A Manifesto for Women in 2025
(Empower us and we might just save the human race)
I was going to call this The Feminist Manifesto 2.0 (although that has surely been taken already) but I believe feminism is no longer working. It has served its purpose, but it simply does not go far enough.
I’m not interested in a ‘fifth wave’—I’m not interested in the entire foundation of the ideology: I no longer believe in ‘equality’ between the sexes. I don’t want equality; I want more. I have come to the belief that I, as a woman in 2025, deserve more.
I feel more. I carry more. I worry more. I suffer more. I bleed more. I mentally, physically and spiritually embody the generational burden of thousands of years of patriarchy, misogyny and fear of women’s power more. Therefore I deserve more.
“It is not enough to have more women in positions of power if they are not challenging the system. Expanding the definition of what is beautiful or acceptable is not enough. Rather, romance has to be demoted from being the central feature of our lives…we have to imagine something better in order to build it.”
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We must evolve beyond equality. I do not believe men and women are ‘equal’ or ever can be; our physical existence and experiences are utterly distinct. Does that make women better? If we were to reverse men’s logic about themselves, yes. We could at least agree it makes us different, that we have different needs.
We are not female versions of men. All human embryos start life as female, actually, so fuck Genesis, Adam and his bloody rib. It sounds obvious, but then why are we still trying to adapt systems designed for men, to work for us? Why are we still contorting ourselves to fit into these poor adaptations? We need new systems! Not men’s solutions in pink!
Women alone have been blessed and cursed with a womb and a menstrual cycle.
Women alone have the ability to carry and bring new human life into this world, whether we choose to use that power or not. Regardless, each month we must endure the death and rebirth of a potential life inside us, and each month we must bleed it away, until eventually we are slowly, painfully liberated from that blessed burden and are then cast aside by our patriarchal society as ‘spent’.
I think we deserve a few more fucking days off in recompense don’t you?
I’m tired of pretending to be a man.
I’m tired of trying to get better at living in the world that they built for them.
I don’t want a career—careers were invented by men. I don’t even want to ‘work’, not by the current definition, and certainly not in the productivity-enslaved, finance-obsessed world of men.
I do not want a seat at their tables or entry into the boy’s clubs. I want my own table. I want my own damn club.
(And the LGBTQI+ community can come too—the parties will be epic)
I don’t want to get better at playing by their rules to win their game. They can have their rules, they can have their game.
I want to get better at being me—a woman.
Something that this world makes very fucking hard—and I’m one of the lucky ones. The privileged white ones.
I want to think. And feel. And muse. And care. And do what all women were put on this God-damned Earth to do: Create.
I am a creator. We are the creators.
Since men are so attached to providing, go on then! Go and provide! Provide for me while I lounge in the tranquil pool at the heart of the oasis floating among the lily pads.
Fuck your striving and comparing and competing and fighting and zero-sum gaming.
Do I hate men? No. I am fortunate to have many wonderful men in my life as friends, family, colleagues, collaborators, ex-partners and clients. I am lucky to have attracted men into my life who generally ‘get it’. And my attraction to and desire for men and passion and romance and all the things an intimate relationship can be at its best isn’t going anywhere (sigh).
I am looking for the men—the real men—who can read this and not feel threatened. Who can read it and know its wisdom. If that’s you, welcome. Take your shoes off at the door, make yourself a cup of tea, and make me one while you’re at it—ta.
Here is what else I believe:
The world should be designed around us: our menstrual cycles, our hormones, our circadian rhythms, our physical safety and protection from men where necessary. I’m talking business hours, school hours, shift patterns, climate control systems, public transport, street lighting, public buildings (especially hospitals and medical centres), social housing…I’m confident men would be pleasantly surprised to find that the planet becomes a much more comfortable place for them too!
Periods, pregnancy, miscarriage, abortions, breastfeeding and menopause, are sacred transitions, and should be treated as such: with reverence and sensitivity. All are experiences men cannot fathom (and mostly refuse to acknowledge) and yet without which they would not exist. We should have the choice whether or not to work through them, and if we choose not to we are still paid.
We should be paid more. Immediately all women receive 130% of an equivalent male colleague’s current salary. As a subsidy for the ‘pink’ tax. As fair payment for all the additional work we are inevitably doing at home since men just can’t seem to get their heads around it (“tell me what I can do to help”). As restitution for the millennia of inequality. If we start now we might have a chance of making up for it by the year 10,000 CE.
One year paid maternity leave, minimum. Second year at half pay, minimum.
Childcare should be free. And there should be more than enough of it.
Any profession that has heretofore been dominated by women is moved to the same pay scale as an investment bank. Nurses, teachers, aged carers, childcarers, social workers…
Women’s health research receives 90% of the funding for at least the next 25 years to make up for the lack of it in the last 200. After that men can apply for more funding from committees filled by women and we shall assess them on a case by case basis (sounds tough doesn’t it?).
Burden of proof in rape and sexual assault cases is moved to the accused i.e. they must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they didn’t do it.
Legislation passed that 50% of executive committee and board positions must be filled by women immediately. If there aren’t enough senior women, too bad, promote the junior ones. We’re fast learners, I’m sure we’ll manage.
What have I missed? Tell me in the comments and I will add it to the list with your name.
Where do I sign up to live in this utopian matriarchy please!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥