I didn’t know, what I didn’t know — systemic introduction for gender equity
“Imagine living in a world where there is no domination, where females and males are not alike or even always equal, but where the vision of mutuality is the ethos shaping our interaction. Imagine a world where we can all be who we are, a world of peace and possibility. The feminist revolution alone will not create such a world; we need to end racism, class elitism, and imperialism. But it will make it possible for us to be fully self-actualized females and males able to create beloved community, live together, realise our dreams of freedom and justice, living the truth that we are all “created equal”. Come closer. See how feminism can touch and change your life and all our lives. Come closer and know firsthand what the feminist movement is all about. Come closer and you will see: feminism is for everybody.” (Hooks, 2014, p. XIV)
This article is written in a feminist spirit. The definition is very simple and has a systemic view. It comes from the book “Feminism is for everybody” by Bell Hooks (2014, p. 1) and says: “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression”. In this chapter, I shortly describe the history of the feminist movement and explain what sexism stands for, what is patriarchy and how it affects society. Building on that, I have a look into the definition of biological sex and cultural gender and I look at the patriarchal understanding of feminine and masculine qualities. Then, I refer to intersectional feminism. Finally, I summarise the complexity of the systemic problem.
*** In general, I have to admit, like many other women, I struggle to use the term “feminism” as it has a negative connotation to most people. It is thought that feminists are women who target and blame men and that feminism is about female supremacy — not gender equity. Yet, the true meaning of the term has a totally different meaning, which I want to emphasise in this article (Madsen, 2018).
Overview of the feminist movement
I would like to show an overview of the four phases of the feminist movement and summarise what exactly changed through the years. I must point out at the outset that one thing has remained constant all these years — the fundamental belief that women and men matter equally. I base the text on an infographic “Women Making Waves — A History of Female Empowerment (Poster)” created by Ellery Studio (2018).
FIRST WAVE: 1800–1950S
The modern feminist movement started in the 1800s and took many decades. It was a radical idea that women should have equal opportunities with men. It was focused on women’s legal equality in higher education, and the right to vote and own property (Ellery Studio, 2018).
SECOND WAVE: 1960S — 1980S
In the next phase, feminists demanded a legislative reform that would provide not just political, but also social, educational and economic justice for women (Ellery Studio, 2018).
THIRD WAVE: 1990S — 2010
During this phase, younger feminists pushed for more diversity in the movement — they saw that women’s life experiences varied greatly depending on factors such as race, class and sexual orientation (Ellery Studio, 2018).
FOURTH WAVE: 2010 — TODAY
Currently, the feminist movement is also taking place with the use of social media platforms which allow women to garner bigger public support for campaigns and initiatives on topics such as sexual harassment, body shaming and rape culture (Ellery Studio, 2018).
Against patriarchy
I focus on explaining what stands behind patriarchy, what sexism is about and what are the effects of male domination.
WHAT STANDS BEHIND PATRIARCHY?
As one of the main goals of feminism is to end sexism, it is crucial to understand that patriarchy is systemic institutionalised sexism. The definition of the feminist movement is often misunderstood by the public unfortunately, many people still consider feminism to be just anti-male (Hooks, 2014, p. 1–5). As Bell Hooks describes in the book “Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics”, when she introduces herself as a feminist theorist, she hears how evil feminism is; how much feminists hate men; that they go against nature; they are all lesbians; they make a world harder for men. When she asks those people which books on feminism they refer to, she learned it mostly comes from thirdhand (Hooks, 2014, p. XI). They learn about it from patriarchal mass media that say that women (mainly white and materially privileged) want what men have. What we hear about feminism is often negative. It must be said that anti-male communication was used by early feminists (as I described earlier in feminist waves), who responded to male domination with anger. Later, they realised, that women also can be sexist (still, it doesn’t excuse male domination) so this anger was not on men but on the injustice. As both men and women can be sexist, the feminist movement simply can’t be anti-male. The problem lies in sexism. Here comes another misunderstanding, as most people don’t understand sexism and they don’t see that as a problem (Hooks, 2014, p. 1–5).
SEXISM
The definition in Encyclopedia Britannica (Masequesmay, 2021) says: “Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on sex or gender, especially against women and girls. It can be a belief that one sex is more valuable than another one.” It limits the possibilities for both, men and women. Sexism leads to economic exploitation and social domination. Sexist behaviour perpetuates stereotypes of gender roles based on biological sex. Traditionally, as women and men, we are raised and taught specific gender roles that are their opposites. Women are considered weaker, less capable and less rational than men. Women are relegated to domestic work and emotions, and following this reasoning, they can’t be good leaders in business or politics (Masequesmay, 2021).
MALE DOMINATION
“Males as a group have and do benefit the most from patriarchy, from the assumption that they are superior to females and should rule over us. But those benefits come with a price. In return for all the goodies men receive from patriarchy, they are required to dominate women, exploit and oppress us, using violence if they must keep patriarchy intact. Most men find it difficult to be patriarchs. Most men are disturbed by hatred and fear of women, by male violence against women, and even the men who perpetrate this violence. But they fear letting go of the benefits. They are not certain what will happen to the world they know most intimately if patriarchy changes. So they find it easier to passively support male domination even when they know in their minds and hearts that it is wrong. Again and again, men tell me they have no idea what it is that feminists want. I believe them. I believe in their capacity to change and grow. And I believe that if they knew more about feminism, they would no longer fear it, for they would find feminist movement the hope of their own release from the bondage of patriarchy.” (Hooks, 2014, p. XIII)
Male domination is a fact. In her book, the author of “Invisible Women”, Perez (2020, p. 13–42), describes that even by using the word “human”, what we have in mind is “man”. The “universal thinking” involves thinking about men’s needs. She refers to Simon de Beauvoir, who said that a man is describing a woman in comparison to himself, not as she is. Man is everything, the absolute truth, and women are “different”. It leads to thinking that there is something wrong with women and they need to be “repaired”. This long-term marginalisation in a sexist (i.e. patriarchal) culture leads to many barriers which women face. Perez mentions in her book that a man she once dated accused her of being blinded by feminist ideology. He told her that she did not see the world objectively and rationally by being a feminist. She then pointed out to him that he also does not see the world objectively. He obviously did not agree with her. This situation shows the “absolute truth” that de Beauvoir wrote about. Women, who are half of humanity, are considered a minority with a niche identity and a subjective point of view. This leads to another phenomenon — misogyny: “hatred of, aversion to, or prejudice against women” (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). In most cases, it affects men, but there are also women who feel irresistible hatred towards members of their own sex (Brogaard, 2019).
NARRATION ABOUT WOMEN IN A PATRIARCHAL CULTURE
“I once thought that I possessed the gift of creation, but I have abandoned this thought; a woman cannot desire to compose — none has succeeded, so why should I expect to succeed?”. The tragedy is that Schumann was wrong. Women before her had succeeded, and some of them were among the most successful, prolific and influential composers of the 17th and 18th centuries. Only that they did not have “recognisable names”, because a woman is quickly forgotten after her death — or her work falls into a gap of information because it is attributed to a man.” (Perez, 2020, p. 75)
The history, as we know, is told in the context of a male-dominated world and a patriarchal system. We learned that in prehistoric societies the central figure was the man and the woman played a passive role limited to childcare or low-risk activities (traditional gender roles). Today, as this traditional and patriarchal narrative is changing, researchers are revisiting these interpretations and, with new findings, are helping to break down stereotypes about the roles of men and women in ancient societies (Australia National University, 2022). For example, a study published in the journal Science Advances, suggests that women’s work was crucial to the rise of agriculture (Briggs, 2017). In another case, researchers assumed the remains of an ancient hunter to be male, but further analysis revealed that the remains found next to the hunting tools belonged to a biological woman. What is more, this ancient female hunter was probably no exception, according to a study published in Science Advances. This finding by Haas’ team was followed by a review of previously studied burials of similar age across the Americas — finding that between 30% and 50% of big game hunters may have been biological women, still, her gender identity cannot be determined (Wei- Haas, 2021). Women in history have gone almost entirely unnoticed and this is also referred to by Perez (2020, p. 13–49), saying how this lack of representation affects our society and what stereotypes it created.
*** In a patriarchal culture, women’s attitude is directed against each other. To fight sexism, we need to incorporate sisterhood among women. As Hooks (2014, p. 5) says — family (whether biological or not) is supposed to support you. Sisterhood stands for “the solidarity of women based on shared conditions, experiences, or concerns (“Sisterhood,” n.d.).”
Are men better than women?
I focus on describing what the differences between women and men are, starting from defining biological sex and cultural gender. Then, I go into detail about how we learn our gender roles as women and men in the socialisation process during our upbringing and finally, how it affects us.
BIOLOGICAL SEX AND CULTURAL GENDER
There is more to being a man or a woman than the body we were born with. The term “biological sex”, according to sociologists, refers to the anatomical and physiological differences between the bodies of men and women. “Cultural sex” (gender) refers to psychological, social and cultural differences. We must learn to distinguish between these two terms because many of the differences between men and women are not due to biology at all. An infant is born with biological sex, and a cultural gender will develop during life in the process of socialisation and learning gender roles through various institutions (e.g. the family or the media). The cultural gender inequality is due precisely to the fact that women and men learn different roles in this process. This is done through the use of positive and negative sanctions by society — rewarding some behaviours and inhibiting others. This is how girls and boys learn their roles and feminine and masculine qualities. In this way, the social order is maintained. Of course, people are constantly creating and modifying their roles, but if a person behaves in a way that is not in accordance with the cultural gender assigned to their biological sex, society usually regards this as a disruption of that social order. Even if parents try to bring up their children in a non-sexist manner, they find it difficult to eliminate the influence of cultural gender patterns. Everything the child encounters — books, pictures, school, television, etc. — emphasises the differences between feminine and masculine characteristics. Thanks to the feminist movement, cultural and media products are beginning to reflect less and less the traditional gender roles and expectations of them (Giddens, 2012, p. 601–604).
PERCEPTION OF MASCULINE AND FEMININE QUALITIES IN A PATRIARCHAL CULTURE
In the process of learning gender roles, we learn that women are humble, nice and caring (Perez, 2020, p. 217–230). Men are dynamic, ambitious, and tenacious. Girls and boys are punished for crossing the borders of their gender roles. This leads us to the world where for example adult women candidates, showing masculine qualities, are seen as something bad (Perez, 2020, p. p. 217–230) and where women are told to tone down and to let their ambitions go. Otherwise, they are called overbearing, conflictual, loud, aggressive, hysterical and irrational. Of all these terms, only the word “aggressive” appeared in the men’s evaluations — twice, in the form of a desire to develop this trait (Perez, 2020, p. p. 217–230).
In the document “Miss Representation” (2011) exposing how mainstream media and culture contribute to the under-representation of women in America, they point out that media were selling the idea that girls and women’s value lies in their youth, beauty and sexuality — not in their capacity as leaders. Boys learn that their success is tied to dominance, power and aggression. Over the last 11 years, the narration about women has already changed significantly but definitely generations who have grown up watching this kind of narrative about women do not “unsee” it. Additionally, women still are underrepresented and it has its consequences. As in the example described by Perez (2020, p. 13–49): “At the beginning of school education, children draw about the same number of male and female scientists. At the age of seven and eight, male scientists already greatly outnumber female scientists. Fourteen-year-olds have four times as many male scientists as female scientists. So although there are more female scientists, this increase is largely due to younger children who have not yet been taught the gender stereotypes by the educational system.” This is how this culture works and to end patriarchy (institutionalised sexism), we need us all — women and men — to participate in that change of mindset, from sexist to feminist (Hooks, 2014, p. XIII).
It is not only a gender problem
As I mentioned before in the phases of the feminist movement, in the third wave women finally realised that there are diverse and more complex identity backgrounds for women. Initially, feminism was fighting for equality for white women, others needed to wait in a queue for that (Hooks, 2014, p. 4–5). Focus on gender only unifies the womanhood experience under the structure of gender and ignores other dimensions of the oppression system (race or class). It assumes that all women have the same lifestyles, values and challenges as women from Western culture and the global north (thisfairforce, 2021). White dominance leads us to build today’s world on racism (Coaston, 2019). So today, feminism should engage in unpacking racist and classist issues (thisfairforce, 2021). Understanding the complexity of various races, classes, experiences, challenges and characteristics of women is necessary for the feminist movement, to avoid women dominating and exploiting other women. As Kendall (2021) writes in “Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot”: “White privilege knows no gender”. We are taught to ignore whiteness, to treat that as a default: “It was clear for black women that they are never going to have equality within the existing white supremacist capitalist patriarchy (Hooks, 2014, p. 4–5).”
This problem was named intersectionality in 1989 by professor Kimberlé Crenshaw: “to describe how race, class, gender, and other individual characteristics “intersect” with one another and overlap” (Coaston, 2019). For example, black women suffer double minority status — it is not only race and it is not only gender problem (National Association of Independent Schools NAIS, 2018): “Their gender and ethnicity colour, their experience in the workplace and, as a coping mechanism, Black women develop the “quit and stay mentality”, becoming disengaged while waiting for other roles or opportunities to become available (Okoyo, 2022).” Of course, there is an opposition to this movement among conservatives. Intersectionality is described as a new caste system, a conspiracy theory of victimization that places non-whites at the top, and minorities as the oppressed ones. They say: “because you’re a minority, you get special standards, special treatment in the eyes of some (Coaston, 2019).” However, they misunderstand the main message behind the term — the aim of intersectionality is not to build a racial hierarchy with black women at the top but to overthrow all racial hierarchies. Conservatives are revolting because it is a disruption of the previously known social order — tearing down racial and cultural hierarchies and creating a new reality where no one is left behind (Coaston, 2019).
Conclusion
“Feminist politics is losing momentum because the feminist movement has lost clear definitions. We have those definitions. Let’s reclaim them. Let’s share them. Let’s start over. Let’s have T-shirts and bumper stickers and postcards and hip-hop music, television and radio commercials, ads everywhere and billboards. We can share the simple yet powerful message that feminism is a movement to end sexist oppression. Let’s start there. Let the movement begin again.” (Hooks, 2014, p. 6)
Gender equity is a very complex topic and it needs a systemic understanding of various problems to achieve a mindset change. Unfortunately, people generally lack consciousness of this bigger picture or they are just aware of the small parts of it and this is how the definitions, later on, whole movements, become misunderstood. Even women, knowing that in general women are discriminated against, they do not recognise that in their cases. You don’t have to realise that you are being discriminated to be discriminated (Perez, 2020, p. 144). This is also what Crow (2020, p. 287) describes in “Radical Feminism: A Documentary Reader”: “In a Manhattan office, a legal secretary returns from her lunch hour sinks into her seat and says miserably to a secretary at the next desk: “I don’t know what’s happening to me. A perfectly nice construction worker whistled and said, “My, isn’t that nice”, as I passed him and suddenly I felt this terrific anger pushing up in me. I swear I wanted to hit him!”. At the same time, a thoughtful 40-year-old mother in a Maryland suburb is saying to a visiting relative over early afternoon coffee: “You know, I’ve been thinking lately, I’m every bit as smart as Harry, and yet he got the PhD and I raised the girls. Mind you, I wanted to stay home. And yet, the thought of my two girls growing up and doing the same thing doesn’t sit well with me at all. Not at all.” These women are not feminists and yet each of them, without specific awareness, is feeling the effects of participating in the sexist system (Crow, 2000, p. 287).
We also need to critically review the concept of power. Firstly, feminism was about gaining the same power status as men. This way we could lead to a situation, where white women get into the position of power oppressing black women — to avoid that we need to involve intersectionality in feminist movements. Reproducing the white capitalist culture and narratives focused on the individual leads to values such as “girl bossing”, “meritocracy” or competition, and it fixes us in the reality of e.g. unpaid work of women (thisfairforce, 2021).
Gender equality is one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Nowadays, the term gender equity is getting on popularity, as women don’t want to be equal anymore — they want to be seen and treated fair. As European Institute for Gender Equality (n.d.) definition says: “Gender equity is a provision of fairness and justice in the distribution of benefits and responsibilities between women and men.” We should build on our genders and raise the consciousness of society on a systemic understanding of an issue.
“But women are everywhere now!” — this is what Perez (2020, p. 13–49) heard from a man protesting in a conversation against further feminist action. These men felt that even a symbolic female presence was enough. Yes, women around the world have gained in last decades better access to education, healthcare, economic opportunities and politics, but gender equality in these areas is still many years away — continuing current trends, women in Western Europe will enjoy full gender equality in 61 years, as first ones in a world. Women in Eastern Europe, 128 years and ones in North America have to wait for the longest, 168 years (Ellery Studio, 2018).
*** This article is the second theoretical chapter in my Strategic Design master thesis “Unlearning traditional roles — empowering the new generation of women in leadership”. The other two chapters can be found here: on leadership and on “unlearning”. You can find a preview of the project in my portfolio. I am very interested in your feedback — leave a comment or contact me at aga.laura.bartosz@gmail.com.
*** By women and men in this text I mean everyone who identifies themselves as women or men, not based on biological sex (this is also why I don’t use the term male or female to describe women and men). This text is focused on the problem in terms of binarity and here I would like to highlight that today’s leaders should be inclusive to everyone — women, men and non-binary people. By “masculine” and “feminine” in this text, I mean having qualities that are traditionally considered to be typical of women or men, based on cultural gender.
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