40 years down, many more to go

Published: Tuesday, August 17, 2010

By Madeline Hawke

As 400 women and men flooded into the Kilbride suite of the Ormonde Hotel on Friday evening in Kilkenny, it was clear to see that feminism has not lost it's appeal. "40 years of feminism: A discussion on where we were, where we are now and where we're going" was organised as one of two feminist events (the other being a Guerilla Girls exhibition) at the Kilkenny Arts Festival. The audience was mostly women, from secondary school students to 'grandmothers of the Second Wave' as one speaker later termed them. The featured speakers were as diverse as the audience, with a panel of women including famous Irish feminist, Nell McCafferty, and Bridget Fitzsimons, a 21-year-old student. However, the noticeable absence of a speaker from an active feminist organisation like the National Women's Council of Ireland or any of its members, sadly led to the panel painting an unfinished picture*. It is hard to understand why those currently leading the contemporary feminist movement were not invited as their insight is surely fundamental to discussion on where feminism is now.

(*when Madeline raised the absence of the NWCI, the chairman stated that we had been invited but had been unavailable or declined to take part. He had been misinformed by the organisers of the event. The NWCI was not invited. We accept that the chairman was misinformed)

Chairing the debate for the evening was Professor of Modern Irish History at UCD, Diarmaid Ferriter. He gave an outline of Irish feminism so far, highlighting the successes of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement and the progress made for women in the last 40 years. The IWLM, he said, confronted barriers, demanded changes and drew attention to injustices and deep rooted taboo's entrenched in Irish society at the time. Ferriter also went on at length to praise the achievements of the Second Wave, noting that the progress of women's rights in Ireland is too often obscured by remaining injustices. However, Ferriter ultimately concluded that sexism is 'perhaps' one of the most 'rotten' problems in Irish society today.

The first speaker was legendary Irish historian, Margaret McCurtain. She further outlined the historic journey feminism has taken in Ireland, stating that in her opinion, the Second Wave of feminism was more difficult than the First. She noted that the First Wave of feminists were mainly concerned with the tangible injustice of women being denied the vote. Though it took 40 years to achieve voting rights, progress was in some way assisted by other political developments in Ireland at the time. Second Wave feminist's had more subtle issues to face and while Methodists and Quakers led much of the early feminist movement, Catholic women were less able to participate.

McCurtain's historical perspective led neatly to the insights of the second speaker, archivist and former President of the Women's History Association of Ireland, Catriona Crowe. Crowe provided a 'bibliography of Second Wave texts'. Beginning with The Feminine Mystique, a book often credited with launching the Second Wave of feminism, Crowe then went on to list the influential texts that followed, both in Ireland and abroad. June Levine, Rosita Sweetman, Betty Purcell and Nuala O'Faolain all played an integral role in the Irish feminist movement, she said. Writers from the more recent period were not included in her survey.

The third speaker was Nell McCafferty who began by admitting to confusion about where modern feminism is going. In 1970 the main focus of the feminist movement was to address the 'unending nightmare of pregnancy', help 'poor women' and widen opportunities for women to further education. Now, she said, the goals are not as clear. McCafferty then went on to cover a range of issues in quick succession from the 'Google machine' to turkey basters, John Waters, microwaved eggs and gender re-assignment surgery. She ended her speech stating 'I haven't got a clue [about contemporary feminist issues]' and I'm going to 'leave it to the queen' who is visiting Ireland next year.

The fourth and final speaker, Bridget Fitzsimons, Fitzsimons began by asserting the need for education of young people about injustice and the importance of renewing activism in Irish society. She noted that modern Ireland is still 'incredibly sexist', in particular highlighting her own experience of discrimination at UCD. Fitzsimons then went on to discuss reproductive rights, media objectification of women, pornography, the Irish constitution and political quotas (with which she strongly disagrees). She ended with a call to community mobilisation on feminist issues.

A question and answer session brought audience members into the discussion. The undervalued role of motherhood was addressed along with the need for more child-friendly working environments and parental leave schemes. The unfortunate absence from the discussion of the National Women's Council of Ireland (who were sadly not invited to take part) was noted, along with praise for their tremendous contribution to the struggle for women's equality. Political quotas were affirmed by one of the older members of the audience who stated that she had been waiting since 1970 for under-representation of women in politics to be addressed and could wait no longer. The insight of politician and active feminist, Senator Ivana Bacik on the importance of quotas and other measures in encouraging women's participation in politics would have been welcome in the discussion.

However, perhaps the most insightful contribution came from a secondary school student who spoke of her despair when a discussion of career ambitions came up with a group of friends at school. While discussing what they were going to be 'when they grew up' no less than seven of her peers admitted that their aspirations involved finding a rich footballer, marrying said footballer and living the coveted life of a 'WAG'. The student was perplexed and noticeably disappointed by the lack of ambition her classmates showed.

At the end of the discussion it was clear that feminism has made great changes in Irish society, but still has a long way to go. The challenge to involve both young and old women in the movement still remains. Furthermore, though many issues were raised for debate, a deeper, more sensitive, understanding of contemporary feminism was unfortunately lacking in the discussion. Due to the absence of women on the panel who are currently engaged in the struggle for women's equality, the debate centred on issues rather than actions and the great work of many feminist organisations was sadly overlooked. However, almost every speaker noted a societal resurgence of interest in feminism, and the diversity of audience members was a testament to this observation. This discussion showed the wheels of feminist change are once again picking up speed, even if we're not quite sure where we're going yet.