Hello and good day to you. Welcome to another blog post. Our focus today isn't on any arguments about what feminism is or isn't. Instead, it is about the great lesson I learnt recently from a great friend of mine. We got into a conversation about the issues women have to face in various areas of our lives.
Then he said, do you know I am a feminist? My jaw dropped - although he couldn't see my jaw as we were talking over the phone. My response was one of intrigue as I couldn't wait to hear what he had to say. How so is all I could really say.
At this point in this post, let me just say that I have never really taken the time to educate myself in what the word feminism really means. I hear so many negative connotations about the word. I often wondered if I was considered a feminist based on the issues that I talk about - who knows.
You see, my friend explained it to me in very simple terms that made so much sense. Here is what he said in a nutshell. It is really about the following:
- Equality of rights for women - that's fair enough I thought.
- Inclusion of women in areas where they may be excluded or marginalised - another very fair definition.
- Fairness in the treatment of women - what more could be further from the truth.
So, there is it in plain English. Anyway, we continued our very deep and interesting conversation and found ourselves talking about how some women are treated unfairly(by both male and sometimes what I call he/she bosses) when they need to take time off work due to childbirth and maternity leave, menstrual problems or pregnancy.
Guess what my response to this part of the conversation was?