"On Our Mothers’ Shoulders - Feminism in the 21st Century."

Introduction

International Women’s Day was first proposed in 1910 by German Socialist, Clara Zetkin and celebrated the following year by an estimated one million men and women who demanded women’s right to vote, to hold public office, and for an end to sex discrimination in employment and training. This was in response to the second class status the system assigned to women.

According to Vera Brittain in the book Mother’s and Daughters : “it was taken for granted that a women’s vocation should be laid aside for parental illness, the troubles of relatives and domestic trivialities of every description.”

Education was not seen as important for girls as it was for boys, since the boys were being socialized to be male bread winners for the home. Education for girls was limited to reading, writing, home economics and how to be the perfect hostess. In some cases, women received no education at all.

Today’s Caribbean women have won among other things the right to vote, to education and are at all levels in the world of work outside the home. As multi-talented and skilled members of the labour-force women appeared to be on a path to equality with men. Notwithstanding this, the causes for which Clara Zetkin fought are still relevant since this does not apply to all women. Many women continue to be oppressed by systems which promote the subordination of women.

The Caribbean Women’s Movement faces many challenges at the start of the 21st century. These include:

Implementing concrete measures to optimize women’s participation in the formal political process, where they are inadequality represented.  Winning men’s commitment to eliminating violence against women  Challenging the anti-feminist backlash, which seeks to blame women for the crisis of manhood plaguing the region.  Monitoring and assessing the implementation of commitments made by govenrments in the Beijing Platform for Action for the Advancement of Women, and other UN Conferences.  Understanding the differences in age, class, culture, disability, race and ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation among the women it seeks to represent. Accessing resources to carry out the organizations mission for social justice.

The challenges are however, not without rays of hope. Our foremothers must be smiling as they see the fruits of their toil – the measure of liberty in which women of today are walking. These are hard won gains that must be honored and used as stepping stones to overcome the present challenges. The smiles will be wiped off their faces if we fail.

As we build on this work, women will benefit from several important frameworks emanating from the United Nations as a result of powerful and consistent lobbying by the women’s movement. Two such frameworks are the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Beijing Platform for Action.

The objective of the Platform for Action agreed to at the Fourth World Conference on women in September 1995, is the empowerment of women. The Platform recognizes that “The full realization of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of all women is essential for the empowerment of women. While the significance of national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds must be borne in mind, it is the duty of States, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems, to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms”.

Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations has warned that “Women’s Equality must be a Central Component of any Attempt to Solve the World’s Social, Economic and Political Problems”.

With such powerful endorsements, women will sit in the Seat of Kings. In her futuristic story “ She who would be King ”, Ama Ata Aido overturns the gender stereotyping in the story of Adjoa Moji who in 1977, at the age of ten declared her intention to be President of her country. After 49 years, Adjoa Moji rejoiced to see her dream fulfilled when in 2026 her daughter Afi-Yoa was elected the first President of the Confederation of African States. Standing tall on our Mother’s Shoulders, will we dream and declare our intention to revitalize and strengthen the women’s movement to achieve women’s full equality?