Nowadays, femininity can happily be part of feminism. Equality and women’s rights mean that women are free to do what they want to do. Remember Coco Chanel? She combined the independence of feminism and her own femininity to create a stellar career way back in the 1920’s. So if you want sugar and spice and all things nice to be part of your life, go for it!
Many of us in the 60 plus age group burned our bras, pursued careers, opened our own bank accounts and actually laid the foundations of feminism for today’s young women. Because there was little support for early feminists (just lots of criticism) we had no time for sugar and spice or anything nice. Hopefully, career girls today with such excellent support can find time to express their femininity.
I often think of the self-indulgent and totally feminine life of my own mother (1914 – 1990). Whilst well educated, my mother lived in a family where a daughter’s and a married woman’s responsibility was the household. She never worked outside the home. Alongside household responsibilities it was a life filled with tennis parties, card evenings, fine needlework, music and books. Garden parties, “afternoons”, visiting and receiving numerous relatives, shopping – and I’m not talking groceries! Appointments at the beauty salon, dressmaker, hairdresser. As a child I assumed that after marriage my life would follow the same path, but tertiary education, the advent of the contraceptive pill and a desire to lead an important and fulfilling life swept me and millions like me in a very different direction.
However, at 60 plus comes time to embrace our femininity and have sugar and spice and some things nice.
We mature women do not have the advantage of that little bit of estrogen to enhance our femininity, so we must be creative. Think curls, frills, gathering, lace, lipstick, a decent push-up bra. Keep well known mature women famous for their femininity and style in your mind. Helen Mirren, Jackie Onassis, all the royal ladies, Grace Kelly. Our own Ita Buttrose, Quentin Bryce, Blanche d’Alpuget. All so different but oh so feminine and if you define feminism as being free to do what you want, within the obvious limits, all are or have been masters of the art of perfectly combining feminism and femininity. The standout under this heading is, of course, who else but Coco Chanel?!