THE ESSENCE OF FEMINISM
By Kirsten Birkett
Matthias Media. 134 pages. £6.00
ISBN 1 876326 25 5
'I have thought of myself as a feminist throughout my adult life,' writes Birkett, 'and have read and approved, as well as critiqued a wide range of feminist texts. It seemed a basically sensible philosophy. Women deserve to be treated with exactly the dignity and respect that men do as human beings.' (9) Having begun her research as a feminist, she discovered that the social project called 'feminism' is fundamentally flawed. It aimed for the breakdown of traditional marriage and for women to have careers on the same terms as men. Both goals worked against women's interests.
Birkett begins by examining the realities of life for modern women. The decline of marriage has been bad news for women, as well as everyone else. Women have not been liberated by the 'freedom' to cohabit or divorce - instead many of them are trapped in poverty, and broken marriages result in misery. Similarly, the much lauded 'freedom' to go out to work disguises the brutal reality that many families need two earners just to maintain a very basic standard of living. The business world, then, has acquired two workers for one family wage, where it used to get only one for that amount. Capitalism has profited from women entering the workforce, but women and their families have merely seen the value of their wages drop . . . Debates over how equally the housework is divided between husband and wife cannot conceal the basic problem which is that women have not seen their lives become easier and more pleasant as a result of their labours, but rather more complicated and stressful.' (23)
