What Is It We Are Really Fighting For?

Is
Feminism Still Relevant?
Youre a woman. How can you be an anti-feminist? This is the number one
question that I am always asked when the subject is brought up. Feminism has
become such a staple concept in our society that no one questions its integrity
anymore. But what is modern feminism really fighting for? If you asked a modern
day feminist, the most common answer would be equality. But the truth is a little
more complicated. Modern day feminism is less about womens suffrage and more
about exercising favoritism over gender roles, economic and social opportunity and
holding on to sense of injustice over the past.
At the turn of the 19th century, America was just beginning to shape itself.
Give me Liberty: An American History discusses how there were lingering tensions
from the Revolutionary War and the debates about the future of this brand new
country. Women were an integral part of this history and very rarely had a voice in
the crucial decisions that were going to influence the changing of a new world (Give
me Liberty, 230). This beginning, which became the root of contemporary feminism,
has a very real and significant impact in giving equal rights to women. This
movement is what ultimately changed how society viewed traditional gender roles
as women stepped out from behind their husbands and were given a voice. Eric
Foner, the author of Give Me Liberty, explains that as popular opinion changed, the
womens suffrage movement made it possible for the 19 th Amendment to be
passed, giving women the right for women to vote. Equal opportunity laws were
implemented in the years to come and women became empowered in a way that
they could never have been in the past. During World War II, woman filled the gaps
left behind by the men at war and proved that they were just as capable of working

jobs that had always been defined as a mans work which played a big role in our
country. Wartime manufacturing is what brought America out of the Great
Depression (Give Me Liberty, 695). The word feminism didnt even come into
popularity until the progressive era in the early 1900s and the new wave of
feminism was more about sexual liberation then civil rights (Give me Liberty, #588).
For the generation of women who adopted the word feminism to express the
demand for greater liberty, free sexual expression and reproductive choice emerged
as the critical definitions of womens emancipation, Foner explains. This is the
exact opposite of what contemporary feminism advocates; womens right to not be
judged as sexual objects. Along with this, they also advocated the right of
contraceptives that gave political expression to the changing sexual behavior.
For the past several decades, it has been widely accepted in our society
today that women are still oppressed, fueled by conventional debates and the many
activists that continue to fight for the cause. Progress has improved leaps and
bounds over the last two centuries, yet the media tell us that its still not enough.
Its so rooted in our society that we dont even call it feminism anymore. Its
expected to believe that women suffers discrimination but that doesnt even factor
in the common belief that women who are not white suffer even worse
discrimination. The grievances of women are spoken about as if every woman
shares them equally. Grievances are a dime a dozen, making it even harder to
decipher which truly need to be addressed over the ones who are complaining for
the sake of complaining. And the more controversial grievances becomes, the more
widespread they travel.
In 2013, Huffpost Politics took a poll and found that 20% of Americans, (23%
of women and 16% of men) considered themselves feminists. But when asked if

they believed that men and women should be social, political, and economic equals,
82% of the respondents said they did. This suggests that most Americans
differentiate feminism from the equal rights movement. Women have been
conditioned to believe that we are never going to be truly equal and the rapidly
changing view of gender roles over the last twenty years have caused men to
experience a form of oppression that weve simply ignored. Men do not always have
the same type of opportunities women have. Here are just a few of them.
One. The small percentage of safe houses that do exist for male victims of
domestic abuse are often ultimately closed and those that do cater to men only
have half the services of those available for women. One third of all domestic
violence injuries are suffered by men, Dr. Denise Hines, a research assistant
psychology professor, details in her findings about the response men received after
calling domestic abuse hotlines or shelters seeking help. More than half of the men
who called were told that those services only helped women. Overall, only 8% of the
men found them to be very helpful while 69% of them found them to be not very
helpful at all and 16% of them were dismissed and made fun of (Researcher: What
happens when). Even RISE, a nonprofit crisis intervention and treatment services
organization for those suffering spousal abuse will admit that, Though our safe
houses are not open to men, RISE will work with male victims who need safe
housing through hotel stays and support accessing other emergency shelter
providers for men. Seems noble, however this shows that the men who are in need
emergency housing are seen less important than women who are able to get
immediate service.
Two. More men are raped in prisons then women are nationwide. In 2008,
government tallied 935 confirmed cases of sexual abuse. Using an anonymous

survey, the Prison Rape Statistics Program was able to determine that there were a
startling 88,500 victims who had been sexually victimized and assaulted multiple
times over the course of a year. That doesnt take into consideration how many
chose to remain silent despite the assurances that the study would remain
anonymous. In that year alone, the Justice Department reported that prison rape
accounted for the majority of all rapes committed in the U.S.
Three. In his article Why Men Still Cant Have It All author Richard Dorment
explains that nearly 60% of bachelors and graduate degrees go to women, (They
Say I Say, 698). And over 40% of college students are men Saul Kaplan explains in
his article The Plight of Young Males(They Say I Say, 733). The gender
achievement gap is astounding. It mattered far less in the industrial era when young
men of this country could find good high-wage jobs in the manufacturing sector
without a college degree or post-secondary credential, Kaplan goes on to clarify.
Women are also more likely to be considered for a job. A Comcast hiring consultant
recently admitted to me during a job application that she was looking for women
technicians, not because they had any particular skill but because she wanted to
even out the odds.
Four. In terms of parental roles, society has an opinion on who should be the
primary caregiver according to the amount of changing tables in mens public
restrooms. It makes caring for kids even more difficult and reinforces the gender
stereotype that women are the only caregivers in a household. In 2015, actor
Ashton Kutcher spoke out against face that almost all public changing tables are in
womens bathrooms, making it nearly impossible to find one accessible for dads.
This prompted New York State senator Brad Hoylman to introduce a bill that would

enforce businesss to implement the change. This bill was about equal opportunity
but I was hard pressed to find any feminist activists fighting for it.
The hard truth that many feminists have to swallow is that, not only do
women have equal rights, they often have more legal rights than men do. In the
Unites States women have the legal right to genital integrity. It is illegal to
circumcise your daughter but not your son. Women have the legal right to choose
parenthood. Not only does a woman have the absolute power to decide if getting an
abortion is right for you but women also have the legal right to be assumed
competent caregivers for children. Women have the legal rights for exclusive tax
benefits for being a business owner. Women have the legal right to domestic abuse
shelters. Women also the legal right to not be assumed the primary aggressor in a
domestic dispute and the legal right to call unwanted or coerced sex rape. Janet
Bloomfield, an advocate for mens rights, says in her experience feminists will
backpedal when confronted with this reality and will try to justify why they are
deserving of more rights but fact remains that as of 2014, women do have more
rights than men. That is not to say that any of these laws are inherently bad. The
only thing that is wrong with them is the fact that they pertain solely to women.
Women are not equally oppressed and in fact have many incredible opportunities
that are taken advantage of.
Another big question we should be asking is, what has modern feminism done
in this modern age? Does it promote the happiness and positive welfare of women?
As Suzanne Venker, a celebrated feminist scholar and author says, The saddest
part of this misguided view of human nature is that it hasnt made women any
happier. In fact, it has done just the opposite. As women have gained more freedom,
more education, and more power, they have become less happy. The cause of this

can be correlated to the collective judgment that all women should feel the same
way about wanting a career. Those that do choose family over a career are met with
reactions ranging from disappointed to condescending. The assumptions that this is
somehow sad and unfortunate is a common belief as shown by Anne MarieSlaughter in her article, Why Women Still Cant Have It All? (They Say I Say, 678).
This is not true equality. We live in a society of equal opportunity, not equal
outcome. Gender equality means a lack of assumptions about gender and
implementation of equal chances. This means that the merit of success is based on
the individual, not defined by group characteristics. It also means that anyone can
be a primary caregiver to a child, anyone can be in the infantry if they pass physical
requirements, and no one is discouraged from a profession based on their gender. It
doesn't mean that every profession must be equally practiced by men and women
and it doesn't mean that we ignore the differences between the genders. Both men
and women have the potential to be rapists and both are sexualized in the media.
Equality is what feminism is aiming for, not creating a divide between people.
Yet continually we are falling short of the mark. Feminists today still desperately
cling on to the same standards that started in civil rights movement and have not
evolved to the current needs of the new age. In order to achieve true equality we
need to throw out old ideas over who was victimized in the past and how we can
change the future by embracing the idea of promoting individuals by their own
values, not by the misfortunes that previous generations have experienced.

Works Cited
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