How do people perceive the need of feminism even in the 20th Century itself?

What is feminism?

According to the definition in the dictionary, feminism means the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.

There is a significant difference between advocating for the nemesis of specific sex and believing that one sex should triumph over the other. Taking into consideration sex, not gender.

Taking into account biological factors and the makeup of chromosomes instead of characteristics that society implants that insinuates masculinity or feminity. Feminism falls in between misogyny and misandry. It is like the middleman. You need a middleman to justify situations and to be a neutral party.

You have to understand that the constant battle for the equality of women to be looked upon as the same regard as men still comes a very long way.The voices are getting stronger by day. But the question is, are people advocating it justly?

Misogyny and Misandry

Feminism does not believe that one own sex has more authority or power over the other. The answer is Equality. We want Equality.

If you look into the terms misogyny and misandry, you can see the relating patterns as both are defined as a significant preference and/or prejudice against female or male. Let’s take a look at recent occurrences that accentuates both acts of misogyny and misandry.

For instance, let’s shed light on Donald Trump’s war on women since he was granted a position in the office.

Considering how short of a time he has been a President, it already has 53 million hits on Google itself. That is a massively disgusting amount of supporters.

You know the statement he brings up at every given situation to shift everyone’s focus on how “great” of a President he is?

“Make America Great Again” 

Give emphasis to the word ‘again.’ It means that he longs to return to the early 1950s. The traditional views of how men are the supposed superior figure. And the fact that women have to bow down to men and be socially inferior.

Aside from that, he has been showing signs of inappropriateness subjected to women. Although Trump is known to continually flirt with women in professional settings and situations, he has a history of going head to head with women, especially.

A recent yet famous example would be Elizabeth Warren. He is frequently in battle- battle of sexes with her.

He typically refers to her with immature and insensitive nicknames. Sometimes going too far when he gave her a nickname of “Pocahontas” relating it to the Navajos (an indigenous community in Southwestern America).

Giving rude and hurtful remarks on someone’s appearance- mostly women is conventional for Trump. Nevermind the name callings and criticisms, he goes as far as making comments instilling signs of potential harassment.

Not forgetting that there are wars on both women and men. But the magnitude of war on women is far worse in this day and age.

” Women are not the only victims, nor men the only villains.” 

Why is it that the question of sexes is becoming the lesser of two evils? How should we shift our focus at hand?

I think that one of the best solutions is to empower these heroes, villains, and victims. We don’t want to continually have to play this game of who’s better, who’s right and who’s not.

It is getting repetitive. It is getting stale. It is getting out of hand. Giving this approach would work towards shedding a balanced light on both sexes and not so much on hate and war between each other.

Gender-pay gap situation in status quo

Everyone is making statements like, “Women are earning just as much as men,” “Why do we still need feminists?”, “Why are feminist movements still existing?”,”Aren’t women already just as well off as men?”.

To answer your question, despite the multiple gender-pay laws over the course of the past years, wage-gap between males and female is very much prevalent.

Assumably, people presume that women get just as much as men in current status quo.

In essence, you are not precisely incorrect. Statistics have shown that a woman working full-time earns 85% as much as men.

Great isn’t it?

But wait…

There's a distinct twist to it. Some are wondering, how could this be right? How could women earn just as much as men? 

The reason is clearcut. Women outnumber men in most of these low-paying jobs. There is a severe discrepancy in the numbers of men and women in the workplace.

Men and women tend to be segregated based on the patriarchal views. Of course in this modern day, there has been a slight improvement. But not enough to shift and awaken the majority.

Occupations in which women predominate still pays significantly lesser. 1/5th of the senior executive roles in the G7 countries are females. They are mostly dominated by males as expected.

Men and women are free to study what they want, free to take up any occupations of choice and have an open say in their future undertakings. Workplace discrimination has been banned for a relatively long time. But why is it that the gender-pay situation still remains so prominent in the workplace today?

Researchers have worked day and night to obtain information to support this underlying claim. In Canada, women and men were given a set of two ads.

One was for a stereotypically masculine job such as a President, a businessman and so on. Another was a more “feminine” job such as a “nurse, teacher etc.” A majority of the women preferred the “feminine” jobs because they stated that it is within their comfort zones and it seems appealing to them.

They felt as if they would belong in the feminine jobs whereas, the male-dominated jobs don’t belong to them.

The contemporary state of modern feminism

How did the word initially come about? The first wave of the feminist movement is during the 19th Century. The urge to fight for suffrage revolutionized the entire feminist movement.

It allowed women to have their own voices heard and to be able to make their own choices and uphold a sense of ownership. The end of the Second World War opened up a new vision for Women. They were slowly taking up jobs and instilling the rights to earn their own income- no longer having to depend on another person.

Feminism is slowly losing touch with its initial aims which are to promote equality- especially in the times when women were not allowed to vote. Feminism is turning into a fight between the lesser of two evils. It is becoming more of a ‘man-hating’ campaign. Due to the misconception that all men are anti-feminists.

This is the third-wave feminism in a big picture. As aforementioned in the definition of feminism- it is for both sexes to gain equal rights. How can equality even be achieved when men aren’t welcomed to be involved in this movement.

In order to achieve a common goal, both parties have to act accordingly.

Conclusion

I am a feminist. I strongly press for the rights of both women and men.I will continually strive for the equality of both sexes and I wish to see both sexes thriving- someday.

Continue advocating, continue battling and fighting for what you believe in. Set your heart straight and let your voices orchestrate.

Toodles,

Sandra™

Toodles,

Sandra™