Feminism : Equality And Not Equality

A common misception believed by both feminists and non-feminists alike is that women earn less on the dollar than men, and while the number is never concrete, the typical number is 77%. This comes from Obama during a press conference where he stated “Today, the average full-time working woman earns just 77 cents for every dollar a man earns…”. While this quote is correct, it is heavily taken out of context. The number is calculated by the different jobs men and women take (women typically take white collar jobs whereas men typically take blue collar jobs as recorded in an article by Paul E. Gabriel & Susanne Schmitz), the different hours worked (men typically work more working hours than women with men

According to the latter cited authors feminism views the personal experiences of women and men through lens of gender. There are people who considered themselves feminists, but they are not agree in some aspects, but as was stated there are different types of being feminist. Although that distinction they all agree in the idea of eliminate gender stratification. Feminist completely opposes all ideas or laws that limit women`s education, income, and job opportunities.

Feminism began way back in the early 1800’s with a realization that gender roles limited the sexes. From the very start, there have been many male feminists, even if they are not spoken of often. In the 1830’s, William Lloyd Garrison emerged as one of the first men to openly believe in women participating in the abolition movement and other political issues. During that time, it took mounds of courage for a male to stand up and say that women could do something just as well as men. Fast forward over many years of history, and even in modern day America, men are still looked at strangely when they say they are feminists. One male feminist shared on CNN.com in 2013, “My feminism is a simple belief in equality. I’m a feminist because I believe that men and women are and should be equal, but we’re not treated equally right now” (Brougher 1). He shared his ideas of all the reasons women need to be given equal rights, but

Feminism in the 1960’s-1980’s is a very different concept than Feminism in the 21st century. Back in the 60’s, feminism meant to fight for equal rights. Now, modern feminism means women-dominance. While the dictionary definition of feminism is “a range of political movements, ideologies and social movements that share a common goal: to define, establish, and achieve equal political, economic, cultural, personal, and social rights for women”, many modern feminists take this to the point of fighting for the “right” for women to dominate men. Many modern feminists support female superiority, rudeness, and demonizing men.

As a result of the movement, women have been gaining rights from feminism for over a thousand years. The Feminist Movement officially started in Seneca Falls at the first Women’s convention. Where they fought for the right to vote, even though it took over 70 years for women to get the opportunity. The people who participate in the movement fought for numerous rights for women, like voting, birth control, and equality in the workplace(Simon). Without millions the of people supporting, Women wouldn’t be treated or have the same rights they do today. That’s why it’s still so important to support feminism because if no one does all the hard work of the women in the past would go to waste.

Based on your statement, it is evident that you are unaware about many important realities of the study of gender from a feminist perspective today. First, I think it is necessary to point out that it is a fallacy that the term “feminism,” the historical basis of the discipline of Women’s and Gender studies (WGS), is rooted in biases towards women and hate for men. In reality, as my Threshold Concepts text reveals, Bell Hooks defines feminism as “the struggle to end oppression,” noting that this definition then “directs our attention to systems of domination and inter-relatedness of sex [sic.], race, and class oppression” (Launius and Hassel, 4). Truly, feminism, and by extension WGS, delves into the oppression of minority groups by dominant groups. This means that it affects and involves all people, not just plainly men and women, revealing its relevance and importance to you, me, and everyone else.

Feminism appeals to political, cultural, and economics establishing a positive change in the rights of a woman. In my opinion, feminism was never discriminated against the difference between a woman and a man. A man can never be as good a mother as a female can and a woman can never be as good a father as a male can. It should not be difficult for people to accept the anatomical and physiological differences between the two genders. Feminism has changed drastically in the United States however, it still has some more right turns to make.

Let’s begin with what feminism really is. Feminist theory, according to my first literary criticism, by Haiyan Gao, is to achieve gender equality in all of humanity. “All feminist theory has a basic premise, which is, women worldwide are under an oppression, discrimination, and hierarchy state. In such a social structure prevalent among women in the political, economic, cultural, ideological, knowledge, ideas, ethics and other fields are in an unequal position with men, even in a private sphere of family, women are also in a position of inequality with men. Feminism

“Feminism is the belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes,” (clio history, 1). Many stereotypes that relate to feminism are either crazy women or women that hate men and believe that women should dominate the world. But in reality, feminism is for both sexes to be equal. Women do not want to take over men, it is simply to be equal in pay, jobs, and in society. With these negative stereotypes that a majority of people believe, the only way to keep feminism alive and active is to shut down these stereotypes and include men in the overall cause. “Men are essential allies in the feminist struggle and have much to gain when they too move beyond stereotyped gender roles; women can not and should not do it alone,” (clio history, 1).

By definition, feminism is the ideology that women have the right to be perceived as equal to men in terms of politics, business, and economically. For the last couple of decades, feminism has helped shape our society and the way men perceive women. Because of feminism, women in the United States of America were allowed to vote by August of 1920. Women now have the right to do so many things that would have been considered a taboo back in the early 20th century. Women can own their own businesses, and they can also become more politically involved, such an example would be Margaret Thatcher, ex-prime minister of the United Kingdom. Feminism has gone through many stages throughout the years, these stages have been named “waves”, and they include first wave feminism, second wave feminism, third wave feminism, and the most recent coined term: fourth wave feminism.

Feminists gave us as women and girls, the right to vote, own property, work in a field that’s not conventionally female, and speak our minds and opinions. Without feminism men would still get to dictate our lives, and not allow you to be the strong independant women you are. In summation, the ludicrous pay gaps will hopefully end, catcalling is not ok, and feminism is not about hatred but empowerment. I call myself a feminist because I support women feeling strong and powerful. I call myself a feminist because I believe eliminating sexism is something we should strive for as a country, but most of all I call myself a feminist because I support what women have fought for then and now, equality. Equality plain and simple, the most beautiful thing of all. Yes I am a feminist, but the real question is, are

The problem is that feminists observe some statistical disparity between the sexes that is advantageous to men (for example, that women make 77 cents for every dollar men make) and the feminists falsely *assume* that the disparity is due to discrimination/patriarchy/unfairness/privilege. In reality, sometimes a disparity in outcomes between different groups is due to the inherent *differences* between those groups. For example, everyone acknowledges that most

Feminism is a word with a wide variety of connotations. For some it brings to mind images of strong, influential women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony—women who changed the face of American politics for women. To some it is just another word, but to far too many, feminism is a hated word and therefore a hated cause. It stands for man-hating, excuse-making, manly women who play the victim to gain advantage over men. This negative image of a movement intended to fight for equality prevents both men and women from receiving the benefits moving the cause forward would reap. If people made feminism what it was intended to be then men and women would be empowered to rise above gender stereotypes.

Feminism is viewed as something bad but is it really bad? Most of the big battles women needed to fight have already been won thanks to previous generations but there is still more women, and men, can do. Feminist today are fighting against sexism everywhere. While commonly said or acted upon by men, women alike will do the same. Being told you can’t do something because you’re a girl, being treated differently because you’re a girl, being over sexualized because you’re a girl are all forms of sexism. You can even reverse the roles and it would still be the same for boys. Feminists today are also fighting a war against rape and sexual harassment. Kimberley Reader explains it further by stating, “A 2010 study conducted for Springer’s journal of Law and Human Behaviour concluded that 90% of women have suffered sexual discrimination in the workplace including offensive sexist remarks or being told they could not do their job properly due to their sex. In addition to this the study found that 10% of women had been promised promotions or better treatment if they were ‘sexually cooperative’.” (Reader). I would have been able to gain more statistics on rape but Noble High School has blocked anything relating to the topic. So when people are asked “what are they protesting for?” that is why. Feminists today are fighting to be equal to men without sexism or sexual harassment and

Looking through history, feminism can be traced all the way back to the revolutionary war. In this time, women went as far as dressing as men in order to fight for their country and what they believe in. Later on, it is presented during the time of the Women’s Suffrage movement, allowing women to vote with the 19th Amendment. Although women always found ways to fight back against society, feminism was never an actual developed idea. It only began in the early 1960’s that women really started questioning why they were so inferior to men. Women weren 't allowed to have much of an opinion before the sixties; if they dared to say what they thought it would be considered absurd.