Fiona | 
03 8th, 2008| 
Today is the 99th International Women’s Day, or for some Womyn’s Day. So what have the last 99 years brought us? Yes women can vote in a lot of places now and more women are in the paid workforce than ever before, with employment rates amongst the 20-29 year old age group virtually equal for males and females (according to Triple J’s Hack last night.)Economically women are not equal to men, especially with regards to superannuation. There are still career paths that are traditionally male and female. I would love to see more male teachers, however the remuneration offered to teachers is not enticing. An experienced classroom teacher (10 years experience) will usually not earn more than around $70k/annum and that assumes they are taking on extra responsibility. Consider engineers where remuneration starts at the $100k/annum mark and increases considerably it is pretty much a no brainer, why would you become a teacher? But that is for another rant!
I have minimal superannuation. I spent 10 years as the unpaid slave Vicar’s Wife, yet did most of the administration, typing, publications etc. But then again rants against religious organisations are also for another day! I will need to do an extreme amount of salary sacrifice and get a high paid job in order to be able to retire comfortably and afford Bombay Sapphire over Vickers Gin. Perhaps I have weird worries about retirement…
But what is feminism? I grew up in a white middle class family where Mum stayed home and Dad worked. Mum did school runs and tuck-shop duty once a fortnight and Meals on Wheels every week and helped at church and ran her local Liberal Party branch and had dinner on the table every night at 6. She left school after her Leaving Certificate and went to Kindergarten Teacher’s College but didn’t like it so became a clerk at a stockbroking firm. She worked there until she was 6 months pregnant with me. She is also fortunate that she has never been in a financial position where she has had to work. Mum has always held very conservative views- politically, economically and socially. Whilst she was pleased I went to uni from school, and may have been a little dismayed at me marrying so young, she was please I ran away to join the circus church. One of my teenage memories is being dragged along to an ordination service at St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne where women were protesting at the doors for the right to be ordained. Mum was horrified at their actions and said their actions made her more against women’s ordination. She has since changed her views, and deep down I think believes in equality but also has trouble with the word feminist.
I suppose I class myself as a ‘born again feminist.’ I thought marrying young and having lots of kids and being the vicar’s wife and having a husband to support me would be way cool. Things don’t always turn out the way one plans! So what brand of feminism do I subscribe to? I support political, social and economic equality amongst the sexes. I don’t see this being achieved by women becoming like men so I do was my legs and various other parts of my anatomy. I wear skirts and fishnet stockings and shoes with small heels (I am too tall to wear stilettos I have decided, plus the pain!) I wear make up to work and wander past the fragrance counter each morning choosing a new scent. My hair is getting longer, even though it has been very short at various stages of my life! I don’t mind if a guy opens a door for me, but I don’t expect it, nor look for it. Now that I have reverted to my maiden name, even though this is proving very difficult to do in some areas until I get a decree nisi, I don’t think I will change it again, not that I am planning on marrying again, but I also wonder what is in a name. I would love to have taken my maternal grandfather’s name as it has now died out and he did so much for me, but it is just a name. I used to joke I had a corker surname…
I don’t want to be dependent on other people financially which means I work, but I also believe that women should be able to stay at home with their children should they choose and ways should be found to remunerate this work.
I am very pro choice when it comes to abortion, even though I don’t think I would be able to have one myself. Even though I had male obstetricians when I had the kids, this was because of perceived risks and I would have liked being able to have midwives and even contemplate a home birth. I am passionate about breastfeeding and educating and empowering all women to exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 months and continue breastfeeding until their child is 2 years old, as per the World Health Organisation guidelines. I don’t refer to menstruation as a ‘curse’ but don’t go around celebrating it either, no matter how revolting some periods can be!
I suppose that deep down I position myself as me. I value diversity, equality, social justice and human kindness. I think I am too left wing for my mother… I wonder how my kids will view feminism? I suppose all I can do is lead by example. In many ways this is what my mum did and even though we may have differing views, we have respect for one another. She is an amazing woman who has achieved so much- her career has been voluntary work, still doing Meals on Wheels, on the Australia Day council, working behind the scenes in politics, helping with the Geelong Footy Club, philanthropy beyond belief, a doting Nanny Fran to her two grandkids and a pretty cool mum.
Last night, for Immy’s birthday we went to see Circus Oz. It must be about the 5th Circus Oz performance I have seen live. My favourite part is the ‘Life is a Bikini Parade’ video which is at the top of this post. Rather fitting for Woemn’s Day don’t you think?
