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