Demands for an end to violence against women, equality in the workplace and more diverse representation in positions of power are nothing new on International Women’s Day – the cry for change is as regular as the day itself. But this year, feminists argue, could be different: people may just be listening.
Since sexual harassment scandals tore through Hollywood last October, the repercussions keep on coming. In multiple workplaces, across unrelated fields, we are starting to see what change might look like.
At the start of the year 300 Hollywood employees, including many high-profile stars, launched the Time’s Up legal fund to support women fighting sexual misconduct; in less than a month, all UK companies with more than 250 employees will have to report their gender pay gaps; across the globe women are confronting repressive laws and speaking up at home and at work.
We asked leading feminist thinkers if they were hopeful this International Women’s Day – and what change they wanted to see.
Rebecca Solnit, a columnist, historian, activist and contributing editor at Harper’s magazine
When this started to really get under way in about 2014, I said I have been waiting my whole life for this. What I wanted all these years is for someone to diagnose this as a huge, pervasive, societal and cultural problem that affects most, if not all, women. And to recognise that the change we need also has to be broad and deep and societal rather than women improving their taste in men or what they wear or where they go. We got so much advice about how to fix the problem that men want to destroy us. It does feel like we are diagnosing an epidemic: that is the work that will let us treat it. And there is space to talk about it in a way there has not been before.
Source:
theguardian
No comments:
Post a Comment