Quick summary to start with - of course i am immensely appreciative of previous generations of women who have managed to win voting rights, (almost) equal work, pay and education opportunities and our rights to birth control etc and determination over our own bodies for the lucky few women who live in the western world. But it probably wouldn't have happened (and is yet to happen) in a society where the men who held power to begin with didn't value women, educate their own daughters and allow them a place in the political process.

And as other people have commented, the whole issue of consent and bdsm would be very different without women having control of their own bodies and lives. Does bdsm as we would recognise it even exist in countries without equal rights or the leisure time we all (male and female) enjoy in the west to explore our sexuality?

BUT. i'm not sure if feminism is still relevant in my society (australia, but i relate it to USA, england, most of europe as well).

i really do think we are in a position where women can achieve pretty much anything they want to if they commit to it. We have equal access to education and in my opinion all other opportunities flow from that.

Women seem to have become our own worst enemies - i have been judged very harshly by women for my lifestyle choices and never (to my knowledge) by men.

When i got married i hadn't finished my degree (still haven't, but that's another story) and my husband was just starting up his own law practice. The logical thing to do seemed for me to take on the administrative and secretarial side of the business, as it would have cost more to pay someone else to do it than i was then in a position to earn. And it continued that way through the births of our 3 children until we separated.

The judgement, hostility and downright rudeness i experienced from his female colleagues, in both professional and social settings was intense.

i was even told by one of these women that i was a waste of the resources that society had put into raising and educating me.

Even though i did all the administrative work for the business, because i did it from home after the birth of our first child so i could raise her and try to keep the household running as well i was dismissed as a brainless house wife, a gold digger, a leach. This when i returned to the office (it was in the process of being moved to home) the day after i got out of hospital after having my first baby, child on breast.

i thought had feminism was about giving women choices and supporting them in those choices. And i'm sure originally it was. But one of the most important choices a woman can make is to be a mother and raise her children. And all around me i see women belittled for that choice or outright denied it because our economies have become based around two income households. If two incomes weren't the norm, things like house prices would go down because it would be normal for a household to have less money to put towards a mortgage. Wages would go up because removing women from the labour market while they were raising their children would increase competition for jobs and raise wages. i know many women who would love to stay home with their kids but can't because everything in our society is now based around the presumption of two incomes.

i would never judge a woman for her choice to work outside the home - but i have been very harshly and openly judged for my (and my ex husband) choosing for me to work from the home and take care of my family and home as well as our business.

And, back to topic, this has given me a very negative view of the current generation of feminists. Reproductive rights were a big part of what feminists in the 50s and 60s fought for. i don't feel that mine are respected by society, when i am either belittled for or expected to outsource my mothering.

End of rant. Sorry, it's something i feel strongly about.

layla