how to capture an audience

It's no secret that the age of the social movement is over. Our one weapon of mass defiance, the last bastion of democracy for citizens has been swept up in the neo-liberal tide and has been replaced with the 'conference.' This too is only available to the select few, as the government has made it clear they are only willing to deal with those who co-operate and comply with regulations.

The government has strategically given those who are more likely to upset the status quo a set at the table to keep them quiet - the Women's Movement clearly died away once the Ministry of Woman's Affairs was established in 1985. In doing so, the government sent a clear message to the women's movement - that we have heard you, we have recognised you, now shut up or we'll take it away.

The rise of post-feminism has also accentuated this belief. For feminists, it is an uphill battle for the state to recognise it has not upheld its part of the bargain, and to educate women that liberalism is simply window dressing the problem. Content to work in under-paid and gendered positions, women are preserving the status quo. But they are happy with this. Women are graduating in droves compared with their male counterparts, yet they are graduating with the same qualifications and entering professions that pay on average 10% less than what their male colleagues can expect to earn - and that's only in the first year, this increases over subsequent years and even more so if she CHOOSES to take time off to have children.

This idea of choice has been floating around since the second wave - a woman has the right to choose; the right to choose her education, the right to choose her occupation, the right to control her own body. These however are state sanctioned. The state has legislated over every aspect of her life because patriarchy will not tolerate or accept a female lawyer who is equally, if not more competent, than a man, a female doctor who is capable of dealing with something once thought inappropriate and de-feminising, or a woman who can run the country and appoint other women to help her improve the status of women in New Zealand.

But most women are ignorant to this, they take it for granted and expect that the state will continue to use liberal legislation that assumes formal equality under the law.

How then should I go about change? When the state has made it clear I am not a desirable representative of the movement - nor am I backed by a body of people who shared the same values as I. All I currently represent is what women should know and what women should stand up and fight for: abortion law, equity in employment, sexual and physical violence eradicated against women, and cultural and social change that recognises a women's role beyond 'mother' - her 'biological' entity - for all women, not just the privileged white middle-class woman.

My mobilisation skills are minimal without using freely available and disposable mechanisms that provide the means of grass-roots discussion. If I could get enough women together to start a consciousness-raising session I would - even if I only get through to one woman, that was one more than before. We must band together if we are to take on the monster under the bed, it wont go away on its own.