Because of the pandemic and the changes in work and childcare caused by it, I have spent some time thinking about feminism as it relates to work and care. The feminism that I have known has mostly manifested as the goal of women being in the same work spaces as men, in leadership and in vocations previously dominated by men.
That’s a trap.
A trap where women become a part of the same oppressive system that uses people to benefit a few. In my own work, I experienced female bosses, who practiced with even greater zeal, the dominion over men and women, treating women even worse than their male employees and at times worse than I had experienced from male bosses. Maybe this is internalized oppression in a way, but that’s how these female bosses got ahead in a way, by adopting and using the same oppression tactics. This looks like sexist comments, admonishing women for taking time off to birth and care for a newborn or to take care of sick family members, removing/discouraging cooperation or teamwork, promoting competition among coworkers as a means to increased productivity, punishing people for expressing emotions stereotyped as female, creating an environment dominated by verbal and body language of aggression, anger and power dynamics.
So, there is the theory of women being treated equal to men and there is practice.
Perhaps you are thinking like I do, feminism must be in the context of capitalism, without that context or understanding, it is not feminism. But I think there is more to the culture than economic or class power dynamics.
Feminism as an idea to change culture is to address the connection between violence and care. “Perhaps this is what a state actually is: a combination of exceptional violence and the creation of a complex social machine, all ostensibly to acts of care and devotion…If those institutions we today refer to as ‘states’ really do have any common features, one must certainly be a tendency to displace this care impulse on to abstractions.” The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. How does power operate in the arena of care? Who and how should we care for each other and for our children? Who gets to practice care? What are the types of care, where are the opportunities of disruption and where do we want to go? How do all people get to be their authentic selves with fulfillment and basic needs met?
This is more than the equality of women to men. And more than talking about how capitalism or power have co-opted feminist movements. Intersectionality is also a necessary part of feminism, but these elements are not enough to address the role of feminism in changing culture to benefit women. Perhaps we should also include more than benefiting women. It is the culture of care tied to violence that needs to be addressed in the theory and practice of feminism. Feminism without that is to aid in promoting violence.
There will always be the biological difference of women birthing children that separates men and women. That perhaps creates a tension. How we orient ourselves to that can feed into new power dynamics that are just as oppressive as the ones we are fighting. To gain power, should we remove care from the family to institutions of care? For sure, having affordable easily accessible childcare would be transformative for many. It is necessary. However, if removal of the responsibility of care is freedom, then we are freeing ourselves from our humanity and embracing care as someone else’s responsibility, which is violent. More about this violence to follow.
Feminism should include the value and cultural norms of care. Care should be our purpose, included as a foundation to our ability to thrive. I believe that feminism grounded in care is not represented in goals of equality or even in equity.
Equality as a paradigm makes us think in dualities, in the other, in conflict with the other. Conflict is useful and necessary, but alone leaves out additional productive resistance to power. It also leaves out opportunities of solidarity. We’re expending energy fighting each other instead of building creation together. I’m not saying don’t fight the power here, but rather expand our understanding of power, our relationship to it and our practice of resistance. Thinking in duality feeds into oppressive power dynamics and perhaps is a weakness that is used by power and lends to being co-opted.
Feminism as care is forming deep relations with each other looking at the past, the future, and our relationship to our environment. Removing violence from care is part of not only power in regards to women, but to men, to non-binary, and to all life and our dependence and connection to it. So, feminism is not only social and economic but also environmental. We can keep adding adjectives and perhaps we should.
I have a problem with feminism, with gaining power for women, through the removal of practicing care. Care should not be outsourced, to do that is to continue the connection between care and violence. By outsourced I mean care removed from our daily and predominant life practices and purpose. Power gained through feminism is not freedom by the outsourcing of childcare. Or the outsourcing of elder care, psychological support or household work. When we outsource care, we say we don’t value it, or we are unable to do care, or we don’t have enough time to.
When we are not practicing care, we are feeding into the dynamic of care associated with violence. Let me explain what I mean about care associated with violence through these examples. It is the Mom without the community support or network to provide care for her child while working. It’s our elders dying of COVID in institutions where the caregivers don’t make a living wage. It’s the men who are not allowed to fully express themselves in fear of violence if they do. It’s the lack of time, the racing to work and to do the household chores and having nothing left to give. It’s the removal of deep connections, of listening, of not being able to think of time in greater length. It’s the eating of unhealthy food that is making us sick and killing us. It’s the culture of the spectacle, the admiration of the famous where family and community are sidelined. It’s the pervasive despair and loneliness. We are missing our culture of care and connection that comes with it.
We all need space and time to practice care, we all need to cultivate a culture of care and to continue to fight the power. Let feminism be that too.
Feminism and care
I would say that care for others is an economy. In fact, "economy" comes from the Latin for "care for home!"