Femminist priority

My "feminist priority" would be to feel safe doing anything that a man can do, and for all classes and races of women to experience equality. Before taking this class I felt that I was allowed to do anything men can do and that I had equal rights. The one difference that has always bothered me is that because I am a woman people have always told me that it's not safe to do things that men can do. After taking this class I realize that some of that is due to ideas of gender and how women are seen by society. For example, I don't have a car, and I care deeply about the environment, so I like to walk and take the bus places. People are always very concerned when I walk places and when I take the bus alone, even when it's not at night. I'm told that as a women this isn't safe. I also love nature and I enjoy hiking and camping. I've been on many solo day hikes, but I've never backpacked by myself overnight. Many people do this and although it is dangerous, for people who know what they are doing and have the right equiptment it is not a crazy thing to do. I really want to be able to do this because it is a dream of mine to hike the Appalacian Trail. However my friends and family warn me against doing so becasue they think it is too dangerous. When men want to do activities like this it is seen an rugged and "manly" but for me to go out into the wilderness alone is frowned upon. For these things to change I think two things need to change in society, the first is the prevalance of violence against women and the second is our ideas about gender. Part of the reason people don't want me walking or taking the bus alone is because as a female I am expected to be weak, and am taught to stay close to home and that I need to be protected. There is also real danger for women to fall victim to rape, and other types of violence when walking alone. For both the percieved and real danger to change our society needs to view women differently. Things that encourage men to rape women such as ideas of women as objects, ideas about sex, ideas of agressive masculinity, and of women as weak and submissive need to change. Ideas that I am somehow uncapable of doing things on my own and need to be protected also need to change so that I am not discouraged from doing things like walking or hiking and camping alone. The way that boys and girls are socialized also needs to change. From a young age boys are taught to be more independent and to expolore more so they are seen as being capable of doing the activities that I naturally like to do, but am discouraged by society to do. If society saw be as being capable of doing these things than people wouldn't be so worried when I do them.

Another thing that I am concerned about is for all women to have the rights that many people see women as having. Before this class I was one of those people who thought "We're already liberated, so what's the point of femminism?" I now know that although middle class white women have made great gains in terms of rights and equality (though we still have gains that need to be made) that is not the case for all women. I also learned that different women face different issues. I have learned about the femminization of poverty and about how our welfare policies don't accurately adress the situations faced by women on welfare. That's why a big femminist priority for me is a welfare policy that fully adresses the needs of women. One way we could accomplish this would be recognizing the value of child care and domestic work and assinging it economic value. Another way would be universal health and day care. These policies seem unrealistic based on the current policies in our country, but atleast as far as health and day care are concerned there are other countires that have universal health care and that provide economic support and child care services to their citizens with children. I think that this could be accomplished by taking some of the money we spend on our military and spending it on things like welfare, health care, and child care. We spend more money than any other country on our military by a huge amount. We could afford to use a large amount of that money else where and still spend more money than any other country. We can afford to spend less and still be a big military power.