-11-2006
A Feminist View
49
Wed, 09-24-2008 - 6:43pm

http://www.salemnews.com/puopinion/local_story_266231148.html

>>My View: This feminist won't be voting for McCain/Palin
by Kathy L. Abbott, Salem Evening News, September 23, 2008

It's hard these days to figure out what a feminist looks like.
A hundred years ago any woman asking for the right to vote was deemed a feminist. Today it's not just going to the voting booth that makes you a feminist, but who you vote for once you're inside.

Fifty years ago demanding the right to work made you a feminist. (Even I remember the pain of hearing my high-school English teacher tell us that it made no sense to hire women. They were just going to get married, get pregnant, and quit anyway, so why not give the job to a man in the first place.) Today women are not only expected to work, they are also expected to pull double duty and raise their children at the same time.

Forty years ago asking for the right to choose an abortion automatically made you a feminist. Today abortion is often seen as a religious decision rather than a woman's issue.

Thirty years ago a woman had to fight to keep her maiden name. Today my lesbian niece fights to have the same last name as her legally married partner.

What does a feminist look like today? All my life I've been an active feminist. But these days when I advise women to breast-feed their babies for at least two years, people often think that my advice implies that I don't value a woman's right to work. (I'm a professional lactation consultant. Two years is the recommendation from the World Health Organization.)

When I was young I worked hard for a woman's right to work and to push through all those glass ceilings. Now that I've been a mother for 11 years, I find myself working equally hard for the right to stay home and do what only a woman can do — mother her own babies.

I find it scandalous that the United States is one of only three countries in the world that does not legally guarantee a woman's right to maternity leave (paid or unpaid).
For me, becoming a mother radically changed my outlook on what a feminist should look like. Because only women can get pregnant, give birth, or breast-feed, I now see the issues surrounding these events as not only women's issues, but as feminist issues. When women are discriminated against for choosing the "mommy track" or for demanding a decent six months off for maternity leave, or fighting for the right to pump their breasts at work (nurses and teachers have to fight the hardest for this one!), I feel compelled to raise my voice in solidarity. For me, accommodating the realities of motherhood is the greatest feminist issue we face today!

As for abortion, getting pregnant made me rethink that as well. Because I was 38 when I got pregnant I was at a high risk for Down syndrome. Before conceiving, my husband and I talked about terminating if tests showed a high probability of risk.

But then I actually got pregnant. Despite my husband's wishes I refused to even take the test. I was ready and wanted this baby, normal or not.

It shocked me that I would feel so strongly about this. But the bottom line was it was my choice, not my husband's, not my government's, but mine alone. It was a choice only I could make. I intend to fight for my daughter's right to choose as well.

So what does a feminist look like today?

On the surface Sarah Palin does look like a feminist. She's a working mom who not only votes but who has risen high in political office. But what I see is a politician who has taken a very strong stand against a woman's right to choose an abortion. What I see is the mother of a 4-month-old baby with Down syndrome who is not only working as the governor of a large state, but is now running for vice president.

Here I am fighting to give women the right to stay at home with their newborns for at least six months, and Palin is out there using her 4-month-old infant for photo-ops in a run for the White House.

Today a feminist looks very different to me than when I was in my 20s. Today, in my mind at least, a feminist is a person, male or female, who fights for equal rights for women, who fights for a woman's right to determine what happens to her body, and who fights for her right to actively mother her own children.

Times change, the things we fight for change, the face of feminism changes. Thirty years ago I would have been overjoyed to see a woman on the GOP ticket. I would have automatically assumed that she was a feminist and that we shared the same values.

But today it is clear that Palin and I do not share the same values. For 30 years I have let my feminist values determine which lever I will pull when I step into the voting booth, and this year will be no different.

So please tell Sen. McCain that even though I think it was a gutsy move to put a woman on his ticket, the woman he chose does not in my mind represent today's feminists. And because he chose Sarah Palin, Sen. McCain will not be getting my vote this year. <<

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siggybarbie

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iVillage Member
Registered: 11-27-2007
In reply to: nisupulla
Wed, 09-24-2008 - 6:56pm
It is arrogant and judgemental for one woman to say if another woman is or is not a feminist.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
In reply to: nisupulla
Wed, 09-24-2008 - 7:11pm

and how about the right to choose who to VOTE for w/o your feminist status being challenged?

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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-16-2008
In reply to: nisupulla
Wed, 09-24-2008 - 7:17pm

I really enjoyed this until it turned political.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-13-2008
In reply to: nisupulla
Wed, 09-24-2008 - 7:36pm
My biggest problem with Palin (besides the fact that she is an evangelical xian who believes the world is 6 thousand years old), is the fact that she acts like a puppet. Her speeches are written for her, tow the party line, and have ZERO origionality or personality in them. The only reason mccain camp chose her was to try and siphon some of the dissapointed hillary supporters away from obama.
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-16-2008
In reply to: nisupulla
Wed, 09-24-2008 - 7:42pm

"The only reason mccain camp chose her was to try and siphon some of the dissapointed hillary supporters away from obama."


I disagree.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-11-2006
In reply to: nisupulla
Wed, 09-24-2008 - 7:45pm

>>then she bashes another woman for her path in life. <<

I didn't read her critism of Palin as bashing Palin's choice so much as fear that Palin's choice (work outside the home) would be considered the "Feminist choice" or the "right choice" and women who choose to raise their own kids or "stay at home" would not be represented.

I think on the Down's issue, the author indicated that she would have made the same choice as Palin, but quite probably for different reasons.

I'll reread it.

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siggybarbie
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
In reply to: nisupulla
Wed, 09-24-2008 - 7:46pm
I agree completely ....

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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-11-2006
In reply to: nisupulla
Wed, 09-24-2008 - 7:46pm

>>There may be a small segment of women who were voting for Hillary just because she was a woman, but your average HC supporter is not going to be in agreement with Palin. <<

I hope that you are right, but I fear that you are wrong...

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siggybarbie
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-16-2008
In reply to: nisupulla
Wed, 09-24-2008 - 7:49pm

It just seemed so negative.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
In reply to: nisupulla
Wed, 09-24-2008 - 7:52pm

It just seemed so negative


cuz it was

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