This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Find out more here
Women of Britain, let’s form our own feminist party
Sweden’s Feminist Initiative has shown us how to make male-dominated, middle-class Westminster work for women
• Free-market era in Sweden swept away
• Every country needs a political party like Sweden’s Feminist Initiative
• Free-market era in Sweden swept away
• Every country needs a political party like Sweden’s Feminist Initiative
When our children and grandchildren look back at the Sun’s page 3 (for I have no doubt
its days are numbered) they’ll see it in much the same way as we watch the casual sexism in Mad Men now. It will seem embarrassingly anachronistic. I know this because it is embarrassingly anachronistic now. It exists in an era where women build and fly planes, debate in the UN, run businesses and generally demonstrate that they are more than the sum of their parts. Page 3 is a relic of a bygone era, but it’s still here.
What this should tell us, and remind us, is that society doesn’t progress on its own. Equal rights are achieved when those who are denied them organise and take power. This was the ethos that led working people to form the
Labour Representation Committee, which became the Labour party. And it’s the same ethos that led to the foundation of the
Feminist Initiative party in Sweden, which has just missed out on seats in the
country’s election. Here’s hoping the party isn’t disheartened, and continues to organise – and let’s do the same in the UK.
The UK’s most significant constitutional reform for 300 years may come about this week. I say the Scots shouldn’t be the only ones who should have their fun: women of Britain, it’s time for us to follow Sweden’s example by forming our own party to represent our interests in government.
What would this party look like? Well, for a start, no men would be allowed. Nothing personal, guys, but I believe women are central to their own emancipation. We can’t have you do it for us. Women of colour, and working-class and LGBT women, would be at the centre of the party. This is about representation: women having agency in the policies that affect them.
Our primary aim would be to ensure female autonomy: that no women should be economically dependent on men, confined by sexist social norms and at risk of violence, or have their destinies determined by their sexual organs. Under a feminist party there would be no headlines about
equal pay taking another 60 years
to be realised, no tabloids publishing shaming stories of girls having sex on holiday, no quibbling over whether to make domestic violence a separate offence, and full reproductive rights for all.
There would be a minister for women of colour, a minister for working-class women, and a minister for LGBT women. These groups experience extra discrimination, so they need their own ministers, who would be encouraged to be as loud and belligerent as possible in fighting for those they represent.
Of course, there is technically no reason why this fight for women’s rights can’t be happening now. The problem is that the male-dominated, middle-class Westminster culture tends to churn out men who like to pronounce on geopolitics from podiums and still see women’s issues as tangential to Manly Important Politics.
Well, no more. Last week Owen Jones wrote that Scotland’s independence referendum is a sign that “the old order is dead and buried”. Damn right. Time for women to get some of the spoils.
Get the best of Comment is free
The most shared comment, analysis and editorial articles delivered every weekday lunchtime.
Sign up for the Comment is free email
-
More on this story
-
Social Democrats and two other opposition parties win 43.7% of the vote, against 39.1% for PM's coalition
-
-
-
-
-
-
- License/buy our content |
- Privacy policy |
- Terms & conditions |
- Advertising guide |
- Accessibility |
- A-Z index |
- Inside the Guardian blog |
- About us |
- Work for us |
- Join our dating site today
- © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.