A-Infos (en) UK, ACG, Jackdaw #24 - Women's Struggles Today (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The fight against women's oppression is as relevant today as in the 
past. Despite many years of feminist struggle many aspects of women's 
lives are still hard, unequal and oppressed. For all the female prime 
ministers, presidents, CEOs, judges, party leaders, media stars (often 
quoted as the achievements of feminism) the majority of women are still 
significantly worse off than men, both in the West and the Global South. 
Gender inequality and social class and poverty are inextricably linked.
In the UK we have seen many 'advances' in protective legislation to 
protect and enfranchise women (including LGBQT+) at work, in the home 
and in wider society. However the nature of patriarchy ensures that 
these protections are a very mixed blessing. Currently we are 
experiencing a dramatic rise in private and public misogyny which is 
widespread, vicious and alarming. For BOPC (black and other people of 
colour) women this is considerably worse. In a recent survey, the TUC 
reports that BOPC women are far less likely to report sexual harassment 
at work or domestic abuse because of the fear of repercussions and being 
picked on and ostracised. Just being believed by representatives and 
authorities is the first hurdle along with closing of ranks and mutual 
support of male perpetrators and their colleagues. We have seen this 
many times in recent cases of police rape and harassment. My experience 
as a shop steward in the 80s and 90s of pursuing sexual harassment at 
work cases, was that you needed to be a brave and determined woman to 
follow through on a grievance of this nature, and winning your case 
could just be the beginning of further abuse and misogyny. One in three 
women worldwide has been subjected to physical, sexual or domestic 
violence, despite all the improvements in legislation to protect them. 
Just one of the many outrageous stances of the new right wing, 
neo-fascist movements is that they pose as protectors of 'our' women and 
girls, although many are convicted abusers and paedophiles and publicly 
encourage sexist and abusive behaviour.
At work, low paid, low status jobs are still the norm for working women, 
where risk is compounded by the prevalence of lone and isolated work 
(home care, social work, health visitors) adding to physical and 
psychological danger. This work, however, is some of the most vital to 
society, yet women are not given the recognition or the rewards.
Women make a major contribution to world food production. Worldwide, 50% 
of food is produced by women (although these figures do not include 
subsistence and community farming, only paid work). In sub-Saharan 
Africa this rises to 60 - 80% of food production, but these women often 
lack access to markets, technology, finance, and rarely own the land 
they work on. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reports these 
figures and talks of the 'feminisation of agriculture': where menfolk 
have out-migrated to towns and industrial centres leaving women in 
charge of food production and family. Thus female-headed households are 
increasing rapidly - between 10% and 72% in different countries of the 
Global South. In Latin America and the Caribbean 34% - 55% of households 
are female-headed, leading to greater hardship and deprivation. Even in 
Europe the trend is towards women running agriculture. Despite this 
women and girls face higher levels of malnutrition and hunger.
There is a Eurocentric view that the movement for women's liberation is 
not indigenous to Asia or Africa, but has been a purely West European 
and North American phenomenon, and that where movements for women's 
emancipation or feminist struggles have arisen, they have been merely 
imitative of Western models. However, Kumari Jayawardena in Feminism and 
Nationalism in the Third World has shown that this is not the case. She 
presents feminism erupting from the specific struggles of women fighting 
against colonial power, for education or the vote, for safety, and 
against poverty and inequality.
Currently there are many examples of women's collective struggle in the 
Global South, for example women's struggle against the straitjacket of 
religious fanaticism in Iran.  Also there is a growing movement of 
women's farming collectives that use innovative methods, for example in 
the Philippines. We need to support such movements, whether that be in 
the struggles for women and girls to access education, or in the fight 
against violence and abuse or the struggles for autonomy in the 
workplace, or against religious fanaticism and the subjugation of women 
to patriarchal menfolk.

However the one thing we have learned and continue to develop is the 
importance of self-organisation. In the unions women have fought for the 
space to meet and organise as women. Where we may not have confidence 
that male stewards/union officers will be able to understand and support 
us - however well-meaning, when we organise collectively together, not 
only do we defend ourselves but we build a collective consciousness and 
practice that benefits all workers. Unions like the UVW have shown us 
the importance of collective action by the lowest paid, often BOPC or 
migrant women workers. Where a woman is victimised, it is sometimes more 
successful to gather with other women and take action, than to pursue a 
formal grievance process in isolation. In the community many campaigns 
around housing, food and the right to grow, fighting fascism and racism, 
supporting refugees and asylum seekers, defence of education, health and 
supporting survivors of domestic abuse, have been led by or organised by 
women.
There is no substitute for active organisation amongst ourselves. Women 
hold up half the sky.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/jackdaw24_low-res-1.pdf
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