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chapter eleven Transformational Feminism (An Interview) / This interview took place in 1997 and appeared in a small journal with a specialized readership .* It did not reach my usual audiences of historians and feminist academics. I choose to include it in this volume because it states in a very personal voice, my own speaking voice, the essential themes of this book, which I have expressed in various forms in the preceding chapters.Unencumbered by proof and evidence, it is a straight opinion piece. As such, it sums up in a simple and forthright way what I have learned in life and practice, and what I have concluded from my work in the historical archival record. It opens with a definition of feminism as a world philosophy for women and men. Feminism is generally considered a program—economic, political, social, and psychological —that advocates the equality of women in all of society’s functions. It is based on the conviction that every kind of discrimination against and oppression of women is unacceptable and must be resisted. Women, just like men, must stand at the center of events, and share power and resources on a basis of equality with men. Insofar as feminism aims to change laws, customs, and oppressive practices, it is a reformist movement, in the mainstream democratic tradition. But feminism also has a much more radical dimension: it is a liberation movement, designed to alter society’s culture and institutions and the relationships between men and women in such a wayas to givewomen autonomy, self-definition, and freedom from the disadvantages imposed upon their sex by biologyand custom.While the feminist reform movement has made important strides, the liberation movement has nowhere yet achieved its goals. Both definitions of feminism are programmatic and practical , yet utopian and philosophical. When I speak of feminism as a worldview, I encompass both definitions and expand them to include a number of other major reform and liberation movements. In the twentyfirst century violent overthrow and revolutions are counterproductive and cannot achieve their goals. Violence only induces more violence; wars no longer achieve long periods of relative stability, but instead only inspire the next cycle of violence and war. By their *Gerda Lerner, “A Transformational Feminism,” in Woman of Power: A Magazine of Feminism, Spirituality, and Politics, Issue 24 (Summer 1995): 42–45. Interview by Gail Hanlon. Transformational Feminism (An Interview) 181 past experience and by their demographic distribution, women are ideally situated to lead the kind of peacefully transformative movements necessary to save the ecology, reverse the maldistribution of resources, end poverty and hunger, and allow people to survive on planet earth.Women have, in the past, built formidable, nationwide coalition movements to achieve reforms; they can do so again. That is why I discuss feminism as a liberationist worldview for women and men. Q: What directions would you like to see feminists take in this decade in order to facilitate leadership within local and international movements? Gerda Lerner: First of all, I want to say that I consider feminism a practical , political program for the transformation of society, one that holds solutions for women and men. I consider it the most promising of the social programs now in existence. It is a program, a philosophy, and a political agenda. I believe that in order for the world to survive the twentyfirst century with all the dangers that are now present—namely, nuclear power, rampant militarism, ecological dangers, and what I consider a ticking time bomb: the maldistribution of resources in the world—we must adopt feminist solutions to these problems. And why feminism? Well, first of all, because the system of patriarchy that was built in the Bronze Age, in approximately the first millennium B.C. in Western civilization, arose out of a combination of militarism and the agricultural revolution. It created a system of hierarchical governments dominated by militarism, in which men hold the resources and distribute them to women who are either members of their family of birth or linked to them through a sexual relationship; they also share resources with subordinate men. As long as patriarchy exists, despite other changes we make in society—for example, efforts to fight racism, militarism, hatred of various minority groups—patriarchy will always reconstitute itself and create other hierarchical systems. The emancipation of women is essential to ending these hierarchical systems. That’s one reason. The second one is that because women are half the population and are represented in every group of the...

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