Archive
04. March 2008
"The personal is political" ...
A column by Edit Schlaffer in the Austrian weekly newspaper "Die Furche", March 3rd 2008
... this was the realization of the spirited feminists of the 70s. At first it seemed these women would only represent a laughable group of outsiders, but later they became the driving force behind the most significant social movement of the twentieth century.
The stated objective of the women’s movement was the establishment of a new society; as hopeful romantics, women insisted on restoring the dawn of enlightenment again. Many of us also had the good fortune to capture some of the fleeting and fragile moments of equality. Historically, the relationships between the sexes were most often organized hierarchically.
Today, this hierarchy does not work as well any more. Although the era of true gender equality has not yet dawned on us, the relationship between the sexes at least now enjoys some degree of flexibility. Presently, women are more independent than ever before in the planning of their personal lives. This is not necessarily because they want to be, but because they must: the number of female heads of household clearly shows an upward trend.
Women comprise the largest portion of the educated elite. In Iran they even had to institute a quota to give men the opportunity to attend university. But what good does this do for women? Oxford University economist Mary Gregory’s newest study sheds light on the relativity of education for women’s societal advancement. She was the first to quantifiably prove the extent of society’s “female brain-drain” in relation to the birth of a woman’s first child. “The war for the best talent,” however, still takes place where it always has: in exclusive male circles.
