I am not a Feminist!

In the past days, I have been surprised to find articles on "feminism" on the (online) cover pages of the FT and Spiegel (a German weekly).

The FT ran two interviews, one with the CEO of Vogue UK and another one with a scriptwriter. I usually wouldn't have read the articles, but the word "feminism" pounced out at me in the titles. The interviews themselves weren't hugely interesting, but they both contained several passages on "why I am not a feminist, and why feminism is not relevant for this interview" - in response to the journalist's questions on "working females - must-have-views-on-feminism".

Another article reviewed Kristina Schröder's new book, which is on women. She is Germany's young family minister, who, as the reporter well put it, was hugely criticized for being appointed at first because she didn't have children, then later to be criticized because she just recently had a baby. Apparently, her book is an explicit rant against feminism, and how feminists actually undermine the position of women, because they place women in the role of a "victim".

As several of you have outed yourself as experts on feminist theory, and I know that some of you are "feminists", I would be interested in some lines (or more) of feedback on whether women who do not just paint their nails and curl their hair (etc.) are feminists (whether they want it or not).

p.s. I never considered myself a feminist, but after thinking about it more now, I think I am. I'll try to come up with some definition eventually.

p.p.s. The World Bank's President was chosen by the Board yesterday. Not surprisingly, the Korean-born, now US citizen, Jim Kim, who was nominated by Obama, was chosen. One of my first posts was on this topic ("Should a woman win?"). I think it was a pretty decent choice, although it was clearly based on the informal rule that the Bank's President is always American. I am certain that developed countries had agreed to this already when Lagarde, France's former Finance Minister (I should write about her, she is so cool!) replaced Strauss Kahn as IMF's head.