Re: Feminism gone too far in Canada, Off the Notepad, March 4, 2011.
So you think feminism has gone too far, do you? As a woman in your 20s, you may feel that feminism can do nothing more for you — but there are plenty of others for whom feminism has not achieved nearly enough.
What about the aboriginal women and others engaged in the sex trade being slaughtered by Robert Pickton, and on the Highway of Tears?
What about the fact that women living on low incomes, especially those raising a family, face many unnecessary obstacles, put in place by a male-dominated government, starting with totally unrealistic social assistance payments, far below what is necessary for the necessities of life.
Has it ever crossed your mind that a major reason so many children B.C. live below the poverty line is because male-dominated governments won’t properly support their mothers?
Your claim that feminism is “partly responsible for a contingent of over-worked, overburdened and over-achieving—and therefore very unhappy—young women today” is nonsense.
Thanks to feminism, women are in a better position than before to run our own lives. If some women are over-burdened and over-achieving, perhaps that’s because they’ve bought into the big business, male-dominated economic system — and not the fault of the many, many women on whose shoulders your ungrateful feet are planted.
You’re glad for what feminism has achieved are you? Then stop working against it by promoting the spin that women should have “no more rights” than men.
Feminism’s goal has always been equal rights, not more rights, and we’re still a long way from achieving it, thanks at least partly to women like yourself undermining it with columns such as this one.
Elizabeth Woods
Saanich
