What do you think is the single biggest issue or problem facing women today?

I'm looking for a little more than just "misogyny" or "lack of awareness of the widespread misogyny in our world." If you had to put one issue at the top of the list, what would it be?

Our GLBT friends have a galvanizing issue in Prop 8, but the problems women currently face are so diffuse. We are facing a return in force of the Problem Which Has No Name. The slights are small and come from all quarters, but they all add up to a suffocating culture.

I'd say a way out is putting a public face on women's competence. 52% of the population, 16% of the representation is an obscenity.

I also the ERA weren't soooooo 30 years ago. :-(

What I mean by that is the complacency of most Americans who feel that the feminism battles have been fought and won, and sexism isn't really a problem anymore.

I think this is why most people seem to have the attitude that we must fight against discrimination of other forms, but not this one.

At the very least, it helps mask sexism.

This complacency - or belief that women have already triumphed and become equal - helps keep women from successfully fighting it.

For example, if I have a problem with a word someone uses, I'm being silly, because that person is not sexist and that word could not possibly be sexist, because sexism no longer really exists.

Of course, in the example above, it's hard to separate out the original sexism from the complacency.

Thoughts?

Too few people seem to recognize sexism when it appears or dismiss sexism as a valid charge now that women have so many of the old, huge obstacles out of the way.

Crime is down and riots nonexistent; feminism is so mainstream that even Sarah Palin embraces the term; Chicago mayor Richard Daley, son of the man who told police to bash heads, marches in gay-rights parades.

What do you think it will take to bring us (as a country) out of the complacency?

I suspect that if private salary rosters were made public that many women would see the difference in salaries by gender and get motivated. I worked in an open salary environment and it was by far the best work place for women in part because we all knew the salaries of our peers.

Complacency and the loss of our stories. Here's a kind of stream of consciousness example

I was going to be flip, and answer "The idea that 6 inch heels are an awesome fashion statement", but I mean more than that. I listen to women say that "women dress for other women" Oh really? I was looking at a magazine with the Pussycat dolls in these horrible shoes and horrible clothes. Outside of a few sex workers I know, or a few friends into SMBD, Nobody is going to wear that shit young or old. So what's the point?

Now, I like sexy. I understand sexy, although what I consider sexy is far more subtle and has more to do with loving my body and keeping it in shape. It's movement and muscles and shape. The human body is a series of circles, roundness. The aging body tells a story, looses some of that roundness but gains in communication. My body is what I use to communicate and interact with the world. I flirt with everybody in a way that has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with being loving and offering acceptance within my own well defined boundaries, and demanding respect on my terms.

I don't understand prolonged discomfort in clothing for no other reason that to look as fuckable as possible. Fuckablility isn't sexy, it's presenting a commodity. When all the hoopla was going on about Palin's clothes, I was thinking well there's McCain. No doubt a thousand dollar suit, no doubt one out of many such suits, but so generic looking nobody is going to question the price or who pays for it.

Complacency has part in all that. Why do we not question fashion? Why do we buy into the idea that women need to display? In nature, so often it's the male of the species with bright colors to attract the female. Aging women, of which I'm one, so often feel the need to loose the communication of age and recapture the roundness of youth AND be skinny as a rail. Big Ick, and not possible. I'm to the point where I find brow furrows beautiful when I see them on TV, because famous women are ruining their beautiful faces. They can't move them. They no longer communicate. This acquiescence to the sexist expectations of appearance may save the career to the degree aging female stars can, but they can't tell their stories effectively. They can't role model for young women in a challenging way. They don't break out as a potential powerful voice and say listen; LISTEN to my story, and then tell the truth. They play the game and keep quiet and justify or deny. "I'm not a feminist but" But what? But what? But you'll take what you can get and fuck everything else? Pisses me off.

So this complacency, or lack of challenge, feeds sexism and misogyny. It sustains rape culture. It keeps women insecure and fearful. This fear divides women, one from the other with negative internal categories we give one another. ie. Slut, bitch, housewife, lesbian, crazy. It kills our stories, we don't tell them and we lose truth in that. Our stories are told by the patriarchy by default, every day in the media, the way patriarchy wants them to be told.

It just may be the reason standpoint theory failed, because we couldn't find a commonality in the female experience, and we can't say, my experience is the same as yours. And I'm by no means blaming females for this complacency, because we're fed complacency from the cradle. It's hard to challenge what is presented as the norm. (That don't mean I ain't going to continue to try)

not sure whether violence or poverty is the proper answer.

As well as the assumption by many women that there is nothing, really, we can do to fix the profound lack of choice we suffer with today.

I have yet to meet a woman who felt, at any time, that her choices weren't severely restricted in some way. Yet to meet even one who ever actually said, as I have heard many men say, "I can do whatever I want in this world."

financial, judicial, educational, or at home. To overcome the patriarchial culture that says women are #2 and need to do as they are told. Of course, this is rooted into religions everywhere as well.

We have no power to deem our actions correct. The Feminine is considered Weak. The worst insult to a male is to be called a 'girl.'

As an aside, I recently met a woman who is an attorney and also has an MBA. I made the stupid mistake of assuming she had feminist leanings. We were talking on the phone and I ranted about the glass ceiling and difficulties for women in Corporations. At the end of the conversation as we were hanging up, she said: 'Don't go too feminist on me. I hate listening to the whining.'

If we chat again, I will remind her of that whining about wanting to get married for the first time at age 55. She wants some to lean on now. Go figure. Is this what happens to women who have attended all girl high schools and colleges as she did? I can just see it...her desperation for a 'man' leads to finding some leech who sucks her dry.

There are days when I just want to die and be reincarnated onto a unisex planet somewhere where 5" stilettos don't exist...or mascara.

are, for the most part, still basically seeing everything and everybody through the eyes of men. Women still see themselves and their world through the eyes of men.

This is a tenet of feminism that applies to women globally- to change this automatic acceptance of not seeing your world defined by your own terms. Art, beauty, laws, social construct, and on and on, are defined by and filtered through the male POV. And apathy and fear make it difficult to help other women overcome this, because one has to actively make the effort to not live that way if they aren't male. Every single day at first. And that's too much work for many people now, in this "apathy is cool" era. Or fear is the prevailing factor in some cases, and it seems easier and less harmful to accept being the "second sex". So I agree with complacency.

It's frustrating.

The second biggie is consumerism. But that hurdle applies to all movements for social justice.

This is what I wrote about this subject on another forum - it isn't a perfectly thought out concept yet, but I'm working on it.

In my opinion, the focus of any gender rights group should be to figure out ways to redistribute the value placed on both gender roles and and traditionally accepted gender attributes. We have a tendency as a society (and as a species) to think about everything on a binary scale, with everything being black or white...starting with good and evil, and placing everything under those two categories. Then you get something that looks like this:

Good <---------> Evil
light <-----------> dark
future <---------> past
life <------------> death

Which is sort of fine, until you start adding in actual gender attributes and roles:
man <-------------> woman
masculine <-------> feminine
hunter <-----------> gatherer
father <------------> mother

because then when you assign something to one gender, then the other must necessarily have the inverse:
hard <------------> soft
smart <----------> stupid
assertive <-------> submissive
reasonable <-----> emotional

and because we've assigned value to these attributes - correctly or incorrectly - we become dismissive of everything on the "wrong" side (which is actually the evil side). Obviously, this makes it so women basically get the short end of the stick and it's ingrained in every single part of our society, and anyone who fails to assimilate into the mold will be punished, either for attempting to have power that they are not allowed to have, or for rejecting the power that has been handed to them.

I know that we are all aware that our world is really shades of gray...and the more enlightened are aware that we can think in something more than a binary code...but I sometimes feel that until it is put in front of you like this (at least for me), it's hard to be aware of how easy it is to fall into that trap...not just with gender roles, but everything in life...and how often people as a whole do it, without realizing that they are.

Until we figure out a way to change the way we think, the way we assign value to words, and through words to ideas, I don't think that we will change much of anything besides the surface stuff.

Of course, my perspective might be a little skewed at the moment, because I have been knee deep in feminist film theory about science fictions films for a class. If what I have been reading is indicative of all feminist film theory, than my heart breaks for feminism. It reduces women to womb status and motherhood - and that's it. It strips away any chance that a female character could be seen as an individual (not to mention a flawed or not flawed individual) and keeps her in archetypal status of maiden, mother, crone. <-- I realize this is slightly off-topic, but between this and and conversations I've been seeing online, I am a little depressed about the state of gender equality.

The biggest problem is class-based bias; I see way too much hate directed at poor and working class women for making less than optimal choices. Women with more disposable income of course make bad choices like maxing out credit cards, signing bad mortgages, etc but don't feel it as harshly as someone who has to go on foodstamps to feed her family. Again, feminism is about defending the freedom to make choices without restrictions or stereotypical reactions, so judging poor women for making bad choices makes it seem as if they should be held to a higher moral standard. Which of course is bullshit.

And then there are the myriad other minor issues that fracture solidarity, like pornography, sex work, cheating, etc. I see way too much reactionary bullshit coming from, again, women who tend to be: affluent, white, straight, and/or Christian. It's not that I'm bashing anyone for being any of these, but it's ironic to see unexamined privilege being put into action in discussions with purported pro-women people. And again, it seems to be an instance of expecting all women to be the standard bearers of some impossible measure of perfection and virtue.

Every time we turn on each other, this just underscores the stereotypes that misogynists use to justify marginalization of women in any kind of circumstance.

I am speaking of my life experiences in general, although there is an awful lot of misogyny and unexamined privilege all over DU too.

However, I think that complacency is the well spring, if a problem is not perceived as a problem there is no starting point for making corrections.

From that point forward, there are still negative stereotypes, disparity in work and education opportunities, salary and advancement, an over emphasis on externals such as attractiveness or youth.

I see TV shows that so objectify women that all I can think is that, if this was back in the 70's, these shows would have faced protest and boycotts.

The Housewives of OC, the house wives of NY, shows where women compete to have sex with men in the hopes of marrying them. I think there are a few on currently, one with Flavor Flav the other with some male rock singer. Very demeaning.

Instead of going forward society has regressed.

Because, for better or worse, that's, how people get clout and respect, that's how they make advancement in society, and that is how they get (for wont of a better word). Especially political power and clout. They aren't too many middle-class people in Congress, and no poor ones, even though there should be. There aren't even many women, but look at most of the female Senators: they are attorneys, local movers and shakers, etc.

And, on the personal level, equal pay gives women independence and hope.

At least, that would be the best place to start, imho.

yet, how do women know,when employers play games with secret salaries, or subtle little title changes that justify a pay differential.

Its hard to make it when you cant make enough money to pay for day care.

Who ever heard of a "Welfare KING"?

When you can't feed your children, and you cant make your rent, who cares about 6" heels.
Not being able to afford a doctor or dentist is a much larger problem for women than how repressed we are by botox or collagen injections.


Feminism should strive to do FAR more than get hung up on criticizing some people's fashion choices.

I guess it depends on the women's mindset.

It's either: NO ONE LISTENS OR RESPECTS WOMEN. As a result, I now speak loudly and use coarse language so to get my ideas, which are good, across....never mind implemented.

or


SUFFERING IN SILENCE. I don't do this because I must have been burnt at the stake in a past life, but I do see it frequently. I guess you might say DENIAL as well.


The yelling and smart-mouth crap does take energy and some days, I just shake my head instead and repeat over and over...'We're devolving. We're devolving. We're devolving.' And 9 times out of 10, I get...'What do you mean?'


They really are putting crap into the water!!!!! Please, everyone, get a PUR water filter! Do not suffer in silence!

Obviously, corporations, the military, and religious institutions would not be happy if worldwide female reproductive choice became the rule, but oh well.

Free The Uterii!

The group of "women" is not a monolith, and encompasses people of various sexual orientations, races, classes, countries of origin, ages, gender histories, abilities, experiences, and the like. Therefore, personally, I'd find it very presumptuous of my to say what I think is the greatest issue facing women. How could I say what's most important to an HIV-positive woman in Angola, a trans woman in Russia, or a teenage mother in Nunavut?

However (and no offense is intended to the OP), I think a big problem in the feminist movement is assuming we speak for everyone.