Roughly five minutes away from the Southbank Centre, where the Women of the World Festival (WOW) ran from Friday 7th to Sunday 9th March this year, the trestle tables piled high with books for the regular book market and people enjoying the warm sunny weather. One notable genre of literature stood out on the stalls more than usual and boxes of books by prominent female authors on female-focus topics were labelled ‘Wimmin’.
Given that the festival was highlighting the discrimination, barriers and outright hostility that many women around the world still face today, I desperately hoped it was irony. The fact that a Germaine Greer book had been raised within the box to prominently display her name makes me believe it was deliberate. That’s quite sad.
I was at WOW on Sunday myself, (wo)manning the Funny Women stand and meeting other likeminded people, both male and female. If you came to see us and had your photo taken with your favourite joke in our makeshift ‘joke booth’, thanks so much for coming!
Our stand was next to the UK’s Girlguiding Association, and we were in the company of some other wonderful organisations like Stopcocks, female plumbers and Who Made Your Pants, that employs female refugees by making wonderful ‘girly’ pants out of fashion industry’s cast offs.
We got to speak with some great people, too, including Frances Scott who has set up 50:50 Parliament, an initiative pushing for half-and-half male and female representation in the House of Commons. Only 23% of MPs are women, which seems odd given the population split – if you want to see that change, please sign the 50:50 Parliament petition.
Feminism is still considered something of a dirty word in many circles, and while I obviously believe in equality as a way of making things better for women and I hope we’ll work towards it, I have never specifically identified myself as a feminist. There is a tendency for very small numbers of women to go too far in the name of feminism, and to do and say exactly the types of things that men are vilified for. This is an extreme minority and it often displays the kind of behaviour that I don’t want to be associated with – I am sure I speak for a few of us.
I also think that for every confident and articulate woman standing up for what she believes in and daring to make the difference, there is at least one other who is too shy and doesn’t have the confidence. Funny Women runs regular ‘Stand Up to Stand Out’ workshops to give women the tools to speak out, perform or even write about issues and topics that relate to them. With a bit of help we can all ensure that our voices are heard in the ongoing campaign for true equalilty and balanced communities.
