Feminist Resurgence

Stitch and Bitch re-located on Thursday night to the Globe, so we could get together for crochet and knitting and chat, and also listen to the Feminist talk.
Finn Mackay came to How the Light Gets In last year, and she was in Hay again to talk about the feminist movement and why it matters. There was a good crowd there to hear her, almost entirely female. Some, like Jo Eliot, remembered feminism in the 1970s and others, like Fern of the Stitch and Bitch group, hadn't even been born then.
My goodness, she knew her stuff - she talked about the Reclaim the Night marches, and government cuts which target women disproportionately, and equal pay, and when questions from the floor were invited, the conversation moved on to child care impacting on women's careers, and the cost of it.
Someone from the newly formed Hay Feminists asked about what Finn Mackay could suggest as practical measures to campaign about in a rural area - she is more familiar with urban settings, where Reclaim the Night walks are effective, but that probably wouldn't be the way to go in Hay.
She also read out the seven aims of feminism from the 1970s - and several of them seem impossible even today, child care issues being amongst them.
If this sounds like a heavy and serious discussion, some of it was, but it was also fascinating - and people were nodding along in agreement during the discussions.
Since we had one of those rare evenings with actual sunshine, the discussions moved outside, and someone went down to the Co-op to collect picnic supplies.
I did find it quite amusing that I was sitting with a bunch of women who were all doing stereotypically feminine craftwork - and that a few days later, I would be attending Beer on the Wye, which is a stereotypically male occasion. But that's really the point of it - feminism means you are free to choose your own interests, and not have them imposed on you by society, for both men and women.
The new Hay Feminists group has started meeting at the Globe on some Sunday mornings (child care issues - the kids can watch the free film while the mums chat) and meetings will happen at other times and places as well.