Achievements of movements like Waking the Feminists offers hope in atmosphere of fear
I’ve lost count of the number of depressed and disheartened women I have encountered in the past five days. ‘Queasy’, ‘sick’, and ‘disgusted’ were the words which kept cropping up to describe how they felt when they woke up on Wednesday to the news that Donald Trump had been elected US president.
This deeply physical reaction illustrates how the result has shaken many people to their very core.
While the disbelief and fear at his victory are not the sole preserve of the female species, the fact that Trump’s blatant misogyny was rewarded, rather than punished, by US voters has plunged many women into despair.
Accustomed though they might be to casual sexism or the traditional dominance of the political discourse by men, this is on a completely different plane.
It is perhaps oddly opportune and heartening then, that in this atmosphere of fear and apprehension, an Irish movement is celebrating a milestone moment and reminding us of what can be achieved when women (and men) come together to fight inequality.
Today, Waking the Feminists will hold a meeting in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, to mark the first anniversary of a campaign which grew from a social media discussion into a significant and influential movement for change.
On October 28, 2015, Ireland’s national theatre, in announcing how it would commemorate one revolution, unwittingly triggered another.
The Abbey programme to mark the centenary of the 1916 Rising was titled ‘Waking the Nation’. Only one out of the 10 plays programmed was written by a woman and three out of 10 were directed by women; it didn’t take long for the glaring gender disparity to be noted.
A discussion began on Facebook and Twitter, initiated by set designer Lian Bell, under the hashtag #WakingThe Feminists, coined by director Maeve Stone.
In days, #wakingthenation had been forgotten and #WakingTheFeminists was trending.
In the following weeks, there was an outpouring of testimonies highlighting the disenfranchisement and unequal treatment of women — not just at the Abbey but throughout the Irish theatre and arts sector.
On November 12, 2015, just over a fortnight after the Abbey’s 1916 launch, a historic public meeting was held at the Abbey Theatre.
Testimonies were read from the stage by 29 women working in the theatre sector, with further contributions from the packed audience.
Thousands of people around the country and beyond followed the meeting on li social media. The movement also stimulated debate about the absence of female voices in other cultural arenas and, as awareness of the movement rippled outwards, it began to resonate worldwide, with actors such as Meryl Streep and Christine Baranski voicing their support.
When I spoke to feminist writer and icon Gloria Steinem ahead of her visit to the West Cork Literary Festival earlier this year, she spoke of her delight at witnessing the “fervent” and “spirited” Waking the Feminists campaign.
Founder Lian Bell says Waking the Feminists and the discussions it provoked gave women an opportunity to speak about the inequality they had been experiencing silently for years.
“If you start talking about things publicly, if you start making things a bit more apparent, you realise that actually these problems are felt by a lot of women around you,” she says.
“It’s the community and the solidarity that has come out of this that is creating the power of it.”
Waking the Feminists has given women in the arts permission to call out incidences of sexism and made organisations more aware of gender balance.
“I know many women who feel more confident and supported in speaking out if something goes wrong,” says Bell.
“So many people running festivals and venues, programming work, now deliberately must put checks into what they’re doing.”
At the end of August this year, the Abbey Theatre announced that it had developed a set of guiding principles to ensure gender equality at the national theatre.
Bryan McMahon, chairman of the board of the Abbey Theatre, welcomed the debate that Waking the Feminists had begun the previous November.
While such a pledge was a significant victory for the campaign, for Bell, a lot of what Waking the Feminists has achieved has been more subtle and intangible, but no less valuable.
“Much has changed in Ireland and beyond since November 2015 with regard to the profile of equal representation of women in theatre in Ireland,” she says.
“Gender inequality is now a very ‘live’ topic, not just in the cultural sector but throughout all aspects of Irish life. We are aware that the issues we are facing do not stop with the theatre sector, and permeate our society.”
The women who become involved in such campaigns are not just asking for their rights — they are demanding them.
As placards were to the suffragettes, so tweets and social media posts are to many of today’s feminists.
Their aims are not much different to those of the suffragettes either. The fears, hopes, and expectations of those seeking gender equality and an end to the sexism which is still endemic in many areas of society are reflected in the words of Bell, who says: “I really hope it [Waking the Feminists] does something not just for women working in theatre, but elsewhere in society. Even if a handful of women feel stronger and more confident, and pass that on to their children or in their workplace, then to me that’s already a good start.”
Just over a year ago, no-one could have foreseen the concept of Waking the Feminists. It was a truly organic occurrence, triggered by an authentic moment of anger which was echoed in the experience of women everywhere, not only those working in theatre.
Almost a year later, what started as a hashtag has become a bona fide movement, and a force to be reckoned with. There are many reasons for this, not least the efforts of those involved, who pledged a year of their lives to progressing gender equality in Irish theatre. However, at the heart of the campaign were the stories of women, stories which echoed around the world.
In these uncertain times, there is comfort and hope to be found in the achievements of movements such as Waking the Feminists, which is propelled by inspirational and committed volunteers.
As the cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead wisely put it: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
