Musings on things..... Firstly Feminism....

I am apparently a bad feminist.  This comes from a conversation where I was told that the issues I deem important from a female perspective were not the only things that I should be focused on.

Let me set the scene for anyone who stumbles over this and doesn't know me. I am a midwifery student. Midwives are meant to be at the forefront of feminism because what we teach at a basic fundamental human level is empowerment of women. Empowerment to trust their own strength, their own abilities and trust their own judgement.  In the same conversation that sparked this rage/rant/eventual dissemination of my thoughts, I was also told that midwives were the antithesis of feminism.... As anyone who knows me will understand, it has taken a while for the rage to boil down to a simmer.

My views on female rights follow thusly...

Women have a right to be who they want to be, however to accomplish this they must be educated to understand that they can say no, that they can make choices different to those that their cultures lay out for them, that they are strong and have a valid right to an opinion, they do not need to stay at home and produce baby after baby after baby and they can choose to get whichever job they want.  This includes the right to want to stay at home and have 12 children and clean house and fetch a partners slippers, but first you have to know you have the choice.

They are probably right, I am probably a rubbish feminist because I haven't mentioned rights to equal pay.  Here, however, is my logic (and I understand it's not awesome logic, but it's mine).  Women will only truly be counted equal (not better, please understand part of my being a rubbish feminist is that I believe in equality for all genders and not just the 2 that most people think about) IF and WHEN they are educated to know that it is their right to be equal.  I have seen women where I have had to tell them that it is their labour, their birth and their child too, and that THEY have the choice about what to do with those things, not their partners, not their mums, not their mother in laws, but THEM.

**takes some deep breaths** I am not a great feminist, maybe, Maybe my feminism is too basic, too simple.  Educate women = Equality (maybe not in my generation, but hopefully in my daughters).

There are women on this planet who genuinely are educated to think that they don't have a choice, who are made to feel that they have no rights, these are the women I want to protect, these are the women who leave me restless at night, who make me want to change the world, these are the women I feel like I fail by not being a better feminist.