We must demand that professional activity adapt to our female condition and not the other way around

When Concepción Arenal entered the law school at the Complutense University in the mid-19th century dressed as a gentleman, the fight for material equality for women in Spain began.  But what this great feminist could not have imagined was that by dressing as a man she was making a concession that would mark us to this day: the loss of femininity.

Thanks to the struggle of courageous women in difficult times, today we can access any of the jobs previously done by men. However,  as Sigrid Undset, an early 20th-century feminist, pointed out, “the feminist movement has focused only on the gains and not on the losses of liberation.”

When women began entering the workforce, they generally tried to emulate their male colleagues for fear that their femininity would be seen as fragility or weakness.  The price of equality has been very high: the masculinization of their lifestyle and work, the renunciation of their own feminine essence, beginning with motherhood, and ultimately, the loss of their freedom . A woman is not free when she imitates masculine ways of acting, because she is bound to roles that do not belong to her, that do not fit with her deepest essence. Many women have strived to fulfill their roles “exactly like a man,” and their rejected, repressed nature then asserts itself, giving rise to depression, anxiety, dissatisfaction, frustration, and unhappiness. Because, as García Morente stated, being a woman is everything to a woman; it is her profession, her feelings, her worldview, her opinions—it is her entire life.  Woman embodies a different kind of humanity than man, with her own values ​​and characteristics , and will only achieve her full existential fulfillment when she behaves authentically with respect to her feminine condition.

We have already amply demonstrated that we can fulfill our professional duties with the same brilliance as men.  The time has come to demand that professional activity adapt to our female condition, and not the other way around.  The new feminism advocates for social recognition of women’s work—and especially that of mothers—which must be reflected in favorable, specific working conditions, and therefore not identical to those of men. As Haaland Matláry states, the truly radical attitude of women today does not consist of imitating men, but of being themselves, contributing their values ​​and qualities.

The participation of women, fully enjoying their femininity, in all areas of social, work, and political life is a matter of justice, but it is also a benefit for the “new economy,” because, as Tom Peters, a  business guru in the United States, states, current trends suggest that  in the 21st century many sectors of economic activity will need the innate and natural talent and skills of women.

Maria Calvo