The supposed goal of feminism is for women to gain equality with men. There are distinct differences between the two sexes, which historically have delineated the roles of men and women into distinct spheres, with men generally in positions of authority and leadership. The feminists claim that this is deeply unfair, oppressive, and limiting.
“A woman can do anything a man can do,” has become a popular slogan, despite its obvious fallacy. Indeed, a more valid claim would be that a woman is just as human and no less valuable than a man.
The crux of the issue has more to do with gender roles. Feminists sought equal access to the spaces that had previously been reserved for men only. This included the halls of government.
Thus, over the past 50 years, the presence of women in government, as well as the number of women being elected to and holding public office, has increased significantly.
Effectively, the feminist argument that women have the same right to seek public office as men has been won and broadly accepted by the West and most of the developed world. Numerous countries, especially in Europe, have female presidents or prime ministers. In 2016, the U.S. came within a few thousand votes in a few states from joining that club.
Notably, in 1979, Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female prime minister, and one of the few to hold the office for at least a decade, serving until 1990. A member of the Conservative Party, Thatcher earned the moniker “Iron Lady” due to her uncompromising leadership style.
Now, Japan may be on the cusp of electing its first female prime minister, as Sanae Takaichi recently won the race to become the chair of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Indeed, Takaichi admires Thatcher, stating, “My goal is to become the Iron Lady.”
Should Takaichi end up becoming Japan’s version of Thatcher, it would undoubtedly be a welcome sight for the Land of the Rising Sun, which is facing a slowing economy and a growing national debt that has ballooned to over 200% of GDP.
Yet the focus of this piece is not Takaichi’s economic strategies but the fact that leftist feminists in Japan, like feminists across the Western world, are throwing shade at Takaichi rather than celebrating another instance of a woman rising to the highest echelon of national politics.
For example, a political professor at Waseda University, Mieko Nakabayashi, says Takaichi is “someone who expresses ‘old man’ opinions from a woman’s mouth and makes them happy.” According to another Japanese feminist, Natsuki Yasuda, Takaichi fails the true feminist aim, despite being a woman, because she doesn’t espouse leftist feminist policies.
It is indeed a fascinating and recurring phenomenon for feminists. While they claim that their goal is to see women break the “glass ceiling” and rise to equal political heights that men have heretofore held, if the women who do rise but don’t hold to a leftist political agenda, then instead of celebrating, feminists smear these conservative women.
The same phenomenon takes place when it comes to the Left’s loudly touted need for greater minority racial representation in the halls of power. Yet when ethnic minority conservatives rise to significant positions of power, especially within government, they are despicably attacked by the Left. There’s no significant example of this than Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who is regularly derided and even dismissed as a white man in black skin. “Uncle Tom,” they call him.
Feminism, today, isn’t really about seeing women elevated; rather, it’s about seeing the “right” women elevated. It’s about promoting women who espouse a leftist political view. In truth, it’s about seeing and celebrating leftist politicians gain greater power, irrespective of their race or sex. Yet, given that identity politics is the Left’s bread and butter, highlighting the sex or race of an individual is the most important thing about them, and a reason to vote for them, if they are on the Left. If they are on the Right, then they not only don’t count, they are, in fact, a threat to the Left’s whole grievance political worldview.
It is also ironic that, despite leftists being the ones espousing feminism, it’s more often than not conservative women who are the first to rise to the highest offices in government. In the UK, it was Thatcher; in Italy, it’s Giorgia Meloni, the nation’s first female prime minister, who happens to be a conservative, and now in Japan, it will likely soon be Takaichi. And in all these cases, it’s female feminists who do the most damage, smearing and dismissing them.
