So where does this leave us?

It might have started out that way, but feminism isn’t just about addressing inequalities at the legal or institutional level. It also looks at the social, cultural, and economic spaces in which we operate.

Life is governed by so much more than the contents of our statute books. Alongside these is a spiderweb of a hundred little gendered assumptions woven through our thoughts and choices and actions and policies, sometimes hard to pin down or articulate, usually hard to talk about.

Having legal rights that give protection from gender discrimination, or redress for the same, is one way to talk about empowerment, and an important one at that. But having the freedom to go through life as a full human being, without expectations or judgment or setbacks because of your gender, is another.

And here, I think, is where feminism in Singapore today remains especially important and necessary, and where our conversations need to venture. Because while women here might not face oppression at the legal or institutional level, or at least not to the degree that women in other countries do, we still have a long way to go in other respects.

If people still find a woman abrasive or intimidating for voicing her opinion, then we need feminism. If people still think that women who voice their opinions, even—or especially—controversial ones, don’t know what they’re on about and need to be put in their place, then we need feminism. If women feel the need to preface requests with ‘I was just wondering…’ or ‘Sorry to bother you…’ so they don’t come across as demanding or troublesome, then we need feminism.

If people have no issues with women working, but we’re uncomfortable if they earn more than their husbands, then we need feminism. If a woman’s social capital diminishes with her age, while men are seen as wiser and more experienced the older they get, then we need feminism. If it still disproportionately falls to women to carry out emotional labour—to send the ‘thank you’ cards and remember birthdays and organise family gatherings and carry out the never-ending work of making people feel wanted and valued—and people assume these things happen ‘because women are naturally more caring’, then we need feminism. If people assume that women are innately maternal/more emotional/more complicated than men, or that men are inherently more decisive/logical/straightforward, then we need feminism.

If people still think of sex as part of a husband’s needs which his wife should try to fulfil, then we need feminism. If women are still made to feel embarrassed about menstruating or masturbating or enjoying sex, then we need feminism. If women are reluctant to talk about being sexually assaulted because someone will say they asked for it, then we need feminism. If women worry about starting families because they might be denied promotions or be seen as ‘distracted’ or ‘uncommitted’ to their jobs, then we need feminism. If many capable women in middle management leave to raise their families because they’re still the primary caregivers and workplace policies don’t allow for flexi-time, then we need feminism.

If queer and trans women are still thought of as ‘not woman enough’, then we need feminism. If the bulk of caregiving and child-rearing responsibilities still fall to women, then we need feminism. If we underpay our foreign domestic workers and deny them basic employment rights because, amongst other things, we undervalue the ‘women’s work’ that they do, then we need feminism.

We’ve come a long way, we really have. But we can still do so much better.

And now, having finished this monster of an essay, I’m off to run wild like the entitled, snowflake-y, SJW feminist I am.