When I was around 13 (I'm now in my 40s) I stood up in an English class with my friend to present our project. I can't quite remember the exact nature or point of the project but it involved us holding up job titles and asking the rest of the class if they thought a man or a woman would do that particular job. As you would expect (being a WEp member/supporter) the answers were stereotypical with nurse being seen typically as a woman's job and a doctor being seen typically as a man's job etc. And me and my partner raged about the unfairness of this and how women and men should enjoy equal opportunities in the world. When nearly ten years later I went to uni and studied psychology, particular as it relates to women and women's lives I raged again but naively thought that the world must be getting better for women. But I left uni for the real world and realised not much had changed attitudinally, economically, structurally. Now 30 years on from my first feminist action I have an 8 year old who is amazing and brilliant and confident and sees the world as a land of opportunity. I don't want her to be disappointed. I don't want her to modify her dreams and aspirations to fit into a society that doesn't value her. I don't want her to have to work twice as hard for less money to get where she wants to be. I don't want her to have take on more than 50% of parenting responsibilities if she decides to have children with a man. I don't want her to have to continually draw upon her resilience to feel comfortable in the body she was born with because the images she sees in the media don't reflect her reality. I don't want her to over sexualize herself to consider herself attractive. I don't want her to become a victim of gendered violence. I want all of these things for myself but more than that I want them for her. I don't always have too much faith in her world being transformed to the degree I would like and have outlined above but what I do have is a desire and a passion and moreover a reason (in her) to do all that I can to help achieve those aims.
I want to help build a better world for my daughter to inherit.
I want to help build a better world for my daughter to inherit.
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