By Laura Bramall
Fawcett’s banner ‘Courage calls to courage everywhere’ stares down at us from her plinth in Parliament Square. She has been immortalized in stone, and stands watching Parliament for all to see, but I feel the power that stands behind her is that of thousands of women who have and will call upon their courage. I believe her motto is an essentially female one, for she is talking of a particular kind of courage. Courage can be to stand up and speak out about an injustice, to protect ones loved ones at all costs, or to show kindness in the face of personal adversity. But for a woman, courageousness is necessary to survive. To have a shower and eat breakfast after a night troubled by dreams of past trauma, or to walk into an office where macho sexual jokes abound requires the utmost courage, and it is courage that is overlooked in almost every woman. Courage calling to courage is not just a call to arms but a call to for comprehension.
For anyone not male, the world is a more scary place. A medical student was recently recounting her experiences to me of learning in hospital: to her it is apparent that the more attractive, or made up, a female student is the less respect she is afforded, both from patients and her senior doctors. Conversely, a more attractive man is more likely to be admired and respected. Why this is is a new debate, but what it shows is just one reason why non-male people must be more courageous: if you are less respected you are less likely to be given opportunities, to take part in a surgery or try out your skills on a patient, and so you have to be braver in asking for jobs, and more courageous in chasing opportunities. Even though you are likely to be less confident, because the world has given you less reason to be, you require more confidence to achieve what your attractive male counterpart does more easily.
Not only are women less likely to be granted respect without chasing it, but most women are physically smaller than most men. This comes with its own fear of, not just sexual, violence. This underlying threat of violence, in addition to the need to fight for respect collides perfectly with a society littered with rape jokes, victim blaming, and exclusion of minority voices to create a world that is not only hostile but often terrifying. To navigate this world a woman needs the courage that Fawcett calls upon.
The question remains: how then can anyone comprehend another’s courage? The media have labelled Philip Schofield ‘brave’ for coming out after 27 years of marriage, but they have never labelled any young woman brave for walking home late at night, or for speaking in front of the class. I can’t understand how difficult it must have been for Schofield, but I hope he would agree that the word ‘brave’ should be more generously applied to others. I see no reason to limit the number of ‘brave’ people in our society: the word will not lose its meaning because it has a different meaning for everyone. Almost everyone is brave, from the astonishing number of men who silently tackle depression or suicidal thoughts to the children of immigrant parents who must endure xenophobic taunts every day at school. Courage isn’t a quality reserved for heroes, just as brave isn’t a label that can only be assigned to them. Fawcett may be a hero but her banner is not encouraging idolatry: she asks women to reveal to the world the courage she already knows they have.