Australian Feminism Movements Report (Assessment)

Society has greatly changed over the years to recognize and accommodate women’s rights to the levels that we witness today. We have however seen an increase in women’s feminism movements that have interestingly accompanied the increasing rights and freedoms of women in our modern society. In society, women identify with different cultural identities. Uniting these women under the feminism movement’s umbrella has been and will continue to be elusive. This paper seeks to examine why feminism is not genuinely multi-cultural. The paper also looks at the relevance of feminism in furthering the interests of women in Australia. (Haggis, & Schech 2000, p. 387)

Let me consider first what is causing Australian women to feel that their rights are infringed upon and need feminist movements to help them fight for their rights. To a large extent, our society has accommodated everyone including women. Institutions, laws, and constitutions have been empowered to protect everyone’s rights. We even have affirmative action laws that have been entrenched to ensure that women get equal opportunities as men. I, therefore, think that the greatest catalysts of women’s discrimination feelings are more perceived than real. Our internal attitudes have been shaped to a large extent by the way society has been treating women in the past. Many women would still behave and feel that they are being discriminated against because of what has happened in the past although the same is not true as of now. We can therefore see that it is more of a perception problem than anything else. Feminism movements do not however emphasize this reality making them irrelevant. (Markovic 2001, p.12)

In Australia, women are expected to have a certain dress code, avoid going to some places, speak and act in a certain manner among many other things. This may appear like discrimination but I think it is more of some requirements that are necessary to preserve a woman’s identity. We need to know that there are some inherent differences between men and women that can be exploited to meet the diverse needs of society. An interesting thing is that it is women who are primly responsible for giving birth and bringing up people in society. They, therefore, have great power to influence people’s perceptions and beliefs. We can therefore judge that they have not been incapacity to act collectively and nurture the society according to feminist beliefs or it has not been necessary to do this. It is disheartening to see feminist movements encourage women to abandon their position in society in favor of a man’s position. It is obviously impossible for these movements to integrate diverse cultures when they don’t recognize the attributes that define the Australian woman. (Heitlinger 1999, p. 33)

The main aim of a multicultural feminism movement would be to ‘empower’ women to have certain beliefs and attitudes that would encourage them live a certain kind of life where they feel fulfilled. These women would consist of females from diverse areas ingrained with different cultures and thoughts. Trying to come up with a standard approach that can be adapted by these women presents a number of problems for women and the whole society in general. First of all, it would be wrong for these feminism movements to force their ideas on women who may not be sharing the same beliefs with them. They may however be convinced to pursue a new identity in these feminism groups. They will then feel isolated from their societies where they will definitely go back to. However, their societies will compel them to adapt to an expected behaviour that they may not be willing to adapt to. This creates a conflict that may divide the society bringing more harm than good. (Allotey 1998, p. 15)

A western culture on the other hand that this woman would try to adopt has a very different setting. This is because both husband and wife work to provide for the family financially. It is therefore right for both of them to help in domestic work. Simply put, one may not fit back into her specific society and lose her identity by adopting feminism movement ideals. The world consists of many cultures that hold their societies together. In many cases, these cultures have adapted to particular conditions that people with that culture have faced. A culture can therefore be seen to integrate among other things the various conditions that people face at different areas in life.

Moreover, leadership in feminism movements cannot accommodate women from the many diverse cultures that we have. We cannot therefore say that they represent women equally. They are instead institutions that take across a message that is from a certain quarter of opinion which unfortunately can have a large impact on many women. Instead of accommodating women, these feminism movements take out a message of complying with their ideas. The immediate result of this is that many women generally feel and will continue to feel unrepresented and isolated from these movements. It is unfortunate to say this but it is true that on many occasions, these movements are led by unmarried women especially in third world countries where the institution of marriage is still highly cherished. This automatically strips these movements power to speak to women on family issues. (Haggis, & Schech 2000, p. 387)

I think that it is impossible to divide or integrate culture, opinions and beliefs on male and female basis. The only approach that can work is to target male and females in the society collectively. Our lives are so intertwined and we are so dependent on each other. Targeting women alone (of course there are some men involved in these movements either directly or indirectly) would not therefore yield results. We have never seen and we can never say for example that at a particular area, women have their culture and men their culture. This is why you will find that at some places that can be said to be infringing on women rights by performing acts that we can describe as backward and uncouth, women living in these places are the greatest proponents of these practices in my opinion. (Allotey 1998, p. 34)

Women in Australia are faced with numerous issues that they have to face. These are issues that are so important to people that they will be willing to work together to find a solution. The fact that feminism movements do not have a great following in Australia is because they are not generally seen to address issues that women and the society are facing. These are issues that would much more easily unite people across gender lines more than any other hurdle that divide people like racial lines for example. The opposite however is true when you consider what has been accomplished by these feminism movements. Moreover, feminism movements have failed to galvanize women, who are generally the majority in many societies, for a cause say elect a woman to a political office. This truth can be seen in Australia where these movements are so much divided on ethnic and ideological lines. This clearly indicates that feminism movements are unnecessary in our modern world and that they can never become genuinely multicultural. (Markovic 2001, p. 13)

It would be good for us to go back and consider stimulants that have brought significant changes for women providing them with a larger space of freedom that they can enjoy today. We know that it is not feminism movements that can claim to be responsible for these changes. Significant changes in our society have been brought about by a realization and acceptance by people of specific ideals that are of higher moral or other values than those previously held. The spread of Christianity beliefs, which are held by the Australian Woman, and our society emphasizing that all people are equal before God has helped in increasing women freedoms in the world. (Haggis, & Schech 2000, p. 387)

In Australia, feminism movements have not played any part in bringing women together. This has been caused by lack of a multicultural touch in these feminism movements. The cultural diversity in Australia calls for these feminism movements to adopt a multi cultural element if they are to be seen to truly be championing for the rights of women. Although there are many changes being witnessed on women emancipation front in Australia, it will be wrong to imply that these feminists have been responsible for this revival. Instead, this has been because of other lobby groups who have been on the forefront in ensuring that women have a say in the society. In my own opinion, feminism movements can never be multicultural since they were consciously or unconsciously born out of an ideal that seeks to divide rather than unite all people.

References

Allotey, Pascale 1998, ‘Travelling with excess “excess baggage”: health problems of refugee women in Western Australia’ , in Lenore Manderson’ (ed.) Australian women’s health: Innovations in social science and community research,Howarth Medical Press, New York, Vol. 28 , pp. 63-81

Haggis, Jane & Schech, Susanne 2000, ‘meaning well and global good manners: reflections of white western feminist cross cultural praxis’, Australian Feminist Studies, Vol. 15, No. 33, pp. 387-399

Heitlinger, Alena 1999, ‘ Emigre feminism: an introduction’, Emiggre Feminism: Transnational perspectives, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Chapter 1, pp.3-15

Markovic, Milicia 2001, responding to cultural diversity in Women’s Health: a Resource for Health Professional (ed.), Royal Women’s hospital and the University of Melbourne Key centre for women’s health in society,. Melbourne, pp. 6-8, 12-14, 16-17, 20-23, 27-29