When is it ignorance? When is it hate?

When I first got serious about feminism a few years ago, I figured I understood the challenge for equality of all people. To me, it seemed a simple matter of education. The challenge feminists take on could be won that way. I believed, perhaps with a bit too much idealism, that if feminists could just spread the word of the inequities going on in the world, everyone would understand, and everyone would support feminism.

Most of you who might be reading this have probably heard of terms like post-feminism and post-racial. From what I know of American society, these terms imply that battles of gender and race equity have been won. It evokes the notion that discrimination doesn’t exist anymore, at least not in any big way, like institutional sexism or racism.

America has made progress, definitely. One of the things I am most impressed by is the cultural changes feminism has brought about. How we have gone from women as only wives and mothers whose duty applies to keeping the home clean and nurturing their children and husbands to women with college educations (not for an “MRS” either) and careers of their own is amazing to me. It would be unlikely and extreme for someone to express the notion that the 50s sitcom housewife is the ideal woman these days.

And yet, there are still battles to be won. The gender wage gap persists. Women are underrepresented in powerful positions such as politics and as CEOs of corporations. The ERA hasn’t been passed since being introduced in 1923, to ensure that women and men are equal under Constitutional law. Anti-choice politics routinely put women’s reproductive freedom at risk. Imagine the fact that it has been legal for pharmacists to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions for women because they don’t believe the woman should have it. The attack has been as much about contraception as abortion, if not more, considering the defunding of Planned Parenthood would result in more abortions.

The way I see it, women can now have some power, but not too much. It’s still seen as a threat for a woman to be president, a role only men have had, and only one of them wasn’t white. A heterosexual wife can have a good job, but many are uncomfortable with the idea of her making more money than her husband. Gender roles for men and women run rampant. Men can’t have feelings, can’t do anything that might be seen as slightly feminine without the risk of a cultural taboo.

Even with all of this, there’s a widespread denial of these problems. Feminism has won, it’s over. I’ve known quite a bit of people who think the ERA is in the Constitution. There are those who say the gender wage gap is caused by women taking time off to have children (which doesn’t take into account childless women, or women who have kids that they don’t take off work for), or that women aren’t working as hard as men, or that women are too weak to ask for higher salaries. I can see that these arguments can be taken into account for some of the causes of the wage gap, but certainly not all. Perhaps even worse, people who deny a wage gap exists entirely. This was something I heard from a man who said at his job he had a female superior and she made more money than him, therefore the wage gap is a myth.

The Supreme Court voted that the Walmart case of widespread gender discrimination was invalid because Walmart had no written policy of gender discrimination. Seriously? This is ridiculous.

I’m aware that the denial of gender inequality is a tactic of those who oppose equality. But I also know there are a lot of people who have simply bought into these myths. But how can I tell the difference? Sometimes it’s obvious, but other times I’m not so sure.

A person who is ignorant about something can become educated in that subject. But can we change someone’s fundamental views? Deeply held sexist (or any other bigoted) beliefs are hard to be even shaken. Can feminism change the minds of those that truly hate us for what we stand for? If so, how?

And if not, what does that mean for the goals of feminism? Can we eventually accomplish what we set out to do? And if we achieve equality in a way that makes real, institutional changes that open up the doors for all people, including women, people of color, and the LGBT community, to be on equal ground with white, heterosexual men will it matter that there are still those who hold onto their discriminatory views, cursing society for being that way? I think the continued belief in an individual that I’m inferior to men would still hurt, even if it couldn’t personally make an influence on me. Or maybe the goals can’t be reached without the support of everyone.

Honestly, I don’t know. I believe that people can change, though I also believe that no one can change them but themselves. Others can help, but I don’t believe that it can be done solely by others. Ignorance is a huge part of any prejudiced thinking, but I believe there’s more to it than that. Why would there be those who still oppose feminism, even when they have the education that should mean they support it? I guess that would just be willful ignorance, a neglect of facts. So is there a difference between willful ignorance and hate?

Again, I’m not sure. But I think it’s worth pondering about. So I ask my fellow feminists for thoughts.