Feminist Friday 

 

Mansplaining feminism

 

 

 

People ask me what I do for a living, as in what exactly is my ‘job’? I’ve written about this before. I work in gender and inclusive development and that champions equality for the oppressed and marginalized among all people. However, this news item—as unbelievable as it is—is the reason why I’m still employed in my field. 

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An academic conference in Mexico intends to have an all-male ‘feminist’ panel.

 

Here's The Guardian headline: 

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Outrage greets Mexican feminism panel with 11 participants – all of them male.

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But wait, you say, this is 2017! Let's also add a few fast facts about women's rights in Mexico.

 

Rita Cetina Gutiérrez founded La Siempreviva (The Everlasting) in Yucatán, one of the first feminist societies in Mexico in 1870.

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The state of Yucatán gave women the right to vote in 1922 in congressional elections and promptly voted Mexico’s first woman, Rosa Torre González, into political office.

 

Mexico enfranchised women in 1947 in municipal elections with full franchise arriving in 1953.

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Mexico signed and ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1981, among a number of international agreements and protocols.

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Now, Mexico still has some way to go addressing the under-representation of women and gender-based violence, but ‘conferences’ like this are ill-conceived and laughably wrong-headed. I’m not contesting who is or isn’t a feminist. Your feminism is not based on your gender. But I wouldn’t think you’d break too much of a sweat locating at least a handful of women and adding their glorious voices to the discussion.  

 

 

Here’s to the day I work myself out of a job.   

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Photo: Gender Equality image by Ricardo Cuenca via Bēhance

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