By Sarah Chapell
Say the word feminism and you are guaranteed a strong reaction. Ask anyone for their opinion on the matter and they will adamantly take a side for or against the modern feminist movement. It is important for individuals who immediately jump to a negative conclusion to understand what feminism really means by its definition, rather than inferring a meaning from radical posts on social media and websites whose only intentions are to grab as many viewers as possible. Feminism is about equality among genders and is not limited to the promotion of women’s causes, as many may assume. Although much progress has been made in terms of feminism within the last century, there is still injustice on many fronts today which make this third wave movement necessary.
Abortion rights are a controversial and complicated issue. It’s not that most pro-choice feminists promote the act of abortion, but rather they believe that all women should have the rights to equal accessibility without government interference in regards to their body. There’s also a common misconception that in order to be a feminist, one must be pro-choice. This isn’t necessarily the case, as abortion is a religiously charged decision that comes down to a matter of personal choice. Susan B. Anthony, one of America’s most famous women’s rights activists, is an example of a feminist who was opposed to abortion. Another point to consider is that if birth control was easier to for every woman to obtain, the need for abortions wouldn’t be as high.
Although salary differences between men and women in the workplace are often argued to be accounted for in maternity leave time, there is still a great amount of sexual discrimination in the workplace. One example in particular is especially alarming: pregnancy discrimination. A survey of 500 managers by the law firm Slater and Gordon showed that 40% of managers are hesitant to hire young women of childbearing age because of the potential financial costs. Women in their 20’s and 30’s will now have to compete with men in the workplace solely because they may become a parent in the future. Some might try to counter this argument by saying that it shouldn’t be a big deal because men have the same type of health care costs, because they will be covering their wife as well, and they will take paternity leave if their wife or partner gives birth.
It is impossible to fully cover the range of social issues that can still be positively influenced by this third wave of feminism. Much has changed in the last century, but there is still a long road ahead to reach equality. For all who don’t believe that feminism is necessary because it is too radical, consider this: women obtaining voting rights in the 1920’s was thought to be a radical idea at first.
By Caroline Dillard
The feminist movement is usually agreed to consist of three waves: First-wave feminism began with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony’s fight for women’s suffrage and resulted in the passing of the 19th Amendment. Second-wave feminism saw the rise of women in the workplace and female independence and resulted in the Equal Pay Act.
But now we are in the third-wave of feminism. And what has it given us? According to a poll conducted by the Huffington Post, just 20% of Americans consider themselves feminists, and the word “feminism” was on TIME magazine’s list of “banned words for 2015” with other terms people are sick of hearing. This is a pretty good indication of the current attitude towards modern feminism.
This is likely a result of the hypocrisy and deception by the most outspoken members of the movement. One of their most loudly protested causes is the supposed gender wage gap. President Obama himself has made use of the “77 cents to a dollar” statistic on at least three separate occasions when speaking of the alleged “War on Women” in America. He said, “Today, the average full-time working woman earns just 77 cents for every dollar a man earns… in 2014, that’s an embarrassment. It is wrong.” What’s an embarrassment is that the president continues to make use of a statistic that has been widely discredited by several sources. This statistic comes from Census Bureau data that takes the median yearly earnings for both men and women. What it fails to take into consideration are differences in careers, education, or hours worked per week. A study by the Wall Street Journal showed that single, childless women were actually earning an average of 8% more than their male counterparts in most US cities. This negates Obama’s mantra of the 77 cents dilema.
Another issue is that of reproductive rights. Most conservatives are pro-life, or can agree that abortion may be justifiable in the cases of rape/incest and when the life of the mother is at risk, but the issue is less about legislature and more about the negative cultural shift in attitudes about abortion. Many abortion supporters want abortions to be treated commonplace, like any other medical procedure. Where, then, do you draw the line between something that is living and human and something that isn’t? There doesn’t seem to be an agreement even among abortion supporters, so how can anyone decide when a fetus is actually a human life? This squabbling over terms and definitions of life by the left is a ploy to help gloss over the fact that abortion does end a human life.
While these two issues are important discussions, feminists also insist on bickering over things that only destroy their credibility. They berate men for wanting to express their opinions on issues like abortion and rape, saying that since they aren’t women, they are not allowed opinions. The list goes on. This is what has caused so many people, not to identify with the current feminist movement. While feminism has achieved many great things for women, third-wave liberal feminism has become too radical for most people and thus counterproductive. I cannot align myself with a group that lacks credibility and honesty while simultaneously promoting tenets to which I am adamantly and morally opposed.
Head to Head:
A discussion on feminism in modern society.
