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A fissure is growing within the feminist movement, and it is oddly coming from the leftists over partisan issues.
At the center of the debate is a bitter fight over the ownership of "feminism." The intriguing part? Who's siding with whom.
While the women's liberation movement grew out of socialist-left movements in the 1960s (and claimed the mantle of suffragism), it wasn't until Gloria Steinem took over the reins of NOW that the movement became so entrenched with the Democratic Party. Republicans, wanting nothing to do with those bra-burning broads, let them claim the title. For the next four decades, no one challenged them.
Until now. Arguably, we've entered the fourth wave of feminism since conservative women are adopting the label.
Two weeks ago, I attended Smart Girl Summit, the conservative women's conference sponsored by the grassroots organization Smart Girl Politics. For the first time in my life, I was surrounded by like-minded women, many of whom were also eager to claim the feminist label.
Based on definitions explained by second and third wave feminists, we embody the feminist spirit. We attended the conference to mobilize for the 2010 election, educate ourselves on subjects like precinct-walking and voter fraud, discuss relevant issues and hear from female Members of Congress.
Intellectually, honest feminists should applaud us.
A few have have. Slate recently asked prominent women in this field to discuss "Who owns feminism?" Most agreed that there was no feminist sorority president who bestows membership into the club. If the point of feminism is to empower women to make the best decisions for their own lives, why should dividing lines be drawn over one or two policy points?
However, numerous self-appointed sorority presidents who are out to maliciously attack us as Kirsten Powers and Lori Ziganto pointed out earlier this month.
But are these attacks backfiring? In clinging to the Democratic Party, which has thrown the entire movement under the bus so many times that they look like battered wives returning to abuser husbands, aren't they losing credibility in the eyes of the American women? Sadly, the Democratic-partisan feminists have provided several recent examples:
1. Less than 24 hours after recordings of a Jerry Brown staffer calling Meg Whitman a "whore" and Brown agreeing, the National Organization of Women endorsed Brown in the California gubernatorial race. Even though Whitman is pro-choice and completely embodies everything that feminism advocated, she had the scarlet R attached to her.
2. Recently, Jessica Valenti wrote an op-ed in The Nation. Timed at the peak of the coverage of Smart Girl Summit, Valenti opines:
Feminism isn't simply about being a woman in a position of power. It's battling systemic inequities; it's a social justice movement that believes sexism, racism and classism exist and interconnect, and that they should be consistently challenged. What's most important to remember as we fight back against conservative appropriation is that the battle over who "owns" the movement is not just about feminists; feminism's future affects all American women. And if we let the lie of conservative feminism stand—if real feminists don't lay claim to the movement and outline their vision for the future -- all of us will suffer.
Isn't that exactly what conservative women are doing? We may not engage in "social justice," but research shows that conservatives donate much more of their income to nonprofits and social causes and volunteer more (also see Aurthur C. Brooks' Who Really Cares). More conservative women have run for positions of power this cycle. The Tea Party is largely female and has taken on classism within DC and the Republican Party and fought the charges of racism waged against us. Many of us have encountered sexism and are fighting it on the local and state level. I agree that feminism's future affects all Americans, but Valenti is on the losing and hypocritical side if it's up to
