Making Space For Politics

Jo Harvie on why women only space is needed in socialist politics

EVERYONE who joins the Scottish Socialist Party identifies with socialism in some way or another.
We might all have different views about what socialism looks like, or how we get there. But we find enough agreement around a few basic tenets -that the system we live under is cruel and brutal, that it breeds rampant poverty while people’s lives and our precious environment are sacrificed to make a tiny, ruling minority richer by the second -to join together and fight for a better way of life where people are more important than profit.
So why, then, if we are all fighting for the same thing, do we bother having a specific group for women within the SSP?
The Socialist Women’s Network is one of the Scottish Socialist Party’s groups which represent people who often struggle to make their voices heard in our society.
We also have networks which represent young people -Scottish Socialist Youth ­disabled people, LGBT people and black and minority ethnic people.
The aim of the networks is to be a place where people who are discriminated against can come together to discuss their experiences and organise to put an end to oppression.
These groups are all self-organised, which means that, while the groups all have input to the SSP through such means as putting motions to conference, they have their own structures and set their own campaigning agendas.
Having a women’s network empowers women to use our experience to decide how best to campaign for women’s liberation.
The women’s network organises women-only meetings, although we also organise open meetings and events where we welcome men’s participation in the struggle for equality.
To understand why we have women-only spaces, you need to have a think about the conditions in which women live and work.
Women are not just exploited as workers, although, even in an age of equal pay legislation, women working full time still earn on average 17 per cent less than the average male wage.
In our homes, on the bus and when we walk down the street, sexism can invade every part of our waking life. It can prevent us expressing what we feel, achieving what we want and doing what we think is right.
With men’s violence against women still endemic in Scotland, then sometimes women’s often traumatic or violent experiences at the hands of men leave them frightened, intimidated, or just feeling unsafe in the company of men.
Many women are raised to feel shy and nervous about expressing themselves, especially when men are present -that ‘women, know your place’ sketch isn’t just a figment of Harry Enfield’s imagination. Men are often much more inclined to express their views freely, and can therefore, even if they don’t intend to, dominate a discussion.
Often the view of politics that we grow up with is of grey-suited men on Question Time, talking in a language that doesn’t relate to us. Where we do see women involved in mainstream politics, their parties have spent a lot of money on image consultants, training them to look and act like men.
So a woman-only space can be a safe space, it can be space where women feel more free to say what they think, and it can be a place where it’s easier to encourage women to see politics as something in which they can play a role.
And ultimately, it puts women at the forefront of fighting for women’s equality. That’s not because we don’t value the contribution of our socialist brothers -and huge kudos goes to those socialist men who are brave enough to challenge sexism where they see it -but we’ve got to have control of our own fightback. That’s what liberation is all about.