Socialist Feminism: From the Standpoint of Practice

Introduction Women's organizing in Canada in the last twenty years has netted some significant gains. Perhaps the 1988 Supreme Court decision declaring the abortion law unconstitutional is the most striking, but a balance sheet would also include other legislative gains in the areas of equal pay, affirmative action, sexual assault, family law and sexual harassment. Increases in women's union activism and the concomitant change in union ideology have begun to reshape the labour movement. Changes in state practices concerning spousal relations and police intervention in cases of wife abuse, in educational practices surrounding sex role stereotypes and career counselling, in cultural and media practices with respect to the images of women-all combine to highlight the reconstitution of the sex/gender reality. Despite these successes, women continue to confront attacks on these gains from the new right, conservative economic policies, the feminization of poverty, inequality in wages and job opportunities, escalating family and street violence, expansion of the pornography industry, and resistance to change embedded in the structures of unions and political parties. This list is far from complete. Furthermore, continuing public discomfort with 'feminism,' and, more importantly, the on-going invisibility of the more radical vision of women's liberation, calling for major social and