Ploypalin Tan
The advocating of feminism over the last few decades has seen women taking up leadership roles both in the political arena and in the corporate world. Feminism has paved the way for women to be oblivious to discrimination and prejudice when it comes to consensus in appointing the most suitable candidate to take on the helm. In the past, females have been oppressed in the work place and deemed less capable compared to their male counterparts. However, with the presence of feminism, it has led to changes in the workplace where females are being recognized for their competencies and has proved that females are able to rise up to the challenge and be on par to their male counterparts. Feminism has led to positive changes as their presence are more appreciated and accepted in the political arena, giving females more leadership positions, giving females a say in decision making.
The presence of women taking leadership role and major portfolio in politics has increased worldwide. Take the example of Chancellor of Germany, Angela D. Merkel, now running her third term in office. Since elected on 22nd November 2005, she is the first female elected chancellor for Germany. She has helped Germany weathered the financial woes, which has crippled some of her neighboring countries. There is clear evidence that feminism has led to a positive change as her presence involvement and contribution are now widely accepted and appreciated in the political arena encompassing many nations not just in Europe but also the rest of the world. Other prominent women of huge nations with sizeable populations include President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil and President Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica, all democratically elected.
While it may seems that all three women are predominantly from the western culture, however in 2013, Park Geun-hye became the eleventh and the first female president of South Korea setting the precedence for more female candidates to come forward to take on the pinnacle role in South Korea Prime Minister and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed of Bangladesh which is a Muslim and male-dominated society has paved the way for other Asian countries to follow suit for years to come.
There are adequate evidences and examples to prove that women had rose to the pinnacle in political position as listed above are not due to favoritism or nepotism but base on individual competency and meritocracy but may allow feminism to creep in subtlety on national policies favoring females. Nevertheless, feminism influences politicians to support gynocracy (a government of the women, run by the men for the women), and tend to cater for women and women’s interest while neglecting men. The presence of feminism may assert all women’s right to define their own lives (Lyons, 2000).
While feminists in United States can fight as hard as they want, the Americans still find it hard to accept a female president for their country. This is evidenced whereby Hillary Clinton involves in campaigning for the presidency in the United States in 2008 dropped out of the race and giving up for the now U.S. President, Barrack Obama. It is reported that no woman has ever won the nomination of major party in the history of U.S. presidential elections. Only time can tells but we need to see more women candidates stepping forward with inspiration to change United States.
I believe male spouses do not mind their female spouse taking on heavy and yet powerful position in politics without compromising family bonding and relationship but it is little known in public who is her spouse, let alone have a clear understanding of his career. While women most of the time are deemed as First Lady of a male leader holding prime political position, it is rarely seen in public that he is the First Gentleman of a female president. Most of spouses of female leaders prefer to stay low profile. While there may be insufficient evidence or study to substantiate, female leaders holding political powers are “belittling” their spouses when they not too often seen together on official assignment. Whether she prefers to leave him behind or he does not want to steal the lime-light has yet to be confirmed. From a social aspect and maybe peer pressure, the male spouse may feel inferior in the eyes of the public. Feminism has led to joint solutions impossible (Amendt, 2011).
Till date, there has not been any news revealing the husband of a female President or Prime Minister following her on official trips and assignments but the same cannot be said for the male President and Prime Minister. This is one of the negative consequences of feminism in the political arena. Also, Marissa Ann Mayer, current President and CEO of Yahoo, a search engine internet portal was ranked eighth on the list of America's most powerful businesswomen of 2013 by Fortune magazine. Not only a female but she was also listed of the top 40 business stars below 40 years of age by Fortune magazine in their annual ranking in 2013. Another example is Ellen DeGeneres, a renowned TV host, TV producer, comedian, etc. in United States is so popular that most average American knows her more than their politicians. In recent years, women are allowed to drive in some middle-east countries, which were strictly prohibited in the past. If not for feminism, the rights for women to drive cannot be materialized.
As long as society evolves with new social issues link to inequality between men and women, there will always be new feminists spearheading new campaigns and propagandas. The emphasis to down-play or contest it openly with aggression has its consequences and merits. Research into feminism reveals that not all females advocate feminism. While women demonstrates the capability to take on capacity traditionally held by men not all are fighting to prove that “men can do, so do women”. Especially if the position is to compete with her spouse, typically a woman prefers to take step back and choose to support her partner from behind. Whether it is moral, emotional and family support, the non-feminist could not want to compete head-on with someone she loves. If her spouse is egoistic and financially well-being, she may wins the battle but loses the war. Most likely her relationship with her spouse will suffer. Further research also reveals in recent years that feminism often associate itself with anger towards men and viewed as a political, economic and corporate enemy.
Women whom advocate equality with their male counterpart most likely are caught in the middle of situation where male leaderships are attributes to those of chauvinistic. They often find opportunities favoring their male counterparts get in their way to move up the corporate ladder. Incompetency may just be an excuse and sometimes not giving opportunity to exploit the capability of women as per se denies the endorsement that women are competent.
“Technically, women have a choice but if you make the choice to be a stay at home mom you destroy everything feminism has worked to gain so we must criticize (and that should be acceptable) the women who choose to stay home with their children (Feldt). The effect of stressing too much on feminism should not be over-emphasized and it should be a movement to promote full equality between male and female with high valuation as human beings. Further cited that "Feminism is both a way of thinking about the world and a way of acting in it" (Sapiro 444). The danger of feminism may assert all women’s right to define their own lives.
Feminism has definitely made a positive impact in today’s workplace. In recent years, there are not much defending campaigns spearheaded by female activists on feminism. I reckon that women have earned significant rights on equal standing with men in the field of economics, politics and society. Ultimately, it is relationship; family bonding, career and recognition women have to balance and its consequences to bear for focusing too much on feminism.
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