I recently wrote about Ambition being word that brings up negative thoughts especially when in relationship to women, from both women and men.
Over the last few weeks I have been reading the book “Can we all be Feminists?
It got me thinking would i describe myself as a feminist ? ..and if I am truthful I am still not sure? I certainly know that many people would call me a feminist. I founded a women and /girls charity, I founded the women’s day and celebrations and certainly champion women.
I have been described a feminist and certainly know associate myself with many people I admire and have lots of respect for that are feminist.
The dictionary describes feminism as:
“the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes”
Looking at this description then I would definitely describe myself as a feminist its exactly what I want for women and girls and what I work towards everyday, but somehow feminism has been associated middle class, white, angry women who hate men…
Non of which I would associate myself as being other than, being white.
I am from a working class family, I do get angry but more of peoples ignorance and the lack of diversity in the media. I am certainly not a man hater, I have a longer term male partner, 2 sons a dad and lots of males who have helped support me set up the Motherwell Charity and continue to support the team and I. Our board has 2 males and we are currently working on making this more inclusive.
I have recently joined the Women’s Equality party but I must admit it took me along time to do so, reading some of the local branches social media feeds I wasn’t comfortable about joining as I couldn’t quite relate to what they were saying. In my humble opinion, they did come across as men haters and I felt there were bigger issues that should be addressed.
I then recently read about Sandi Toksvik was working on a campaign to have women represented more on Wikipedia and reading more into this it was something that really interested me. I am really passionate about the younger generation learning about the great achievements of women from history and how they paved the way for us. Lots of women from history have such a diverse past this to me is important for 2 reasons:
- Representation is so important to any individual, to see the achievements of others that they can relate to is so important for self confidence and self worth
- As the staying goes “ you cant be what you cant see” having a diverse representation that individuals can see and inspire to be is so important.
I think Sandi Toksvik and Catherine Mayer have a balanced approached to what the Women Equality, the media label them the modern suffragettes and that sounds good to me, I would love to see parliament more balanced only when it is will the right decisions be made for all.
By this I don’t just mean Women I mean BAME community in general. I really feel that people cant be represented unless they have walked in the path of another with similar culture, background, discrimination.
I feel Women’s Equality UK party is trying to influence and empower the voice of the female BAME to be represented in all places that need to be, and in a country that is becoming more diverse each year this is so important.
Writing this I am conscious that I feel my opinion is so important and I really don’t, I find writing things like this helps me make sense of it and then just in case someone else maybe interested !
As the leader of a Women and Girls Charity I wanted to evaluate where I sat with it all. My passion is mental health, its why I founded the charity and I want every women and girl to have positive mental health, and in times where they need support they are able to access it at the right time (but that’s for another blog). However positive mental health will only be achieved in a place where people feel they belong and are represented. So the bigger picture really does matter and I am happy to influence that in the privileged position that I am in.
So going back to the original question is feminism a dirty word – I would say no? In my opinion Its the media that have created this image and for authority figures this image fits as they then don’t have to answer to the questions being asked, however a strong political party with a clear message and clear voice will be listened to and can influence the change that needs to take place.
If these changes are made by a group a feminists then I am happy to call myself one!