I’ve always considered myself a feminist but up until this point never really properly researched the different kinds of feminism and their impacts on women and society. So, when I randomly thought of this article idea mid-shower, I told myself it would be great ammunition for me to actually do a deep dive into the challenges of being a woman in society and take this as a learning opportunity for myself.
Disclaimer before I start: While I’ve tried my best to research about this, my goal is to still keep this article as much of a lighthearted-informational one as possible, namely because I know this topic can be extremely heavy to read and talk about, so I want to explain and discuss it as simply as possible. It won’t be extremely comprehensive and in depth about every sector of feminism and its impacts, so I don’t want that to come off as taking a shallow approach to this topic or missing out on other subjects. I’m very simply going to talk about these two important branches and offer my views as well as some questions I might have, because realistically, I’m learning as well and I don’t have all the answers.
Right, so let’s start. Buckle up- this is gonna be a bumpy one.
Choice feminism, as defined by Wikipedia (sorry to make this sound like an essay), “is a critical term for expressions of feminism that emphasize women’s freedom of choice. Such expressions seek to be ‘non-judgemental’ and to reach as many allies as possible, which is considered depoliticisation by its critics.” That’s a long description, and fairly vague, but in layman terms, it proposes that any choice a woman makes for herself is inherently feminist.
And there are many, many examples for this. In the modern day, most women from fairly developed, at least partially liberal countries have the choice to stay home or to pursue a career, to have or not have kids, or to get married or stay single. By and large, while there is still some resistance against women who choose to deviate from ‘traditional gender roles’, this aggression is not as violent as before, although there is a different set of obstacles that have cropped up. What I mean to say is that society has definitely become more accepting towards this and it is no longer a hard rule for women.
Many women have taken a liking to this mindset, as have I, because it grants me the freedom to do what I want without affecting others. But I soon realised this type of feminism has a particularly bad connotation.
It is a generally well acknowledged fact that women’s minds have been shaped by the patriarchy to conform. Women sometimes don’t realise that they’re oppressing themselves. In the past, while some women campaigned for the right to vote, others campaigned against it, because they really did believe that men were better at making judgements than women, or that it was natural that men should have this right and not women. From this perspective, we might find it strange that women would campaign against their own rights, but the indoctrination that men are superior to women was so strong back then that women actually believed it and lived by it.
Other women campaigned for women’s rights for only a specific group of people, like only white women, and believed that other groups of women like women of colour or those part of the LGBTQ+ community didn’t deserve the same feminist rights that they did. Many early feminist organisations excluded women from diverse backgrounds, sexualities, gender identities and abilities.
Women can’t make inherently feminist choices if their opinions are still formed and controlled by the patriarchy, and that appears to be the problem with choice feminism. Take for example, a girl in India who lives in a village. She has only known and been conditioned by her society that she will grow up and live in the same village, get married to someone in the village and have children. She hasn’t been exposed to other pathways that are open to her. I don’t want to sound like an elitist prick by saying that leaving villages and entering modern society is liberation, because I do not believe that at all! Instead, I believe she could open her own business in the village if she wanted to. The possibility of refusing the idea of marriage, or marrying someone she loves would be open to her, and perhaps she would have a choice to have kids or not. She could decide if she wants to pursue an education, or if she wants to move out of the village. If this girl was given all this information, and her society was willing to let this happen, then we could say, if she chose to make the decision to stay and be a housewife and have children, then that would be a feminist choice.
Unfortunately, it’s not that way at all. Because of this lack of education on the possibilities open to her, she thinks that her only possibility is the life ahead of her, and that’s not really her “choice” anymore. She is being socially pressured to achieve those things, and is not being exposed to other choices that men in the same society are exposed to.
Intersectional feminism, introduced by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 attempts to change this mindset of choice feminism and is defined as “the understanding that people’s different social identities (like race, gender, class, sexuality, disability) overlap, creating unique experiences of discrimination and privilege.” Intersectional feminism aims to take into account that different groups in society face unique challenges and some of those overlap with other groups. Some groups’ characteristics are more appreciated by the current society while others are disvalued. This creates a difference in needs of the impact of feminism, and feminist approaches need to be tailored for each group in society. It also aims to decrease ignorance; only caring about how your choices would impact you and not if they would dampen or hinder other groups in society. It also means that instead of just jumping over barriers to compete with men and leaving those barriers behind for other less privileged women with less resources, we should focus on bringing down these barriers to allow as many women to achieve their goals as possible.
However, there have been some critiques for intersectionality, like how it completely breaks down society into the smallest groups and perhaps this might invite more division instead of unity. Intersectionality also fuels the “victim mindset”, because the more you are seen as a victim in society, the more resources should be allocated to you, or the more moral superiority you have over others. It is more difficult to create a target for intersectional feminism compared to choice feminism because the target groups are too differentiated and overlap in so many different ways, while choice feminism is often as clear as “if a woman makes a decision, it is a feminist one” and it can be applied to any woman.
Now that I have briefly described both of these facets, I’d like to offer some of my own input as well as include some factors which I could not talk about in detail but affect feminism greatly. There are pros and cons to both these movements, but the best answer is always a compromise between the two. Perhaps it still is true that every choice a woman makes is feminist, but only if it does not negatively affect the rights of other groups in society while still taking into account the groups that you do and do not represent. Not believing in X, Y, or Z, shouldn’t mean that I campaign against other women that want to do them. In this way, feminist decisions are made with the hope of taking every woman’s story into account, while still acknowledging that perhaps it is inevitable that some choices may unintentionally hurt some groups of women. And if so, we have to take responsibility for these choices and provide support to these groups.
I also firmly believe that the answer to a lot of feminist problems should not be modernisation, wealth, status or anything along those lines. I believe that women should achieve a level of feminism that is compatible with their environment and culture. Oftentimes, implementing Western feminism on societies of colour have detrimental effects because the values are fundamentally different and could cause confusion and a clash in beliefs, as well as anger at intrusion. I also think that it is quite contrary to feminism to force women to pursue things that they may not want to do, like working for example, because that defeats the purpose of a choice. There should always be resources and education should women want to pursue their dreams, but whether a woman wants to be a stay at home mum or a business tycoon, both of those are equally feminist dreams and should be treated with equal respect. I believe that men and women are equal but not the same. Some things women perform exceedingly better than men, and in some things men are better at than women, and this has been proved through biology and behaviour. However, both are equal human beings with equally important roles to play and equally valuable characteristics to offer to society, and we need to start teaching the youth to do better at creating a better society for all.
References:
https://youtu.be/cYpELqKZ02Q?si=lby5rXRpjSUFbG_d
https://youtu.be/EW2r0gFTmFo?si=Gg-c1omsaaotSJVv