Today feminism is not widely spoke about. Many people believe that because women have practically achieved equal rights to men that feminists can now focus on something else entirely. I don’t believe that that is true. In the past feminists have largely changed the way society views women and the rights that we as women deserve. But then again that doesn’t mean that the fight for true equality is over. Women still need to fight for equal rights in the work industry and in the view of society. We need the feminist fight to continue.
The first wave of feminism was in the Nineteenth Century and it was focused to end women's suffrage. Women’s suffrage was the idea of getting women the right to vote. The feminist's first success was in 1918 when the Representation of the Peoples Act was passed allowing women over the age of 30 who owned houses to vote. Then by 1928 this Act was extended to all women over the age of 21. The first wave of feminism was said to end with the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which granted all women the right to vote ("History and Theory of Feminism"). 
The second wave of feminism was active in the 1960's and into the 1980's and the focus was on political and cultural discrimination. Feminist Carol Hanisch, “encourage[d] women to understand aspects of their personal lives as deeply politicized and as reflecting sexist power structures” (“History and Theory of Feminism”). Feminist Betty Friedan author of the book The Feminine Mystique wrote in her book about how much she disliked the idea that all she was good for was to be a wife and mother. Although the first wave of feminism helped to educate women they were still socially confined to the duties of being a mother and a wife (“Three Waves of Feminism”). During this second wave period there were many success' the women had involving new laws being passed including the Women’s Educational Equity Act that was passed in 1974. This program was passed to give women and girls the opportunity to have the same equity as men when it came to education ("Women's Educational Equity"). There was also another act that was passed that made rape in the marriage a criminal offence and that was called the Criminalization of Marital Rape. Although many people believe that the second wave of feminism was a failure it’s shown that it was not.
The third wave of feminism began in the early 1990s and continues into the present day. Third wave feminists tend to shy away from being called feminists because they like to think of themselves as more multicultural than the other feminists in the first and second waves (“History and Theory of Feminism”). Third wave feminists focus on fighting against the stereotypes of women and how the media portrays women. Third wave feminists benefit greatly because of the legal rights and economic and professional power obtained by the second wave feminists (Brunell). In 1997 an organization called the Third Wave Foundation was created to help, “support groups and individuals working towards gender, racial, economic and social justice” (Brunell). The accomplishments of third wave feminists are far from over as is the wave itself. As of now in the present, “the third wave redefined women and girls as assertive, powerful, and in control of their own sexuality” (Brunell).
Feminism is still continuing on into the present day and in my opinion I believe that that is what we need. We must continue to fight towards complete equality. I believe our future in feminism is a bright one. The success that we have had in the past I believe will continue on into the future. There are a couple things that we need to work on though and they are how the media views women and the gender wage gap.
Many people argue that women are already completely equal to men and that there is no need for feminists in todays society. I beg to differ. In todays society women continue to feel the need to be beautiful and impress the men. In my generation I was constantly surrounded by princess dress up costumes and Barbies. When it comes to Barbie now we have made some leaps forward. Barbie had evolved now to what they call the career Barbie. There are 150 different careers that Barbie has been made into including a doctor and astronaut. These new barbies are showing the young children that you can be whatever you want no matter if you are a girl.
As I mentioned before women have now gained the power and positions in the work place. The same ones that men have. Although they have accomplished this there is still a problem. The gender wage gap. In 2011 Statistics Canada stated that, "the gender wage gap in Ontario is 26% for full time, full year workers. This means that for every $1.00 earned by a male worker, a female worker earns 74 cents" (Government of Ontario).
Many people believe that feminism has no purpose in todays society because women have almost reached the point of being completely equal to men. These people can be called anti-feminists. It's clear though that they are wrong. Just by using the word 'almost' when describing the equality displays it enough. Almost is not good enough. We need complete equality to men and thats why we still need feminists.
I believe that feminism will continue to have a large impact on the future. As you can see in the previous paragraphs there have been tremendous improvements for the life quality of women. As we are now into the third wave of feminism we are still making progress to better the lives of women. I used the examples of the Barbies that have now evolved into career Barbies which is a step in the right direction. And I also mentioned the gender wage gap that needs to be improved for women to earn the same income as men. Overall feminism is important to the Western world and will continue to make great impacts for the lives of women.
Works Cited
Brunell, Laura. “Third Wave: An Accurate and Succinct Rendering.” Rebecca Walker. Rebecca Walker, 4 Sept. 2009. Web. 11 June 2014. <http://www.rebeccawalker.com/blog/2009/09/04/third-wave-an-accurate-and-succinct-rendering>.
Government of Ontario. “The Gender Wage Gap.” Pay Equity Commission. Government of Ontario, 18 Sept. 2012. Web. 13 June 2014. <http://www.payequity.gov.on.ca/en/about/pubs/genderwage/wagegap.php>.
“History and Theory of Feminism.” Gender. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 June 2014. <http://www.gender.cawater-info.net/knowledge_base/rubricator/feminism_e.htm>.
Scarsbrook, Kelly. “Barbie.” Stay at Home Mom. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 June 2014. <http://www.thestayathomemother.com/node/144>.
“Three Waves of Feminism.” Women’s History. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 June 2014. <http://womenshistory.answers.com/feminism/what-are-the-three-waves-of-feminism>.
“Women’s Educational Equity.” Education Government. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 June 2014. <https://www2.ed.gov/pubs/Biennial/125.html>.
I agree with this post completely. Although women have come along way I believe they are still not seen as equals to men. Women in the workplace have moved up but even being proved here still do not make as high of a salary as men and many do the exact same job. As viewed by society men are seen as genuinely more important. The media portrays women in various derogatory ways. Many music videos and lyrics treat women as if they are only good for sexual purposes and as we know that couldn't be further from the truth. It is a great thing to know that Barbies are now being manufactured as career driven women instead of bikini models. Girls at a young age should know that if you put your mind to it you can do whatever you wish. Yes, that is a nice thought but is it entirely true? At a recent job interview the manager referred to me as "the blonde one", a man with blonde hair would never be referred to as that. It is no secret that women as much as we would like to be are not viewed as highly as men in the work force therefore making less money. Women are not the only ones who need to work on changing that, men are the ones mainly causing these problems so they need to work on creating a society where women are viewed as strong individuals after all women are the ones that give birth to men. Although I have stated the progress that needs to be made, I would like to point out that women are starting to be the ones working and many men are actually staying home and taking care of the children. This is a refreshing direction that our future is headed in and hopefully there will be many more.
ReplyDelete\to begin with, let me start off by saying that I am what you would call an "anti-feminist", but not by the traditional sense that you seem to state in the above article. Rather, I am against feminism in the sense that I believe that as of the post second wave of feminism era most "feminists" lost their direction and began making "feminism" into something it was never meant to be. So, well I agree with you that many of the problems stated above are indeed problems, (such as the wage gap and negative imagery of women in the media) I also believe that when it comes to the details of such problems there are many key points on which we will disagree. For example, when it comes to the issue of negative female body imagery within the media, I agree with you that it is a problem; however, it isn't a problem for just women as you seem to claim. negative body imagery is portrayed in the media for both genders and has a fairly equal negative effect on both sides, if you want proof of this all you need to do is walk down the hall in our school and go to our weight room. Within this room, I think that you'll find that many of our schools males have taken up these activities, not because they want to stay healthy and in shape, but rather they think they need to look big in order to impress the opposite sex (a mentality that has been reinforced by negative media imagery). Even when it comes to specific examples of this problem I found problems with your argument. case in point, in your article you claimed that Barbie was an example of negative imagery as she encouraged young woman to dress up and look beautiful for their men. however, although I agree with you that there is a problem with Barbie ( that being that she displays an impossible body type for almost any woman) the problem you stated isn't really the problem at hand. on top of this, there are some positives to Barbie that need to be mentioned as well. The career Barbie, that you mentioned was a step in the right direction for change, actually began almost immediataly after barbie's launch in 1959, with the business executive Barbie being launched in 1960. So, in conclusion, we do need to address some of these problems, however, we need to address as humans rather than as individual genders
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ReplyDeleteKennedy, after reading your post on this blog I can definitely say that you have researched your topic. I agree with you, feminism is a problem and has been one since a very long time. As you said it: ‘’ Many people believe that because because women have practically achieved equals rights to men that feminists can now focus on something else entirely’’. Women’s definitely should be equals to men and the fact that there a close of being equals doesn’t mean we can stop thinking about it and move on to another topic, since we are close we should work even harder to get them equals. The barbie part was my favorite part to read, I completely agree with the fact that we should build the little girls confidence by selling them barbies who are doing what people think are men’s jobs such as doctor and astronaut. They need that push from a young age so they can think all their life that they are equal. Men’s and Women’s should be equals and I think we are getting there. Your blog was a pleasure to read and you definitely defended your point very well and I completely agree with you. There is nothing more I can say.