Feminism is one the basic movement for human right liberty. The role of a feminist is basically to see the need for and consequently work towards creating equality for all women. Feminism involves a political force, liberation movements, sociological theories and philosophies concerned with issues of gender difference, it also advocates for gender equality for women and campaigns for women’s rights and interests.
According to Maggie Humm and Rebecca Walker, the history of feminism can be divided into three waves. The first feminist wave was in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the second was in the 1960s and 1970s, and the third extends from the 1990s to the present. Feminist theory emerged from these feminist movements. It is manifest in a variety of disciplines such as feminist geography, feminist history and feminist literary criticism.
Feminism has changed various perspectives and mentality in a wide range of areas within Western society, ranging from predominant cultures to law. Feminist activists have campaigned for women’s legal rights (rights of contract, right to own properties, voting rights); for women’s right to bodily integrity and autonomy, for abortion rights, and for reproductive rights (including access to contraception, birth control pills and quality prenatal care); for more equitable pay with men, right to initiate divorce proceedings, protection of women and girls from domestic violence, sexual harassment and rape;for workplace rights, against misogyny; and against other forms of gender-specific discrimination against women.
However,the misunderstanding of the term “feminism” has led to so many erroneous assumption that it is majorly and solely about women. I do not hold such illusions. While feminism targets gender equality from the front of empowering and elevating women, it at the same time makes effort to end harmful norms, value and expectations that hurt us all, not excluding any gender. Unequal jail times is a feminist issues as much as domestic violence, no matter the gender of the perpetrator. Rape culture is a feminist issue as much early child marriages.
Feminism is basically about gender equality and fairness for both sexes, not about giving women a “leg up” over men. We have radical feminists who will champion the ideology of supremacy of women. We have those that shut men down because they’re men, and have “no right to speak about feminist issues” (that should however not be the case, men should be given access to the oppressed voices, men have every right to speak about, champion, and advocate for feminist issues. We have feminist organizations where by the CEO are men).These people have lost sight of the ideology of feminism and they hereby hold illusions. All things being equal, a feminist sees the immediate inequalities plaguing women, much more than those plaguing men — which happens to make sense, because of societal attitudes, work environments( unequal payments) the general world inhabited by women is far different from one inhabited by men.
Yet principally, feminism is not just about gender equality but a far more greater equality. It is about tearing down biased and parochial norms and forming a less preconceived society that allows people to take up the roles they want, achieved constructive goals, do things based on merits rather than gender, and generally be more liberal. Another feminist issue that needs to be resolved is the gender power dynamic, it rises from the assumption that men are more assertive and powerful, and women are more submissive and quiet. Nothing could be further from the truth, it holds no lie. These erroneous assumptions are what lead to women being poorly represented and pictuered in positions of higher power, and female bosses are being conformed to an image as “bossy” over “assertive”. It is also why women need to prove themselves to be as competent as, if not more than, their male counterparts.They are overly aggressive when it comes to competition and competence. All of these are born out from a set of established gender norms, and the inculcating mindset that women are inferior or less in whatever way .It leads to the slow increase of gender inequality. such as a leadership position is meant for a man( boss) or women are not capable of doing this or that. Such illusions!
We need feminism because we need break the chains and ideaolgy of ” she/ he can’t do it”). We need allow both of ourselves and others to thrive.“Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive, both men and women should feel free to be strong.” -Emma Watson.Feminism is important. Here are several more examples why we need feminism: Blatant sexism seeps economic, social and economic life,Women want to be called strong, not obsessive. Women should not feel the need to apologize for their constructive achievement.We need accept all forms of gender.Women should not be told how to live their lifes( freedom of thoughts and expression).We need to get rid of hate speech and double standards when talking about women.Men who are called feminists should not be ridiculed.
Let’s consider thus: who runs the family and the whole household? We need get rid of the ideology, that a woman who chooses to work outside the home, she still have to do all the housework, or most of it! There are still very few stay-at-home dads. We have the ideology that women belong in the kitchen. How ridiculous! Women belong in the kitchen. Yes! Men also belong in the kitchen, everyone belongs in the kitchen.The media should be not be left our as well, leading the way towards a more tolerant society in which the sexes become equal. Unfortunately, in our social world, misogyny is very much tolerated. Just look at the sexist language and stereotypes we are subjected to every day: Women should always be in shape ( no fat). The average UK woman worries about her body image every 15 minutes (because of some many devaluing statement and body shamming language).Darker skinned women must get a paler complexion or better still bleach). Blacks are still very much degraded just because of their body colour. Smart people are usually male, while females are dumb but always attractive. There’s so much inequality in the society, conscious or not, we get hooked up in gender bias and all other form of discrimination. Lot of reasons why need the feminist in our society, they had and have brought positive changes to our society
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