A feminist party? Perfect. As long as it didn't last too long

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/12/feminist-party-women-in-politics

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This week, if rumours are correct, a stream of coalition female MPs will be promoted, among them Liz Truss, Esther McVey, Priti Patel and the woman not afraid to say "testicles" in the House of Commons (ho ho), Penny Mordaunt, to replace the male "old lags", who possibly include Eric Pickles and Ken Clarke.

What academic and Tory moderniser Kate Maltby last week defined as modern-day feminism, "individual flourishing" is surely alive and well. Hell, the number of women in the cabinet may even increase by 100% to a whopping six, so who really needs a feminist party when the boys are behaving graciously and being so welcoming in their belated invitation to share power?

Last week, journalist Suzanne Moore called for the establishment of "a big fat feminist party" While praising the plethora of online single issue campaigns such as No More Page 3 and the energy of young feminists (Caitlin Moran attracts fans whose devotion excels even those of Cliff Richard), Moore wrote: "Some of the energy of a new generation of feminism dissipates because it is not anchored to any political structure." Or while it's crucial to expose sexism, violence and discrimination, among other issues, achieving positive change is trickier.

Harriet Harman, deputy leader of the Labour party, permanently and unfairly in the political ducking stool, bore witness to that, also last week, when she made clear the difference between what men believe is going on and what women know is happening.

At Labour's gala fundraising dinner, which I attended last Wednesday, that process was alive and well, as it is in all the political parties. Women were in attendance, some even earning more than the chaps (an auctioned Anish Kapoor gouache on paper does not come cheap), but as the late Marilyn French wrote in the 1980s: "Not all men have power but only men have power." So women in many workplaces, as well as Westminster, abide by the boys' rules. If they don't, as Harman pointed out, they are not seen as "clubbable"; they risk losing their footing on the career ladder, accused of bad dress sense, poor judgment and suffering a sense of humour bypass. (Marginally less wounding than the barbs of a couple of decades ago that customarily included the charge of frigidity and having a face like a frozen carp.)

Harman has decided to speak out because she's reached an age when she no longer gives a stuff about playing that game.

She said that when elected to deputy leader, she had not been appointed deputy prime minister by Gordon Brown as her predecessor, John Prescott, had been, and she was frequently told to stop "banging on" about women's issues.

It was precisely her doggedness – and that of other Labour women politicians and trade unionists – that led to all-women shortlists, the national childcare strategy and equality legislation, which in turn helped to harvest a winning number of female votes.

Yet women are still invited guests at the patriarchal table, not there equally. A fat feminist party? Excellent idea – but the real difficulty is deciding what happens next.

In 1969, Judith Ford, Miss Illinois, aged 18, was crowned Miss America while outside on the boardwalk, women's libbers shouted: "Atlantic City is a town with class. They raise your morals and they judge your ass!" Bras weren't burnt but they did go into a freedom trashcan along with dishcloths and false eyelashes.

Several decades on, conditioning has been revealed as much more complex. Female maintenance today includes waxing, tanning, hair extensions, false nails and eyelashes the size of a peacock's tail while cosmetic surgery is a boom industry – and that's for the under 20s.

Capitalism learned quickly how to colonise feminism and turn it into a servant of the marketplace – but piecemeal resistance, aided by social media, continues.

"Like a girl" is a derogatory insult, for instance, but a video challenging that negativity, has been watched by 31 million.

Thanks to the internet, prodding awake a sense of vigilance is the easy part; achieving real change is the mountain to climb. So what would a feminist party seek? In 1970, the first Women's Liberation Conference in the UK demanded equal pay, equal education and job opportunities, free contraception and abortion on demand and 24-hour nurseries (for shift workers, not to permanently park the offspring).

Separatists, socialists, anarchists, Marxists, Trotskyists and essentialists, also known as female goddesses at one with the Earth, to name only a few, subsequently not only failed to agree, they failed on how to agree.

A non-hierarchical, co-operative meeting had its drawbacks – especially if no one wanted to appear too alpha male by taking the lead. Maltby says feminism is united only by a simple belief: "Gender shouldn't limit people's life chances."

But to do what precisely? Whatever happened to Thomas Paine's ideal of all human capacity realised for the benefit and wellbeing of the entire community, not just the flourishing few?

In Sweden, Feminist Initiative (FI) was established in 2005. In 2014, it won 5.3% of the vote and now has Soraya Post as its MEP. Moore argues, rightly, that 5% of the vote in Britain would give feminists a Ukip lever to achieve space in national debates; disrupt the main parties' election strategies in swing seats and draw attention to a widespread discontent with the neoliberal agenda – not just among many women but also amongst disenfranchised working-class boys and men who work the longest hours in Europe and are sidelined in areas such as childcare.

In Britain, 70% of the cuts so far have impacted on women; care workers can earn little more than £5 an hour; part-timers, mostly in the private sector, receive 43% less pay than full-time males – all of which is exacerbated by continuing privatisation and the destruction of the public sector that has delivered most for women and their children.

Of course, some women are moving up the ladder but diversity is absent – class and ethnicity also matter.

Can socialist feminists get into bed with rightwing Tories who claim to be in the sisterhood? Probably with great difficulty, but alliances across traditional political divides appear to be happening in Ukip and the SNP. They don't necessarily make for lasting relationships.

If history is any guide, a feminist party is a catalyst bound to implode – but since all power eventually corrupts, it would be none the worse for that.

Feminist Marilyn French wanted to see pleasure as the main goal of politics. But somehow: "What do we want?" "Felicity for all." "When do we want it?" "Now!" doesn't have quite the right ring.

But on second thoughts, it may hold far more long-term political promise than the "individual flourishing" practised by the new women in cabinet.