Equality yet

Recently, I've been studying some of the women involved in what has come to be known as the first wave of feminism, which occurred during the 19th and early 20th century. The rights they fought for on behalf of women have given me the opportunities I have today. They have been directly responsible for my personal freedoms as a woman; amongst other things, the right to own property, the right to have a profession and earn and retain my own wages, the right to an education equal to that of men, the right to vote. I could go on.

These things have enriched my life and I am in the enviable position of being able to take these things for granted. Yet, even in this era of enhanced rights, women are still objectified. I've blogged around a similar topic before, but the recent events with Caster Semenya have shown another side to this.

Those first wave feminists set out to prove that femininity is no barrier to what women can achieve. But, the recent Semenya story seems to show that we feel it's fine to condemn women for not being feminine enough. How long will it take us to understand that these preconceived notions of how feminine a woman should be simply hold us back? There should be no benchmark on womanliness, we must embrace our individuality. I firmly believe, we are human first and women second.

Those notions of femininity are a learned behaviour, socially constructed and anachronistic. Until we see this, I fear we can never completely gain the equality we deserve.