Feminism – a spent force or fit for the 21st century?

Here is an interesting debate about feminism with  Fiona Ranford, a leading member of UK Feminista; Rehana Azan, senior trade union official; Yvonne Roberts, Observer chief leader writer; Melissa Kite, columnist from the Guardian:

Feminism is dead, says Netmums. As feminist activists prepare to lobby parliament, we bring together a group of female thinkers to discuss the rights and roles of women – and men – in society.

Yvonne Roberts It's been a very interesting week for feminism. Netmums has announced that feminism is dead and pronounced the last rites. But at the same time we've had the coverage of the Jimmy Savile revelations and a very strong feminist voice saying that this is an institutional problem, not just the behaviour of one individual. So feminism, is it alive or is it dead? Fiona?

Fiona Ranford The news from Netmums isn't surprising. We're all well aware that there's been stigma attached to feminism for many years, making it seem like it's something that is done and dusted, and actually what we're seeing across the UK is a huge rise in the number of women – and men – taking part in feminist activism. So we've seen a doubling in the number of local feminist activist groups in the past couple of years. We've seen a thousand people come to UK Feminista's national conference, which sold out. We've also got a huge lobby of parliament this week, where hundreds of women and men from across the UK will be coming together to demand that feminism is put at the heart of British politics and many of them will be doing feminist activism for the first time. So it's clear that the feminist movement is growing.

Rehana Azam I don't think feminism is dead. As a trade union officer active in the workplace, I've seen the gender pay gap growing significantly over the past decade. So I think there's a very real need for [feminism] in the workplaces, for us to fight for equality.

YR But if equal pay is such an issue, why are so many women saying "We don't need feminism any more. Everything's OK"?

RA I don't think feminism is dead. It depends what your interpretation of feminism is. My interpretation is all about having the freedom to choose. I don't think if you asked some of my members in the workplaces, are they the ones who are choosing the rates of pay they are on, which, compared to those of men, are less? I think the answer would be no, they aren't.

Melissa Kite I sincerely hope feminism is alive. If younger women are rejecting it or saying it's irrelevant, it's only because the women who've gone before them have won so many battles that they now can't see what the problem is. But I think the problem now is much more subtle than it used to be, and sexism – if you like, chauvinism – is not as obvious; it doesn't hit you over the head, maybe. It's very insidious, very subtle, the ways that women might still be kept down. There are still women in this country of different cultures who do not have the rights that I have, for example. And I think there is a very difficult problem nowadays of equality and women's rights coming up against other cultural so-called rights, religious rights. And these two agendas bash up against each other and women are stuck in the middle of things like forced marriage, female circumcision, women not being able to get a divorce because their husband has divorced them in a religious sense, in a Sharia sense.

For full story go to Guardian website