Picture a woman or a group of successful women in business clads or in a sleek uniform breaking

into the men-dominated arena and getting the hang of it. Picture Beyoncé or Emma Watson efficiently
using their social media status to influence people on how we should view women. Picture a group of
angry, forceful women strong enough to break chains of years of repression they have experienced just
because they are women. I bet there is a flash of bold word called feminism marked on them. It is not
deniable and it signifies the coming of a distinct change in our society where all of us get to realize the
significance of having no divide between men and women.

Feminism, a political ideology, often misunderstood and wrongly disseminated. In various

dictionaries, it is defined as the belief that men and women should have equal rights or it is the advocacy
where women should be granted equal opportunities as men, socially, economically, and politically. Even
though it is defined as simple as it could be, the combining factors that encompass to this ideology lead
to misconception and misunderstanding to people. More often than not, people think that feminism is all
about women dominating men and that the endgame of this movement is men losing out their power,
influence, and highly-celebrated status to women. These reasons are critical and could be mainly why
there are still people who hated the word feminism and throw debunks on it. In a nutshell, feminism is
about equality and not to acquire “sameness” between men and women. This is what an article released
by Forbes magazine on 2017 pointed out. It is so critical that one should point out the difference between
“equal” and “same”. A misguided individual would easily get the wrong idea about feminism and
therefore would utter vehement with regards to the movement. A man and women do not have to be
physically the same in order to have equal rights and privileges. It is that simple but in reality a hard
concept to digest.

In the Philippine culture, feminism, mostly, if not in all forms, is slowly gaining prevalence. In my
opinion, the gender and sexuality classes, especially in the Philippine context, should be taught in a
feminist viewpoint to ensure avoidance of bias discussions in favor to men. It is a given fact that discussion
in feminism is not complete without discussion in gender equality. The classroom is an effective and
proper place to discuss, promote, and enlighten the students about the essence of feminism and its core
significance to the society.

The present time saw a distinct change in the viewpoints of people regarding the importance of
women and their contributions in the society. Every day we see or hear women bringing forth changes
and developments in respective areas they are in. They are now getting talked about, get celebrated,
respected, and recognized. In short, we have come far from what I usually like to call the dark ages of
women and gender equality where a person is seen based on what he/she is and not on what he/she can
do. Although the world is still full of vast array of conflicting beliefs and opinions regarding issues
concerning gender equality and the political ideology of celebrating women and men equality we call
feminism, we are slowly coming into circle and more and more people