Feminism The Past The Present and The Future

would you consider yourself a feminist

if you said yes you’re with 58 of the

population

wait that’s it what does the other 42

percent think

i hope they don’t actually think women

are inferior to men

there are so many misconceptions about

feminism that make people get the wrong

idea about it and steer them away from

supporting it

and although feminism has come a long

way since it first started

there’s still a long way to go before

gender equality is achieved

first let’s sort out those

misconceptions and understand what

feminism

really is then we’ll take a look at how

feminism has evolved over time

thanks to the work of countless feminist

leaders finally we’ll go over

the four steps to achieving gender

equality

up common misconceptions about feminism

will reveal that many

anti-feminists have beliefs that do line

up with the beliefs of feminism

the first and most prevalent

misconception is that feminism is about

showing

that women are better than men but

here’s the thing

the purpose of feminism is to achieve

gender equality

gender equality is about giving equal

rights responsibilities and

opportunities to all genders

trying to make women seem better than

men is just counterproductive to this

goal

so while someone who advocates that

women should be given more than men

might call themselves a feminist they

aren’t actually helping the feminist

cops

a second misconception is that women

can’t be treated as equal to men

because they’re not the same as men well

women don’t have to be the same as men

no two people are ever the same even if

they’re twins

that doesn’t make one person inferior to

the other

everyone has their own strengths and

weaknesses we all deserve

equal rights and opportunities the last

and possibly most incorrect

misconception

is that we don’t need feminism anymore

because gender equality has already been

achieved

the fact that 42 percent of the world

doesn’t identify as a feminist

alone disproves this gender equality

isn’t truly achieved

until 100 of the world believes in

feminism

but that’s definitely not going to be

easy before we think about what we can

do to reach this goal

let’s explore what has already been done

in the past to support the feminist

cause

the feminist movement can be split into

three waves each with a different goal

in mind

the first wave was from the 19th century

to the early 20th century

this wave’s main goal was to give women

the right to vote along with equal

contract and property rights this is

also a time period

when women were considered to be owned

by their husbands so naturally

first-way feminism fought against this

as well

first-wave feminism ended when the 19th

amendment was passed

in 1919 finally granting women the right

to vote

while this was a huge step towards

gender equality

many women of color were still

disenfranchised

more than 75 percent of african-american

women

could not exercise their right to vote

due to state constitutional loopholes

such as literacy tests

poll taxes etc native american asian

american and latinx women

all faced similar issues showing the

gender equality was still far from being

attained

second wave feminism lasted from the

1960s to the 1980s

the slogan for this wave was the

personal is political

this slogan was used as a way to reflect

how closely tied

cultural and political inequalities were

this wave attacked gender roles and led

women to realize

how their lives were decided for them

because of these roles

one of the most influential non-fiction

books of the 20th century

the feminine mystique was published

during this wave

written by betty frieden this book

criticized how society forced women

to find fulfillment through childbearing

and homemaking

the third and most recent wave of

feminism started in the 1990s

while significant gains were made in the

second wave

there was inevitably much backlash from

it as well

the goal of the third wave was to fix

the definitions of femininity

that rose from the second wave

many argued that the second wave

overemphasized the opinions of

upper middle class white women without

much regard to everyone else

additionally the third wave is the first

wave that actually looked at feminism on

an international basis rather than just

in america

so yes feminism has come a long way and

women definitely do have more rights

they started out with

but gender inequality still does exist

and something has to be done about it

women are still treated as inferior to

men in many aspects of society

but we can work towards fixing it one

step at a time

in 2018 it was expected to take another

108

years to achieve global gender equality

by the end of 2019 however this number

decreased to 99.5 years

even though the estimated number of

years to achieve global gender equality

is going down it’s still too far away

if we want to see gender equality in our

lifetime we

all have to do our part but to do that

you first have to understand what needs

to be done for gender equality to be

achieved

right now only 61 percent of women and

40 percent of men in america

agree with the term feminist describes

them very or somewhat well

for gender equality to be attained a

large majority of the population

needs to consider themselves a feminist

let’s take a look

at four steps we can take to make this

happen

the first step is to remove the negative

stigma

around the word feminism 37 percent of

americans have a negative stigma about

the word feminism

compared to only 26 percent who consider

it a positive term

feminism is often viewed as giving women

a privilege that men don’t have

some believe that the goal of feminism

is to make men the inferior gender

what they don’t see is that feminists

just want women to have

what men have had for so long nothing

more nothing less

helping people understand this will

hopefully remove the negative stigma

around feminism to some extent

the second step is helping people

understand how feminism benefits

everyone not just women for a lot of

people

just stating that gender and equality

should be everyone’s problem doesn’t

change their mindset

one specific group that feels that

feminism is not beneficial to them

is men while not all men think this way

as many as 28 of them think that women’s

gains in society

have come at the expense of men

they have to understand however that

feminism is something that benefits

everyone not just women countries that

educate women have better economies

healthier citizens

and less violence than countries that

don’t if women are educated

they can enter the workforce hence

boosting the economy

for every one percent increase in the

population of girls educated

a country’s gdp increases by 0.3 percent

in fact half of the economic growth for

the past

50 years in u.n member countries is

attributed solely to girls having a

better education

each additional year of girls education

also decreases infant mortality rates by

5

to 10 women having more important jobs

is actually beneficial for companies

individuals as female managers are six

percent more engaged

all in all there are multiple ways that

gender equality will help everyone

understanding this and helping others

understand this will encourage more

people to be feminists

the third step is to teach the next

generation about feminism

as you learned earlier there are so many

misconceptions about feminism

that steer people away from supporting

it but where do people get these

misconceptions of feminism from

while there may be exceptions for the

most part these ideas arise at a young

age

children may start noticing gender

inequality as early as three to five

years old

without good examples or proper guidance

it’s easy for kids to get the wrong

impression of feminism

for people to believe in feminism as an

adult they have to be educated about it

properly early on

one of the best ways to do this is by

teaching kids about feminism in school

however education isn’t just confined to

school

kids learn best by observing the

examples set by parents

teachers older siblings and other

important people in their life

if they see gender and equality in their

household then they’ll think there’s

nothing wrong with it

but if they see gender equality at home

they’ll know that gender discrimination

is wrong when they see it outside

teaching those who are younger than you

about gender equality will help shape

the next generation into feminists

the fourth step is to increase female

representation

in positions of power almost all of the

countries closest to eliminating their

gender gap

have had at least one female leader

kamala harris becoming the first female

vice president

is definitely a huge step for the united

states

unfortunately the fact the u.s has still

never

had a female president is likely one of

the reasons why it’s still

53rd in gender equality rankings

however leading a country is not the

only position of power there is

women taking up leadership positions in

companies will also help with closing

the gender gap

and as a bonus companies with women in

leadership roles

generally do better than those without

in the companies that have

top 20 of financial performance 27

of leaders are women among the bottom 20

of financial performers only 19 of

leaders are women

all together empowering women to pursue

positions of power

both in the government and in companies

will help with proving that women

are in fact capable of doing things that

are typically labeled as

masculine so while gender equality

is still quite far away if we all do our

part

there is no doubt that we can achieve it

so now you know that not all

anti-feminists really hate feminism in

its true form

misconceptions about it often come in

the way of understanding

what it really is you learned about how

the first three waves of feminism

were successful in getting 58 of the

population

to identify as a feminist but you also

understand now

that gender equality is far from being

achieved which is why

we need to do our part to help

so let’s take a stance and make gender

equality a reality

thank you