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VIEWPOINT

Is sisterhood enough
to win women’s rights?

By KERRY McCUAIG

Thousands of Canadian women will
mark International Women’s Day this
year. Overdue credit should be ex-
tended to the many groups who organ-
ized the day’s events, bringing women
together to celebrate recent gains and
set future goals.

It must be noted however that for the
vast majonty of Canadian women,
IWD will go by unnoticed. This isn’t
said to be defeatist only to realistically
assess the problems mobilizing masses
of women to defend their interests

The promises made by the modern
feminist movement, which emerged
| during the late 1960s and early 1970s, the
fulfillment of its goals of political,
economic and sexual reform seem as
far away today from being realized as
when they were first formulated. Con-
sciousness-raising and the admirable
goal of sisterhood have not been
enough to bring about the wae
changes.

In fact the situation has SE!
The past 20 years has witnessed a sharp
attack on women’s rights. Despite
equal pay legislation in every province,
the gap between men’s and women’s
wages is widening. The number of day-
care spaces has decreased,while de-
mand rises. Women still form the clas-
sic cheap labor reserve and are fun-
nelled into dead end clerical and service
| jobs. Unemployment plagues women at
a greater rate than men and the new
technology will make women its special
victims. The present round of savage
public sector spending cuts raises little
hope of any advance for women in the
near future.

Why is it that the modern feminist
movement has found itself impotent in
face of the attack on women’s hard won
gains? Is it in fact equipped to lead
women at this time?

Feminism’s Ideology

Over its short history, this movement

has developed a more or less distinctive

es It is described .as *‘femin-
. It attempts to explain women’s

oo I dissect how women are ~ -

oppressed and organize women to con-
front this oppression.

The present composition of this
movement is not surprising. Born on
the university campuses during the
education expansion of the 1960s it at-

| tracted young, white, predominantly
middle class women who were
awakened by the aspirations of higher
|} education.

Produced was an educated and
articulate group of women who had
been trained to think critically and
began to question the society which
promised so much but offered so little.

The term ‘‘sexism’’ was coined to
describe the myriad of ways women
were adversely portrayed and de-
graded. It was found to be prevelant in
the legal system, on the job, in educa-
tion, in children’s and text books, in
popular culture, in the media but above
all in the attitudes of men. _

Some valuable insights were gain by
this type of enquiry. It popularized
women’s role in society, exposed their
unequal position and challenged those
concepts in people’s minds.

The next logical step in their analysis
however was to pinpoint the enemy —
and he was man. Regardless of their
position in society, men, whether em-
ployers, workers, husbands or fathers
were: ‘‘the problem’’. There was no use
looking at society or the system. Men
were “‘the system’’, they dominate it
and are consequently responsible for
women’s oppression.

Although the modern feminist
movement is by no means homogene-
ous, it has its “‘radical’’ to ‘‘liberal’’
sections this concentration on male
domination rejects in general a material
or class analysis of the origins of wo-
men’s inequality.

Feminists tend: to equally regard the
left and right with suspicion. Political
parties of all stripes are dominated by
men, the movement argues, therefore
they aren't viable vehicles through
which to redress women’s problems.

The trade union movement as a
means for improving women’s position

in society has been largely ignored by -

the movement. It wasn’t until research
proved that it was trade unions, not
legislation that was narrowing the gap
between men’s and women’s wages
that the movement began to acknow-
ledge organized labor's significance.

It also wasn't until the Canadian
Union of Postal Workers included paid
maternity leave in its last contract de-
mands that many of these women’s
groups supported the union’s strike
actions.

Viewing history as a battle between
the sexes also ignores the class divi-
sions among women themselves.

Class allegiances have caused lead-
ers of the modern feminist movement to.
sell out their working class sisters to
their own class interests.

~ COMMENTARY

The recent constitutional battle is a
case in point. Middle class women
campaigned long and hard to have
equal rights for women included in the
constitution. But when sections of the
charter of rights were opened to an
override clause by the provincial
governments, these women fought to
have clause 28, stating all aspects of the
bill would apply equally to both men
and women remain irrevokable, but ig-
nored the anti-discriminatory clause
which stated the constitutional pro-
visions must apply without regard to
race, nationality, ethnic origin, color,
religion, sex, age or mental or physical

disability.

When the constitution is “brought
home’’ from Britain its provisions will
apply equally to men and women as
long as the woman isn’t Black, old,
handicapped, Native Indian or
Catholic.

Throughout the entire constitutional
discussion this section of the women’s
movement also ignored the national
aspirations of their French Canadian
sisters. Their rights were readily sacri-
ficed to a legalist, view of equality.

Other class divisions can be seen in
the movement. While working class

,women are fighting for trade union pro-

tection, middle class women are
struggling for advancement into
managerial and professional
employment.

While affirmative action is an im-
portant component in the struggle for
women’s rights, working class women
have learned to view it with suspicion.
They have seen it used to promote
exceptional women out of the bargain-
ing unit and used in general to weaken
their trade unions.

When domestic workers in Ontario
after a concerted campaign won legisla-
tive provisions for minimal wage and
working conditions, middle class~
women were quick to complain that
they couldn’t afford their live-in domes-
tic under the new law.

The acid test for any movement is the
extent to which it is able to mobilize and
influence large numbersof people.

, The character of the modern feminist
movement has not changed sub-—
stantially since its founding. It con-
tinues to be dominated by white middle
class women. Although there are issues
around which women from most clas-
ses can unite, the needs of working
class, immigrant, Native and French
Canadian women differ from those of |
professional women.

Middle class women want to share

their class’ power and prestige. Work-

ing class women don’t view their men
as the enemy. They do see the need to. |
organize as women for their special
needs but they don’t want to exclude

_ their class brothers from their struggle.

They want and need their solidarity.

The theoretical and practical orienta-
tion of the modern feminist movement |
militates against the involvement of the
most oppressed and exploited section
of society — its working class. The
time is due for the working class ~
movement to build and lead this new
type of women’s movement. This kind
of mass mobilization of women to pro-
tect and extend their rights isn’t just a
theoretical nicety, but a necessity.

Kerry McCuaig is a staff writer for
the Canadian Tribune and a member of
the Communist Party’s Women's
Commission.

i

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 12, 1982—Page 4

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