Within the last century, women’s rights have undisputedly progressed in strides. From Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Rosa Parks, we can’t help but to admire generations of trailblazers who fought so that today’s women can afford the rights to equal pay, to their body, and to vote. In the professional arena, we look to pioneers such as Sally Ride – the first female astronaut, Sandra Day O’Connor – the first female judge for the supreme court, Madeleine Albright – the first female secretary of state, and Kamala Harris – the first female vice president, and we tell our girls that they, too, can reach for the stars.
Today’s benchmarks are still heavily focused on our progress in the professional world. There is still much discussed upon equal pay for equal work, but also the number of women CEOs within Fortune 500’s, environmental conditions and benefits for working mothers, and safety issues, such as sexual harassment, for working women as a whole. As Madeleine Albright had said, “there is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women”, there is an implicit understanding that women need to band together for protection, for their voices to be heard.
Yet it turns out, surprisingly to some, that women do not always help other women at work. Now that many women have entered the workforce, there are reports of bitter competitions, backstabbing, and queen bee syndrome where high-ranking female employees bully their subordinates. Perhaps it may be less of a blow to our own ego to make the argument that we’re operating in a system designed by men and still largely run by men. If we are to believe that the female exhibits different temperament and personality traits from the male, then it follows that a woman who enters a patriarchal system must first find her confidence and footings. She must first be able to help herself before she can help others. During the 2016 presidential election, there were reports that disappointingly and also surprisingly to some, many white women did not vote for our first female presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. It was disappointing because it was implicitly assumed that the white woman would prioritize women’s issues. Here, I find it unfair to hold white women to the idealistic version of feminism and progress. The white woman, like every other woman, is a human before she is female. The human being cares first and foremost for their family, their tribe, and their community.
That the feminist movement is really about “white middle-class and upper-class women’s priorities” has been the topic of late. However, it goes all the way back to 1851, when Sojourner Truth gave her Ain’t I A Woman? speech at the women’s convention in Akron, Ohio. At the core, we need to recognize that progress means different things for women of different colors and backgrounds. Whereas abortion right is women’s right in America, it’s seen merely as a medical procedure to control population growth in Asia. In Vietnam, every able-bodied woman of my mother and grandmother’s generations was a breadwinner, or more appropriately a rice-winner, thus entering the workforce enmasse is not seen as progress. Yet, in a Confucious culture where women are told to abide by the three obediences and the four virtues, to break free from the stereotype of being submissive and obedient that Asian women have endured for centuries would be progress.
Because of western economic and technological dominance, its view on western women’s progress is also assumed to be the apex of achievement for every woman’s progress. There is a notable effort to export our version of feminism to the rest of the world, regardless of local political and cultural climates. While I would not dispute that many feminist ideals would benefit women everywhere, real and long-lasting changes can only come from within. Sending a few expeditions to help local women for a short time brings unintended negative consequences, particularly when local situations are not well understood. In some cases, a land is occupied for a longer time and the women’s conditions improve consequently. When occupation inevitably ends, their situation deteriorates, sometimes becoming worse than before occupation. Unabating dependency on foreign influences for progress is not a stable recipe for long-lasting changes.
“What do I want?” is a hard question, even when the woman is free to answer it for herself. It takes knowing our past and present to know where we want to go. But if we could ever hope to change the world, we must be willing to embark upon the journey to take a hard and honest look within in order to understand first, who we are.
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