"The downside of feminism", she says, "is that women are now expected to go out to work...Once it was only the men who were wage-slaves, and now it's the men and the women too".
Oh, Fay. Herstorian wishes you had more faith in feminism! It's like the Dalai Lama saying "Well the downside of world peace is..."
Weldon does praise feminism for offering the "least worst" method for reforming society: "And least worst is feminist society, which is more or less what we're getting now. And people are on the whole happier than they were before. Although everybody's much more tired"
Not a stunning endorsement from such a ground-breaking feminist.
Weldon is right to call attention to the problems with the modern family and the current organization of labour. Work-life balance, the need for two-incomes, the cost and availability of childcare, the decline of social capital are all feminist issues that need to be addressed. But blaming feminism for these issues is thinking so lazy it is on par with arguments that the current economic crisis is due to too many women in the workforce taking up jobs (instead of bankers who, dissatisfied by the size of their cocks, compensate by making risky investments and giving themselves massive bonuses).
The fact that women are 'wage slaves' now too is not an inevitable, unfortunate result of the feminist movement. And it doesn't mean that we should give up on feminism. Herstorian sees it as evidence that the feminist project is far from complete. In a truly 'feminist society' everybody, male or female, would be able to make a decent wage working decent hours. They wouldn't have to choose between raising a family and having an inspiring, challenging career. If thus far the feminist movement has been about allowing women into male spaces then its project now should transforming those spaces. Only then can we truly call our society a 'feminist society'. But to do so we need to have little more faith in what feminism can do.
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