Feminism and me

[morningpaper]

After spending the first three decades of my life being a raving feminist, I can't help wonder WTF? when it comes to being a mum.

Basically my skills (in order of usage) are: cleaning for DP and DD, cooking for DP and DD, washing for DP and DD, Microsoft network technician (0% of time).

After an exhausting days cleaning/cooking/ washing, once I've settled into bed to read my (imported) copy of MS. magazine, I wonder what's the point? What useful lesson has feminism really taught me?

I noticed at a recent gathering of mummy-friends that I was the only 'Ms.' and when I commented on this (may have been a tad drunk) all my (intelligent) friends said things like "Well I like people knowing I'm married!" and it made me feel VERY depressed to think I was raising a daughter for ... what kind of future? Probably the same as mine - cooking, cleaning, and washing - all while being (of course) very enlightened and feminist about the whole thing.

Does anyone else worry about this... or am I letting the post-election blues get to me?!?

Postfeminism, I meant, making me feel fat.

Prufrock - one of the reasons I left my current job was because my boss (male) set targets for work that were, in my view, not achieveable in a working week. When I raised this he said 'well we should reward people for working in their own time' I pointed out that this was not on as people have lives outside of work (carefully didn't mention children as I think this is an issue for everyone, not just parents..) So the only way to meet his targets was to work in your own time...nice....

i realise that there is no such thing as independant methodology and as you say our own beliefs colour results - that being said therefore i think it is wrong to employ an overtly political group of people to come up with a political judgment.

i was recently told to employ a group of people with certain belief systems about my place of work to talk to other people with the same belief system. the results came back as i thought they might. however this forward thinking appraoch didn't give the results that the directors wanted. now i am involved in presenting them in a better light and fuzzing the edges, because thats what you can do with research - you can say everything that underpinned its beginnings was flawed - if you want to discredit it. asking feminists to tell the govt why women are not equal seems silly
and in case i didnt make myself clear - i want to thank you for the only definitive answer to my question of how feminism has a direct influence on policy today.

thank you fennel

the example I was thinking of was a presentation I was involved in which was one of many at a big conference at the DTI on the gender pay gap. not everyone there was a feminist. lots of different perspectives and approaches coming together. eg business-oriented and right wing organisations too.

a (postmodernist!) feminist answer is that we know our approach is limited and political (flawed, if you like). which is better than someone thinking they are independent and objective about an issue, while actually being just as limited to their own perspective.

everyone is political, some just don't realise that any view or lifestyle choice has a political impact. that's a marxist view too as well as a postmodernist one.