Political
Platform
for the Feminist Initiative, FI, Sweden
By
Gudrun
Schyman, TFF Board
Lund, Sweden - April 28,
2005
- "Click on the above link and see
what fascinating path Gudrun has created in her life.
With remarkable creativity, energy and devotion she has
now spearheaded a new mass movement in Sweden, Feminist
Initiative - FI - that has, in less than four weeks, put
the feminist issues on the Sweden's political and media
agenda in an entirely new way and put the skids under all
other parties from right to left.
It's 13 years since Gudrun joined
TFF as adviser and she serves today as a board member who
helps us - with other strong women Associates - to
integrate the feminist perspective with our work for
peace.
Gudrun sees TFF as another platform
for global impact - her own as well as that of Feminist
Initiative. We are very happy to have such a visionary
fiery spirit and like-minded sister on board," says TFF
director Jan Oberg.
Below we reprint the Political
Platform of Feminist Initiative that she has written
together with many other FI women. And here is the
Swedish-language homepage
of FI. You can always
reach her on gudrun.schyman@riksdagen.se
Feminist Initiative has a vision of
a world in which all humans have the same potential and
ability to live full and complete lives. This vision does
not correspond to our lived reality. Women are
systematically subordinated to men. This is something we
want to change. Feminist Initiative continues the
struggle and hard work undertaken by women throughout
history to improve their lives; a tireless labour,
which still takes place in homes, workplaces, streets,
and schools, in literature, in music, at the theatre and
in the media. Feminist Initiative puts feminist issues
and concerns at the top of the political
agenda.
Feminist Initiative turns to
women who want to abolish the patriarchal order and to
those men who join this struggle in
solidarity.
Feminist Initiative does not
believe that all women can agree on everything. Women
differ from one another. Our interests, hopes, and wishes
are different. Our circumstances, prospects, and
resources divide us. We are ascribed different societal
positions based on our economic conditions and our class
identity, our degree of education, our country of birth,
our sexual preference, our skin colour and our cultural
belonging. We also differ in our values and our ways of
constructing value systems.
But beyond the differences lies
one similarity: women's lives, choices, and
opportunities are restricted by the patriarchal power
structure. Patriarchal society allows men to define,
subordinate, and discriminate against women. The power
relations between women and men may take many forms and
expressions, but they always work to the disadvantage of
women.
Feminist Initiative makes demands
from the point of view of a feminist analysis,
which shows that although women speak with different
voices, are situated in different locations, have
different experiences, and live different lives under
different conditions, we are all confronted by the power
structure that puts men in positions of superiority and
women in positions of inferiority. Within this
structure, the things that men are, do and say take on a
higher value than the things that women are, do, and say.
This order is a social problem and a problem of justice;
above all it is a problem of democracy.
Feminist Initiative sees the
conditions under which women live. Images of women as
sexual objects confront us every day. Men subject
women to violence on a daily basis. Men rape women
and girls. Women who transgress the social boundaries of
gender and sexuality are harassed and discriminated
against. Many single mothers live under serious economic
duress. Trafficking in women occurs daily around the
world, as well as in Sweden. The global labour market
exploits the labour of underprivileged women.
In Sweden, the gender-based
income gap is increasing. Female-dominated professions
consistently have low salaries. Much of the work
performed by women is still both invisible and unpaid.
Women carry out the majority of domestic chores and take
responsibility for providing care, in the public as well
as domestic spheres. Women are discriminated against
professionally, with the motivation that we bear children
- regardless of whether we actually do. Women receive a
smaller retirement pension than men. Women are
underprioritized in medical research and health care.
Elderly women are subjected to poor treatment.
Women who do not fit into a
white Western norm are ascribed an "other" ethnic
identity and marginalized. Disabled women are
discriminated against. Women's lives are put at risk
because Swedish refugee policy lacks consideration for
women's reasons to seek asylum. The judicial system with
its courts of law acquits men who have perpetrated rape
and abuse, while women and girls suffer the consequences.
Women are less able than men to take up space, make
themselves heard and be taken seriously within the
educational, professional, corporate and judicial
structures, as well as in the realms of culture,
politics, and the media. We want to change all this,
and much more.
Feminist Initiative also sees that
the global patriarchal power system, which
operates and sustains itself through violence and
warfare, leads to an unequal distribution of the world's
resources as well as ruthless exploitation and
destruction of the environment.
The regime of violence
forces large parts of the world's population, especially
women and children, into lives in extreme poverty. Girls
are denied the right to education. Children are forced
into child labour and prostitution, and are recruited as
child soldiers. Feminist Initiative sees international
solidarity and an anti-militaristic stance as fundamental
aspects of its work.
Feminist Initiative is devoted to
the thought of freeing women from gender-based
inequality and injustice. We turn to the patriarchal
order with our demands. We cannot permit decisions
that allow some women to liberate themselves from
inequality at the expense of others. We strive for the
liberation of all women. This is how we create solidarity
among women; this is how we continue the feminist
struggle.
Feminist Initiative has grown
tired of insufficient measures. Nearly all Swedish
political parties call themselves feminist, but women's
lives remain unchanged, day in and day out, year after
year. Despite many women's tireless efforts within party
politics, women's interests have never been given
adequate priority.
Swedish gender politics have
hitherto been based on a view of equality as a non-zero
sum game, meaning that women's conditions can improve
without affecting those of men. Feminist Initiative
builds its politics upon an analysis, which makes it
clear that women's subordination results from the
privileging of men. Therefore, men must agree to
relinquish their privileges. We share this analysis
with contemporary women's networks and organizations, as
well as with the women's movement, which throughout
history has fought for the human rights of
women.
Feminist Initiative formulates a
politics, which in every area and aspect of life poses a
challenge to patriarchy. We anticipate a large degree of
resistance, but expect an even larger and stronger
feminist desire for change.
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