5a. WOMEN IN POWER: What Will Be? (cont’d.)

(Secondly), there is a large group of feminist leaders (of all generations) and organizations that operate independently of the power structure. Such organizations are growing around the world, have strong grassroots support and attract more and more resources as women themselves earn and control more money.

5. WOMEN IN POWER: What will be?

The liberation of any group invites into its new profile a variety of cure-alls and illusions and many of these have accompanied women’s liberation from their subordination to men. One of the more awesome speculations is, “If women ruled the world there would be no war.”

Of particular interest here – and a major issue, considering we are discussing the continuance of life on the planet – is the late Congresswoman, feminist and lawyer Bella Abzug’s panaceaic:

4a. The ERA and Power

Another serious problem facing women is the denigration of feminists and feminist thought and the lack of knowledge about the realities of deep-rooted sexism. Equality is not just a trendy, femme word. Shouting “I’m equal” and “my rights” carries no weight without comprehending the history, concepts, complications, practices, actions and behavior of the equal female. What does equality with men mean personally, legally and in society-at-large? And how does it evidence itself? Why and how is the equal female different from one who is not?

4. POWER

There is nothing wrong with power. In and of itself, power is good and exists on many levels. Consider the entities earth, moon and sun. Gravity is power; so are motion and velocity. Because of these in combination, the entities exist in relationship and reciprocity – on the cosmic scale. Thus we continue on our endless journey around the sun. An example of power on the macro scale is the organization of the Executive Branch, Congress and the Supreme Court in the USA – a political ideal of powerful entities co-existing in tension, or balance.

3a. Internalized Oppression

In sociology and psychology – and as explained in RADICAL PSYCHIATRY, The Second Decade, edited by Beth Roy and Claude Steiner – internalized oppression is an “arbitrary set of messages which has been internalized and is now being listened to and followed as if it were, in fact, one’s own best judgment.” Here’s how it works.

Because feminism is evolutionary, like nature. Feminism is the will to understand and articulate the negated aspects of life from a female point-of-view and create a better life for women. It is a set of ideas and a mental outlook that connect to history, motive, action and outcome. And now we must expand the feminist mandate to heal the planet and define a better life for all living things. With this in mind, the Feminist Earth relates not only to Mother Nature but to the nature, creativity and exercise of women’s power. Why the Feminist Earth? Why the patriarchal power structure?

Our problems are not a series of isolated issues. They are an overarching combination of factors that predict catastrophic changes to life on earth. Now. This is mainstream reality. And our burden is caused by the forces of inanity, greed and the impulse to destroy.

Last week I paid a visit to my optometrist and we got to talking about my work – writer, feminist and all. He told me that in the 60s, his wife said she was tired of wiping bums and counters and went back to school for a degree in occupational therapy. Then he turned to the present. He said that his daughter – a partner in a high-powered law firm with three kids and living on the west coast – had a breakdown last year. She could no longer keep up with it all and suffered a nervous, psychological and physical collapse. My response: “The goal of feminism is that women should live whole lives – not that they should kill themselves. The system is the problem – not women’s advancement.” And he agreed.