Modern Day Feminism

Women have been active since the beginning of the early 1800’s and struggle until today’s day, to fight for equality. There were two women movement waves. The first wave was focused on the equality of the women by working on voting rights. The second wave from 1963 to 1982 concentrated on social issues. As in “Collective Action for Social Change”, Aaron Schutz and Marie Sandy stated in their book “women were tired of being second class citizens”. The civil rights movement spillover inspired women to create social movements by acting and building organizations focused on the issues that affected the women. The social issues were child care, domestic violence, contraception, and women’s health. One of the major topics that the feminists focused on was domestic violence that still exists in today’s day worldwide.

Through the efforts of influential women activists through history, women could achieve gender equality and eliminate the inferiority complex that was labeled on them.

Feminism has not changed today, but its focus has changed. Many women today have good education and employment opportunities just like men, as the early feminist fought for them. Now, after getting all these, men are now discriminating them and at times abusing them in order to undermine their hard work and potentiality. Men are doing all they can to undermine the success women have been able to acquired, however, today’s feminism is struggling to protect women and girls from domestic violence, sexual harassment, and rape as well as discrimination.

Activism has fought for gender equality in America. The woman suffrage movement gave the opportunity of gender equality in America. It began in the 1850s but was lost focused of until after the Civil War ended. The movement was formed by women activist and some men too. The movement’s goal was to gain equality of gender, that women would be able to vote, gain the same responsibilities that came with citizenship and end woman suffrage. The movement included parades, speeches, protests. Many people disagreed that women should have rights to vote and be a full citizen so there were many arguments. The Women’s Movement accomplish to win the right to vote as a women. FRom the movement, new women cafe, newspapers, and bookstores were opened. Not only that but, clinics and refuge for women and help for those in the presence of domestic violence and sexual abuse.

When thinking about feminism in today’s society we tend to direct our minds and thoughts to a more radical and powerful train of thought. Feminism has been going on for centuries, with two main ideologies at the forefront; liberal and cultural feminism. Someone who identifies as a liberal feminist is someone who believes that women and men are a like and equal in most respects and deserve equal roles and opportunities (Wood & Fixmer-Oraiz, 2017, p. 58). And cultural feminism is someone who identifies as someone who believes that men and women are fundamentally differently; you have different rights, role and opportunities (Wood & Fixmer-Oraiz, 2017, p. 58). The women’s rights movement can be understood and broken down into three “waves”.

These radical feminists believed that the origin of gender discrimination could be found in the values of American society. They declared that men were raised to view women as sex objects, rather than equal human beings, and that this arrogance led to violence, including rape and physical abuse, committed against women. These feminists focused on restructuring the way women were represented in the media, literature, and popular culture (Loveday,

Throughout the history of this country especially beginning in the 1800s with the women's suffrage movement, women have fought for equality. It is no secret that the role of men versus women have change immensely over the last century however some things have not changed. As a result of the unchanging or slowly evolution of equality feminism has arise.

The Merriam-Webster definition of feminism is “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” In the past century, gender roles have been challenged because of feminism. The very idea has completely flipped households, workplaces, and the general community and changed it for the better. A plethora of women’s movements were initiated in the 1960’s, and it gave people a look at how powerful women are when we stand united. Feminism has gained many followers in the past thirty to forty years as more people are becoming aware of conflicts pertaining to discrimination. However, there are many that were hesitant both in the 1960’s and in the present day, but for very different reasons. Nevertheless, persistence seems to be a beacon in women’s rights movements, thanks to very strong and level-headed role models.

A major part of our world today is women wanting a voice and to be treated just as equal as men. Women’s fighting for their rights has been going on since early as the 1900s and still currently in 2014. Although we have had made improvements the issue still arises everyday in the workplace, household, etc. Between different movements, powerful people standing up, or drastic matters being taken, women were fed up and for once were finally standing up for themselves. From wanting the right to vote, civil rights in the United States between same sex couples, and outside the household work, the list would just begin to grow and grow everyday as women became more powerful and began speaking up for not only themselves but everyone else who is effected

Radical feminists- the aim was to challenge normal values of society and at the end this resulted in the rights been divided between the two genders. According to radicalists they believe that based on whether you are male or female will state how powerful you are in society.

Feminism by definition means the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social and economic equality to men. But many a time’s people restrict the boundary of these forgetting the very important element of diversity of women living in different places and in varied situations.

The idea of women being equal to men has been debated for a very long time. Even when civilizations were just starting, most women were treated very differently from men. When women started fighting against this oppression they were called feminists. Feminism can be separated into three waves. The first wave of feminism was from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s. The second wave was from the 1960s to the 1980s. The third wave of feminism started in the 1990s, but its end is unclear. Some people believe it has ended and the fourth wave of feminism has started, but others believe it continues today. The different waves have been very different in some aspects, but very similar in others. The main differences between the first and third wave of feminism are what they fought for, how they protested, and society’s reaction to their cause.

Feminism has been defined as the advocacy of social equality for men and women, in opposition to patriarchy and sexism.

Many feminist theorists believe that an individual is labeled at birth as a member of a sex category, either male of female, and from that point on, is held to acting accordingly. Gender is not something that one has or something that one is; rather, it is something that one does.  Gender as Social Structure Risman does not accept the criteria of nature as a way to distinguish behavior expectations.

With these problems the key demands of this movement were: “the right to safe and legal abortion, the right to accessible and affordable childcare, and the equal opportunities in education and employment”. Another demand was more support of battered women's shelters, and changes in custody and divorce law.