Online conference on the failures of liberal feminism

[louisemperry]

Hi all, on Thursday 17th December at 11:00 I’m going to be chairing an online conference that might be of interest to mumsnetters.

Our panel –

Kathleen Stock will speaking on the failures of “high church” academic feminism, with its emphases on arcane language, unverifiable beliefs, liturgical chanting, and priestly authority.

Nimko Ali will be speaking about the failure to credit and invest in African women doing feminist work on the frontline.

Mary Harrington will be speaking about the motherhood shaped blind spot in mainstream feminism, and why moving beyond it means re-examining core liberal assumptions.

Nina Power will be speaking on the failure of the contemporary liberal Left to recognise that women are oppressed on the basis of their biology, and arguing that the history of the family is indissociable from a historical and materialist understanding of humanity.

You can watch live between 11:00 and 13:30, which will give you the opportunity to put questions to the panel. You can register using this link –zoom.us/webinar/register/4815931634324/WN_K-DRxGOzRB6DU3Plo9f8xQ

Alternatively, you’ll be able to catch up later on YouTube or the Res Publica website.

Thanks also for the explanations here - finding them very helpful.

On learned helplessness and women avoiding politics, there could be other things going on rather than women being unpolitical or unenlightened. Some people hide their politics because they know there is a social penalty, and you need to build trust first.

I also think we need a bit more structural analysis. It’s not that women always have a choice about their social roles. The switch from a household economy to an industrialised economy meant that the home stopped being the workplace, and that had a massive impact on gender relations. And that some work became paid and women’s work didn’t.

Good luck finding a man who will be ‘provider’, among heterosexual middle and upper class men, I think the preferred partner will be a professional woman, with good qualifications, who might switch to part time if the couple has children.

I love Nimco Ali she is exactly the sort of person who should be given a platform.

I think that the motherhood penalty is how mainstream feminism seriously disadvantages working class women. I know not all working class women are or want to be mothers. Not everyone can have a career but their contribution to society both in terms or caring for children and in the types of paid work they do such as care work working in supermarkets etc is overlooked. In the coronavirus pandemic who has kept the country going?

The main job for feminism as I see it is to help women who are victims of abuse, women who are poor and marginalised. This disproportionately includes black women snd disabled women. There needs to be more focus on women’s health and why black women are more likely to die in childbirth. Women are doing this amazing work but they are getting abuse from all sides.

caring for children and in the types of paid work they do such as care work working in supermarkets etc is overlooked. In the coronavirus pandemic who has kept the country going

Reasonable video and report on this from Women's Budget Group:

wbg.org.uk/commission/

FGM discussions are being derailed by trans activists because they think it's transphobic to be focused on the biological realities of African women and girls.

Beyond disgusting. We are seeing what happens when narcissism becomes a political ideology.

I think that the motherhood penalty is how mainstream feminism seriously disadvantages working class women.

Yeah, this is just it, right?

It's lovely to say, women and men should just shed these gender expectations which have nothing essential to do with reproductive role, and they can both work and do domestic and childcare work equally.

But that makes a whole lot more sense in professional or career-type jobs. You get these threads in AIBU about how can women have it all, and most say, get a good qualification and be well established in your career before you have a baby, so you can get some time off, afford childcare and maybe a cleaner, and still have plenty of money.

That doesn't work so well for non-career jobs. It doesn't work so well if you have more than two or maybe three kids. Not every woman (or man) feels happy about being pushed to put kids in institutional care at one year old, even if it's paid for by the state. And like it or not, reproductive role makes a difference because of the demands it places on the body.

You have to ask, why is it the model that's been pushed as the liberating one for women is the one that's best for middle or upper class women, and for industry?