John Howard's 'feminist'John Howard's 'feminist'
The Sydney Morning Herald on April 26 ran a full-page article, titled "Right on, sister", about Pru Goward — "feminist" (printed in block letters under her name) and new head of the Office of the Status of Women.
The word "right" in the title actually says a lot about Goward's ideological bent, cultivated during a successful career which has placed her side by side with many of the big names in the Liberal Party. So where does the feminism come in?
Goward purports to be reclaiming feminism from the left, which, she says, has always used the image of the victim and the oppressed to "advance its ideology". After thoroughly caricaturing the left, Goward lists the beneficiaries of her feminism reclaimed. It's for the young women of today who want to embrace competition, business and success, she says; for the mothers who want to stay at home and look after their children; for tolerance, diversity and "a recognition that there are many paths to fulfilment".
Contrary to Goward's assertions, the left and the women's liberation movement have always fought for choice for women. It is her Liberal Party fellow-travellers who are escalating the offensive against choice.
Take the federal budget last week. The $349 million of cuts to child-care will severely curtail the choices of all non-working mothers. Goward's lambasting of the left would be better directed at her buddies in government, who have just made it that much harder for mothers who have chosen to stay at home to obtain regular support in this role, and much harder for women who would like to get paid work to look for it.
Goward declares emphatically that she never had to rely on child-care benefits. Clearly, the choices she had are available only to a minority of women, those who have piles of money or rich husbands to support them.
According to the Herald article, not only is Goward a strong feminist, but her colleague and collaborator, John Howard, is also pro-feminist. After all, says Goward, he is surrounded by strong women "and it doesn't bother him a bit", he knows all about feminism from a strong-willed daughter, etc etc.
Such a characterisation of Howard sits very oddly with last week's budget. In addition to the huge cuts to child-care funding — which will exacerbate an already disastrous situation in which half of existing day-care centres fail to meet basic standards — are the withdrawal of subsidies for medicines, increases in charges for nursing homes and cuts to public housing expenditure.
Women make up the majority of the elderly population. Women also still take primary responsibility for care of the young, aged and sick in the home. It is they who will bear the brunt of these new cuts, and as they do they will not be fooled into believing that John Howard, his government or his agents in the Office of the Status of Women are feminist.
By Sujatha Fernandes