Necessary 'nagging' in the fight for true equality

FEMINISM:T he Equality Illusion: The truth about women and men todayBy Kat Banyard Faber and Faber, 285pp, £12.99

'THERE REALLY is no glass ceiling despite the fact that some of you moan about it all the time. . . You've got a woman fighter pilot who went on to join the Red Arrows. . . I mean what else do you want for God's sake? Woman astronauts. Women miners. Women dentists. Women doctors. What is it you haven'tgot?"

Surely a man who sells such nice knickers as Marks and Spencer chairman Sir Stuart Rose can't be wrong? Maybe he has a point. A Red Arrow? What is it we women haven't got?

The prospective next British Prime Minister, Conservative Party leader David Cameron was once asked if he was a feminist. His media handlers had obviously omitted "dealing with questions on the vindication of the rights of women" from their briefings.

"Er, I don't really know what it means anymore," said Cameron. "But I suspect probably not." John Stuart Mill will be turning in his grave.

Well, I suspect you're probably nota feminist, David. And if we were to take a quick straw poll, I suspect that there are many who would say they aren't either. After all, what has feminism got left on its "to-do" list? Face it, they say, it's job done, girls. You've got prime ministers and presidents. You've got stock brokers and suicide bombers. You've got newspaper editors and neurosurgeons. You've actually had a Red Arrow "for God's sake".

Following hot on the heels of Natasha Walter's Living Dolls, with its argument that gender inequality is being hidden behind a fluffy pinkness that women are deemed to have chosen for themselves, comes Kat Banyard's rip roaring, kicking and screaming The Equality Illusion. (For those enjoying this Lord of the Rings-style approach to women's rights, the trilogy will be complete when Reclaiming the F Word: The New Feminist Movement by Catherine Redfern and Kristin Aune hits the shelves shortly.)

On a recent edition of The Review Show on BBC2, Germaine Greer gave voice to generations of older feminists when she questioned what Walter's Living Dolls told us that we didn't already know. And that's the fundamental problem facing new contributors to the feminist canon. So little has changed since what Banyard calls "one of the most vital social justice movements of our age" was given the brand of Feminism that it is easy to feel you are re-inventing the wheel each time you point out that the women who do two-thirds of the world's work earn 10 per cent of the world's income, but own only 1 per cent of the means of production. How many times do we have to tell you that only 18.3 per cent of the world's members of parliament are women (in Ireland it's a shameful 13 per cent), that here we earn 87 cent for every euro a man earns, that in Ireland the conviction rate for rape is 7 per cent?

Yadda. Yadda. Heard it all before? Commonly, when women repeat themselves, when they have to ask again and again for a man to listen, when they have to ask again and again for a man to change his behaviour, those men call it "nagging". Well Banyard is, if you will allow me to reclaim the word, "nagging". And so what? Maybe men should listen to her and change their behaviour.

The beauty of The Equality Illusionis that it gives those on the receiving end of gender inequality a face. Banyard interviewed a lot of women for this book and their brave, generous testimonies leave the reader with no illusions that violence, oppression and limitation mean women still have lives less lived. And that's simply - as a matter of social justice - not fair. It's not fair that every day Ellen starves herself to keep a body she hates skeletal. It's not fair that Jena has stopped going to school because a boy in her class keeps grabbing her breasts and calling her a slut. It's not fair that Amy's boyfriend Andrew strangles her when he penetrates her. It's not fair that Lucy is drinking more and more just to get through a night at work in her lap-dancing club where men bite her nipples and stick their fingers in her vagina despite the "no touching" rule.

The Equality Illusionchallenges politically-motivated acquiescence to the myth that gender equality has been achieved. It destroys the argument that it's time to end the "nagging" about sexist injustice. It confronts the assertion that many women are enjoying a new-found sexual confidence with a set of fake boobs and lap dancing pole they bought for a laugh at Tesco's.

And Banyard's book has a global reach and a global resonance. Nowhere more so than here in Ireland. "Unless a woman can control her sexual, reproductive and maternal life," writes Banyard, "her ability to access other fundamental human rights is jeopardised. Without this control, women are unable to participate in society as citizens equal to men." And this means all women. Even a Red Arrow. Even a president.

Kat Banyard's contribution to the fight for an end to sexism doesn't stop at anecdote and analysis. Her focus on action is inspiring. It's a solution-focused approach with inspirational ideas for making the personal political. Read it. Share it. Give it to your mum, your daughter, your son, your brother, your sister, your dad, David Cameron ... the chairman of Marks and Spencer. It's time to reclaim the fight.

Anthea McTeirnan is an Irish Timesjournalist

International Women's Day

l Kat Banyard is one of the speakers at the National Women's Council of Ireland's International Women's Day celebrations on Monday, March 8th, 10.30am to 1.30pm, at EU House, 18 Dawson Street, Dublin 2.

l 'Up for Discussion: The Legacies of Feminism' with Margaret Mac Curtain, Susan McKay, Ivana Bacik and Catriona Crowe, chaired by Anthea McTeirnan, takes place on Monday, March 8th at 3pm in Dublin City Hall as part of Dublin Book Festival. Both events are free