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.

In terms of influencing permanent change, only time will tell: they are bucking entrenched male power and an intransigent past – both of which have consistently thwarted progress to women’s equality. What is achievable may vary from year to year, with different political administrations, and from region to region. Planned Parenthood, under permanent attack from anti-woman forces, is an example of how volatile the existence of such an organization can be. (PP was originally founded as the American Birth Control League by Margaret Sanger in 1921.)

Certain members of this group have massaged their messages to make nice for misogynists and fearmongers. In the past few years there has been a notable change in the language of some feminist messaging. For example, “women’s issues are everyone’s issues,” and “women’s rights are human rights.” To anybody with half a brain, these truths would be self-evident. But they are not self-evident. Even today, relatively few women have evidenced acceptance of their own standing as equals in the world with men. Thus, the message of women’s equality and presumptive power is being melded with the problems of the masses.

Now the power structure has gotten hip to the feminist sound bite. Political leaders are jumping on the soapbox and waving the women’s rights banner. This past week, conservative Prime Minister of Canada, Steven Harper, pledged “before international leaders in Davos, Switzerland, to make child and maternal health in developing nations a priority at the G8 summit in Canada later this year.”

Clearly anything that improves women’s and children’s lives is a good thing. But Harper and his ilk are just trying to make political hay – and promote a hidden agenda. Firstly, he thinks his pro-female magnanimity will attract the women’s vote – important, since his party’s popularity has just tanked because he suspended parliament (meaning, our elected representatives can't go to work) for the second time in as many years. But more importantly, simply the words, “maternal and child” coming out of a conservative’s mouth has an anti-abortion agenda as an underlying motive.

That was last week...now it’s this week and Holy Moly! Harper’s anti-abortion stratagem has already been exposed for what it is. Today’s Globe & Mail (3 February 2010) reports liberal opposition leader Michael Ignatieff stating that, “Harper must make abortion part of health pledge.” And that the “conservatives must not...like their counterparts in the United States...prevent aid money from going to organizations that support abortion.” Note that this is not just a conservative issue: Upon hearing that Ignatieff had mentioned the A-word, one pro-life member of his own liberal caucus (pro-life means anti-abortion) said the topic was “too blunt” to consider. Of course. Discussing abortion – which is legal in Canada, because there are no abortion laws, period – would bring their hidden yearning to criminalize it out into the open.

If Hillary Rodham Clinton talks about maternal and childcare, that’s different. She is a feminist and has been speaking out about women’s and children’s issues throughout her entire political life. But be careful what you wish for from people like Harper. In reactionary times like now, the leap from conservative, to right-wing conservative, to far right and religious conservative, to fundamentalist is never very far.

Thirdly – and back to the group list. Women’s power that is needed to save the earth is power of the future. We must create a completely different way of life – different from the present, which is a life established on patriarchal priorities, toxic values, mindless violence, greed and rapaciousness.

The power of the future is evolutionary and it is already underway. It entails working with what is already there, what we have already gained and what we must have in order to survive. And it must be defined by women’s knowledge, priorities and instincts and in accordance with the feminine principle. And this isn’t Darwin talking – it is Mother Earth echoing herself ad infinitum – but whose language is still being ignored.