Tosca it is no wonder that you are still wondering around expecting other people to fix your life and make it better. You can't even hold your thoughts together on a blog. It was you who put forward Angela Merkel and Helen Clark as the role models and indeed they are. Both of these women,, in case you have not noticed are in positions of power and leadership, which neither of them would hold if women had not obtained the VOTE.
New Zealand was the first country in the world where women won the right to vote in Parliamentary elections in 1853 and then it did not include ALL women. Helen Clark is the second female Prime Minister of New Zealand. Before her election as Prime Minister Helen Clark was the secretary of the Labour Women's Council, a powerful women's group.
Angela Merkel has a very impressive biography and has often been referred to as the "Iron Frau" in the European media. Both Merkel and Clark hold the positions of power they hold because they are strong women who can make tough unemotional decisions when required. Most women are not wired to detach emotions from decision making. It is just the way it is and that does make us better at nurturing.
You said: "My contention is that if US feminism had focused on improving living and working conditions for ALL women, the support would be broader and the quest for positions of power would have been not only more successful, but would have put women who really are nurturers into positions of power so that this society could move from a war society to a peace society."
My opinion of that is the nurturers are strong women who stay at home and do a great job of raising the next generation. But in politics they have no place and to think otherwise is way out of touch with how the world of power and politics works.
It is ONLY when women obtain positions of power, influence and leadership can they be effective and change anything for the bellyaching women like you, who have ONE child, are not prepared to make the same personal sacrifices needed to get ahead. Some women simply need a man to keep them, and then whine that they are oppressed.
The real working mothers out there with two children or more are working their arses off and have no time to piss around in chat programs hoping some cashed up knight on a white charger will come trotting by and rescue them.
It is not only MOTHERS in the USA who are being handed a raw deal, you seem to forget that there are many males out there trying to raise children on their own also, and they get even less recognition.You certainly have not mentioned them. It has been all about what MOTHERS need, when it is really about what
you need. So cut the bullshit, get off your arse if you are getting a raw deal and do something about it yourself, and don't expect a Women's Movement to do it all for you. I certainly didn't. I broke through the glass ceiling before I even knew it was there. But that took dedication, commitment, hard hard work, while being a mother at the same time and for 15 years a sole supporting parent. I have never been aligned to a Women's Liberation Movement in my life, I never needed or expected other women to make my life better. However, I was pleased from time to time to learn that certain legislation had been passed to help women who for some reason were unable to help themselves.
Granted, I live in a more enlightened society than women in the USA enjoy. We actually PAY women a bonus of $6000 for every child they deliver. Then a stay out home allowance to raise the child until he/she is of school age. Then there are Family Supporting payments until the child is 16 years of age. Plus a universal health care and soon dental health care that takes care of any medical expenses. None of which were available when I was a young working mother.
None of these financial benefits to families or single men and women who are raising children were obtained without the pressure from Women's Movements at the grassroots level. However, to get the laws enacted required men and women to work their way to positions of power and leadership in government. To expect ANY movement, the Women's Liberation Movement or any other organization to deliver a life with a silver lining is rather naive. The Women's Liberation Movements have had a role to play and for the most part that role has been very effective in giving women in the West more freedom. They are a pressure group, nothing more. They can't enact LAWS. Only governments can do that, and to suggest that ALL women in power think only of themselves indicates how out of touch you are with powerful working women.
You have mentioned that in the USA the role of the MOTHER is downplayed as not being important, well that is something for the women in the USA to fix. The men have no vested interest in changing the status quo. In my country the non-financial contribution of the 'stay-at-home' mother is recognized in any divorce settlement, and with other benefits mentioned above. All of these benefits can be traced to pressure from various women's groups who have lobbied for change.
The UNION movements around the world were the most effective organizations for delivering better pay and working conditions for all people, men and women. Where was the out cry when your Govt. went about smashing the unions?
If you think that Barack Obama can deliver all the things you are expecting without the will of women to get organized and be pro-active you are more stupid than you first appear. Tosca, if you think that ANY male politician will pass legislation that gives more freedom to women without a nudge from organized Women's Movements you have NO clue how these things work. It seems to me that you are tying to toss the baby out with the dirty bath water because you see a group of women supporting a Presidential candidate you don't like.
The Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) is in its infancy. Afghani women will have to be prepared to be beaten and even die, as many suffragettes in the West did so that you and I could vote, among other things already mentioned. If they do this, they may see gradual improvements. I wonder if 50 years from now a more free society of Afghani women, who were never in the fight for freedom, start whining that RAWA did nothing for them EXCEPT deliver the right to vote.
Back in the 1800's there were plenty of women like you, who did not support the Suffragettes, and who really believed a woman's place was in the home. They did not have the foresight to see what getting the vote would do for women. It seems that in 2008 the pennies have not dropped for you, and you say that we 'baby boomer' women are out of touch. Get off your arse and fight for what you need, we had to.
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