Canadian Prime Minister recently acknowledged to being a feminist. According to Trudeau, his government was dedicated to promoting feminism and other policies that contribute to women empowerment. There has been a debate on whether the Prime Minister’s stance on feminism brings to fore meaningful change or not. On the one hand, many people believe that such a stance is beneficial to the development of the entire community as a whole. Normally, the mention of the word feminism usually evokes thoughts of women. However, gender equality as advocated by the principles of feminism does not only uplift women but also men. Additionally, empowering women has a long-term positive implication on society as a whole.
On the other hand, those who are skeptical of the Prime Minister’s stance usually hold the view that feminist policies are rather a threat to national security. The belief is anchored on the notion that empowering of women is done at the expense of boys. In this paper, however, an assessment of feminism is going to be outlined. The paper demonstrates how feminist policies could make the world a better place for not only women but also girls. Further, several misconceptions and myths about the effects of feminism are accordingly squashed.
First, integrating feminist policies in government has the potential of boosting economic growth. By and large, it has been proven that countries that involve more of their women in the running of the economy are poised to record better growth levels compared to those that do not engage in women empowering practices (Jayawardena, 2016). A classic example is a period after World War II. The Western worlds experienced massive economic growth. The industrial revolution had peaked at the start of the century. However, the economic growth had not peaked because women were not involved in labor force despite making up half the potential workforce. After World War II, however, most governments across the western world started granting women opportunities in the workforce.
In the period after World War II, the North American economy recorded booms that had yet to be observed since the start of the industrial revolution. Hence, that goes to show that granting women equal access to economic opportunities is positively impactful on all sectors of the economy. Feminist policies suggest that governments should structure their policies in such a way that both men and women have equal access to economic opportunities (Shildrick, 2015). Therefore, the Canadian Prime Minister’s position that his government will implement feminist policies will be beneficial to the country. The country will totally leverage on its entire potential labor force whose positive ripple effects will be soon be observed through massive macroeconomic gains.
Additionally, the Economist notes that women empowerment is among the most impactful changes in the modern world (Williams, 2018). According to a study done by Goldman Sachs, countries like Italy, Spain, Germany, and the United States could potentially boost their GDPs by increasing the number of women that get involved in the labor force (Williams, 2018).
Skeptics of feminism usually argue that feminist policies could be detrimental in the economy since they advocate for women empowerment at the expense of boys. Further, the skeptics argue that women are inherently suited to control certain sectors of the company. Thus, empowering them would lead to economic losses since they will not be as effective and efficient as men. However, these fears are misguided. For instance, feminism is not founded on the principle of women empowering at the expense of boys’ empowerment. Rather, the movement seeks to maintain equality of the sexes with regards to access to economic, social, and political opportunities. Second, there is scientific proof to illustrate that women are less effective and inefficient in the labor force (Holst, 2016). The inherent differences make them complementary to men rather than destructive when it comes to running the economy.
The other benefit that would be conferred to the society when Prime Minister Trudeau carried on with his plan to promote feminism in his government is that it could help in the elimination of laws that discriminate against minorities. Women have historically been disenfranchised in many societies across the world. In the Western world, for instance, Victorian values were largely patriarchal such that the values promoted were biased against women (Dill and Zinn, 2016). Rather than marriage being a companionship between two partners, it was regarded as a union between two unequal parties. The man was the de facto leader while the woman was thus expected to follow the dictates of her husband.
In the United States, for instance, the increase in popularity of gender issues discussions in the 1970s made the public aware of some laws that were biased against women. The country’s Supreme Court accordingly abolished such laws in 1976 by stating that is illegal to treat men and women unequally under the law (Williams and Jovanovic, 2015). With that milestone, other groups of people that were also disenfranchised got an incentive to have the law recognize them as equal citizens under the law. For instance, the Civil Rights movement called for the abolishment of segregation laws across the country.
Similarly, the Prime Minister’s move to align feminist policies could also be beneficial in Canada not only to women but to other minorities and the society at large. Opponents of feminist policies argue that the policies are only tailored to benefit women without any tangible benefit to women. For this reason, they feel less inclined to support feminism. However, previous legal precedents can be used to illustrate how the abolishment of discriminative gender laws could be beneficial to both genders in the long run.
After the United States’ Supreme Court dictated that all laws that are gender discriminative should be abolished in 1976, the Craig V. Boren case was brought forward. The plaintiff argued against an Oklahoma law that prohibited men from drinking alcohol until they attained the age of 21 years (Williams and Jovanovic, 2015). On the other hand, the same law allowed women to drink alcohol once they were 18 years old. In this case, the law was biased towards women such that there was an implicit assumption that 18-year-old women were more mature than their male counterparts in handling alcoholic drinks. The law was later struck down. The case is a classic instance whereby feminist policies could not only be beneficial to women but also to women. In this case, the law was biased against men.
Next, feminist policies grant women more control in their body’s reproduction functions. For instance, many feminist policies suggest that government policies should expand legal abortion policies as well as birth control policies. Essentially, feminists hold the view that since women are the most directly affected by reproduction issues, government laws and policies should be drafted and tailored in such a way that its beneficial to them.
For a long time, the Western world illegalized all forms of abortions. However, this does not mean that abortion cases were entirely eliminated. Rather, illegalization of abortion practices and limiting other birth control procedures only meant that women sought illegal abortion which is usually unsafe and poses great health hazard on women. By suggesting that abortion is legalized, and birth control access is further expanded, feminists want to ensure that women achieve the best reproductive health there is. For instance, legal abortion makes more women access to safe abortion rather than the commonly unsafe back-alley abortions that most women resort to when abortion is illegal.
For opponents of feminism, the argument is always that abortion is a sin since it entails the killing of a newborn. Most of the argument is always premised on religious principles. The flipside of using religious beliefs to argue on governance policies is that most of the arguments are usually subjective. For instance, it assumes that every citizen subscribes to the same set of religious convictions. However, since there is freedom of worship, government policies should not be biased towards particular religious principles. The policies should take into account that a sizeable portion of the society is comprised of persons that are not religious. Second, research has proven that the illegalization of abortion does not necessarily reduce the number of cases of abortion procured in a country. Rather, it only increases the number of back-alley abortion practices which are normally unsafe for the women thus exposing them to dire reproductive health hazards.
The other meaningful change brought about by feminist policies is the continued fight against gender stereotypes especially those in the workplace. The gender stereotypes were not only biased against women but also men. First, for a long time, most militaries did not allow women to be given combat roles (Holst, 2016). The burden of fighting on the frontlines was entirely on men at the expense of women. The implication of such policies was such that women felt discriminated against in the militaries while men felt like the burden of war was on them. For this reason, more male soldiers were likely to lose their lives in times of wars.
In recent times, however, continued advocacy by the feminist movement has made most governments change these archaic military laws and allow women to hold combat positions in the military. Other than expanding the job opportunities for women, the decision has also reduced the burden of war on women as they feel like women are equally responsible for undertaking any military services since they are equal under the law.
Moreover, there are also other careers that hold stereotypes in particular cultures with regards to which gender is best suited to occupy such positions. In Western countries, for instance, nursing was long regarded as a profession for women. Therefore, men who wanted to become nurses were ridiculed as the profession was perceived not to fit their status as men (Jayawardena, 2016) . There are also careers that were perceived to be best suited for males. For instance, female mechanics were rare as most women avoided such a career path since the Western culture perceived such jobs to be a preserve for men. The implication of such stereotypes is that a lot of men who were inherently suited to be nurses or women that were best suited to get into career paths that were traditionally regarded as the preserve of men ended up pursuing career paths that they were not passionate about. There are also those that stopped their career progression entirely because of discouragement by these gender stereotypes. The workforce, therefore, was not maximally utilized.
In recent times, there has been a lot of campaigns that have squashed the previously held gender-based stereotypes when choosing careers. More men are choosing the nursing profession without being ridiculed by the public. There are also more women enrolling into STEM-based courses like engineering and rocket science due to the elimination of entry barriers that previously made it difficult for women to enter such career paths. In essence, aligning the Canadian government’s policies with those of the feminist movement will benefit both women and men in the elimination of gender-based stereotypes in choosing careers. In the end, both genders will be equally distributed across all sectors of the economy which will have positive ripple effects in the long run.
The next way in which embracing feminist policies could be beneficial to men is that it encourages men to get rid of toxic forms of masculinity. Traditionally, men were expected to abide by some standards of masculinity which societies had set. The standards of masculinity were rather objective rather than subjective (Jayawardena, 2016). Since all humans have a different set of personalities, the objective standards of masculinity gradually made some men build up to toxic forms of masculinity.
With the advancement of feminist principles, these standards that give rise to toxic masculinity have been gradually phased out. Feminist theories encourage self-criticism. On the other hand, traditional standards of masculinity did not allow for self-criticism. Rather, there was an objective code that all men were expected to abide by. The feminist theories have hence allowed men to self-criticize, self-regulate, and accordingly embrace or choose not to embrace traditional masculinity standards based on subjective evaluation and perception.
Classic examples of ways in which feminist theories have resulted in the elimination of toxic masculinity in various societies are by encouraging more men to help in house chores. Traditionally, the homemaker role was strictly a preserve of women. The Victorian values dictate that men are the sole providers while women are the de facto homemakers. Before people started embracing feminist policies, most men stuck to this status order. Rarely would men help their wives in house chores since the masculinity standards dictated they should be strictly reserved for women. Further, some men would not allow their wives to look for employment since masculinity standards dictated that they were the sole providers. However, feminist theories encourage men to be more subjective in their decision making. For instance, they should not strive to fit into a set of masculinity standards. Instead, they should strive to embrace a set of standards that align with their internal beliefs and perceptions about the world.
The other reason why feminist policies would bring about meaningful change in society is that it has been shown to improve the happiness of both men and women. Men have been shown to score higher in happiness indices whereby females are given space to express themselves in accordance with the principles of feminism. One explanation of this higher score in happiness index is that the burden of households’ breadwinners now equally falls on both men and women. Traditionally, men were expected to provide for their families by themselves. In times of economic hardships, this burden became too much to bear. In turn, most men gradually become depressed and stressed. The effect of such depressive episodes when men are unable to fend for their families include domestic violence and dysfunctional families.
With women empowerment, however, the burden of households’ breadwinners falls on both men and women. It is not uncommon to find a lot of households in the Western world whereby women have taken up the role of being the breadwinners (Shildrick, 2015). There are also a lot of families that are enjoying the benefits of double-income. Double-income families are such that both the men and women are employed and thus share the responsibility of fending for the families. On the one hand, men score higher on happiness index since the pressure to provide for their families is now reduced as that is now a shared responsibility with their wives. On the other hand, women also score higher on happiness index because their lives are more fulfilling and satisfying. They derive satisfaction from the fact that they are helping out their husbands in seeking livelihood and their role is not restricted to doing house chores as they wait for the husbands to go and walk. In sum, this set up gives women more bargaining power in marriage. Rather than being perceived as liabilities to their husbands, they are now perceived as equal partners in the institution of marriage.
Finally, feminist policies would bring meaningful change in societies by allowing men to spend more time with their children. Since the burden of providing for the families will be shared between husbands and wives since women are not getting employed, men will not have to lack very much adequate time to spend quality time with their kids. Fathers spending quality time with their children will be beneficial to both the men and the children. For instance, it has been shown that boys who grow up with access to their fathers or other forms of father figures are less susceptible to pick up such habits as drug abuse. The children who grow up in functional families where both parents’ presence is felt also perform better academically. In addition, feminist policies and advocacy have fought for the inclusion of paternity leaves which enables new fathers adequate time to bond with their newborn babies. In sum, the effect of fathers and men spending more time with their children are immeasurable. The benefits are not only conferred on the children and men, but also on women who now share household chores with their husbands.
In conclusion, the statement by the Canadian Prime Minister that he is a feminist and that his government will embrace more feminist policies could bring change in many ways. Though there are still skeptics who have reservations on the role of feminist theories in advancing social, political, and economic gains in modern societies, most of their reservations are unfounded. The paper has outlined the various examples in which feminism could be beneficial to the country.
Bibliography
Dill, B.T., Zinn, M.B., 2016. Theorizing difference from multiracial feminism, in: Race, Gender and Class. Routledge, pp. 76–82.
Holst, C., 2016. The Costs and Benefits of Descriptive Representation: Women’s Quotas, Variations in State Feminism and the Fact of Reasonable Pluralism, in: Gendered Citizenship and the Politics of Representation. Springer, pp. 87–110.
Jayawardena, K., 2016. Feminism and nationalism in the Third World. Verso Books.
Shildrick, M., 2015. Leaky bodies and boundaries: Feminism, postmodernism and (bio) ethics. Routledge.
Williams, J.C., Jovanovic, J., 2015. Third wave feminism and emerging adult sexuality: Friends with benefits relationships. Sexuality & Culture 19, 157–171.
Williams, W.W., 2018. The equality crisis: Some reflections on culture, courts, and feminism [1982], in: Feminist Legal Theory. Routledge, pp. 13–34.
