I was asked to do a TEDx talk. Ten minutes. The analysis of gender, war and peace in ten minutes. I wrote it. I sent it. I was not happy. It was not what I had written, it was my belief in what I was saying that had begun to wane. In the face of what the world was doing to itself – we are doing that is – could I honestly stand up and claim that there was a majority who wanted change, and that we could do it?
Could I legitimately claim that the strands of the social and political movement that is feminism as a way of thought and being, was still alive and well and would lead to fundamental change? It was personally devastating. Lawyer I may be, but I did not feel I could present a case I was not sure I believed in, I was no longer sure I had sufficient evidence to persuade.
Two things happened; I saw the film Suffragette, it both reminded me and moved me. Working class women standing shoulder to shoulder with their more privileged sisters to change things. Of course their struggle was experienced differently, but the essence was that the discrimination, the misogyny and the extremities of patriarchy hurt all women. There was solidarity, a common purpose, a determination to make their world better, for themselves and for their daughters. Feminism. A way of thought and a way of being that can and has made change. I spoke to a learned friend who reminded me of the power of sisterhood and how we needed it rekindled. I did the talk.
