CHAPTERS on Micro-feminist acts
you can take into the week ahead
Micro feminism: A trend which encourages women to make the world a more equitable place through small, intentional daily gestures
I woke up three times last night feeling highly irritable. I couldn’t really make sense of it. The current heatwave could easily be to blame, but something told me it was more than that. Thinking about it, a theme started to appear.
A week or so ago, I opened my eyes to see the ceiling spinning. Every time I moved my head even slightly, I was taking a ride on a rollercoaster doing loop-de-loops. It was safe to assume I had vertigo. After a couple of dizzy days, I called the GP. "Now, I’m going to get a bit Lord of the Rings on you here,” the doctor said. “You’ve got crystals in the middle ear.” He laughed at his own joke before prescribing me some drugs and explaining a body-slamming maneuver I could try to move the crystals along. (I passed on that). “Vertigo is much worse for women because their inner ear is smaller than men's,” he added.
Of course it is, I thought to myself. Of course it bloody is.
A few days later, I had lunch with a friend who is waiting for news on a promotion. The promotion she had expected to get over a year ago and believes she missed out on because of her maternity leave. We talked about all the women we know who have had similar experiences. Each story reminded us of another. The one whose contract was cut short when she told her bosses she was pregnant. The one who brought a man from her old company into the role below her, only to go on mat-leave and find he had been promoted to the role above her by the time she returned. The working mum whose manager made her feel guilty every time she needed to leave early to do a nursery pickup. The list went on, despair rising.
Then last night I watched “Girls State,” a new documentary following a group of teenage girls in America on a week-long experiment to build their own idea of government from scratch. I wanted to feel inspired by the next generation of politically-minded young women. I was left feeling frustrated by the inequalities they experienced. The male equivalent, “Boys State,” was happening on the very same campus, at exactly the same time, and yet they had more funding and more freedoms. While the boys were shown debating abortion laws (of all things), the girls were being lectured on the appropriate clothing to be worn that week and the strict chaperoning rules they must adhere to. These young women spent more time being outraged by these real-world inequalities than building their government. I didn’t blame them.
So I’d woken up in the night feeling irritable. This time my head spinning, not through vertigo but with the frustrations of injustice. The more infuriating feeling to follow was the powerlessness as to what I could do about it. So, obviously, I turned to TikTok for distraction and answers. I searched for feminism and came across an inspired thread of small moments of activism we can do daily.
While these acts of micro-feminism may not be the bigger answer, they’re at least somewhere to start. Enjoy
If someone says they saw their doctor / lawyer / boss / other smart person role, ask them, “What did SHE say?”
Don’t over-apologize in emails and take out the word ‘just.’
Don’t become responsible for your partner’s responsibilities just because you’re the female. For example, it’s their job to remember their parents’ birthdays, not yours.
Specify something as “men’s” when it’s usually the default, e.g., ‘Were you watching the men’s football last night?” or “My friend is a male firefighter.”
Walk down the street and don’t move out of the way for men (trust me, this one is crazily harder than it sounds, try it).
Start asking men about their kids.
If you notice a female colleague being spoken over in a meeting, ask her what she thinks.
Don’t give women body-specific compliments; instead, tell them they look radiant or glowing.
Don’t ask women about their relationship status; just assume women are single by choice, in the same way we assume men are.