History is constantly being made around the world. There are men and women everywhere that come from vast amounts of differing backgrounds. Either way, we were all put on this earth one way or another to live together. The question is, if we are here together, then why are men and women not seen as equals? This is a question that has been raised several times throughout history and continues to be unanswered today. Feminism is the constant struggle to maintain social, political, and economic equality between the different sexes that live on this earth.
The idea of feminism came about in the young part of the twentieth century when women began joining forces to gain the right to vote. Suffrage was the biggest issue of the first wave feminists because they saw that they needed to have full rights under the law. At this time, women and African Americans were in the same unlawful boat, although the fifteenth amendment came giving racial minorities the right to vote but still excluding women.
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, author of The F Word: Feminism in Jeopardy, and the movie Iron Jawed Angels both speak about the unequal political opportunity of voting in the early twentieth century. Both the movie and the book highlight the work of Alice Paul, a feminist and suffragist who founded the National Women’s Party. Paul led many women, African American and white, to protest outside the white house. The protests and parades that Alice Paul headed portrayed the beauty of women, but most importantly the intelligence of women. Rowe-Finkbeiner says in the chapter of her book, “A Tsunami in History,” that “the vote didn’t come easy,” for it took forty consecutive years of voting on the issue to finally get it passed after it was first defeated from the first introduction in 1878 (22). When the suffrage movement finally made its mark, the Nineteenth Amendment was added to the United States Constitution; although, the amendment still had some kinks. According to Rowe-Finkbeiner, the first wave feminists were not only significant because they fought and earned the right to vote, “but because their work helped change the perception of women from voiceless dependents to independent thinkers with a valid voice in shaping the country” (23).
Now that women had a strong base under them, they took the right to vote and continued fighting for equality between the sexes. This is where the second feminist wave came into light, because there was still a lot of work to do when the suffrage movement ended. The second wave mainly worked on issues such as equality in the workplace, reproductive rights, and discrimination based on sex and race. This fight occurred during the 1960s, ‘70s, and early ‘80s. One major leap the second wave made was the enforcing of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). These women earned “the election of more women to public office, legal abortions, and a ban on discrimination in schools and lending, among other things” that many take advantage of today (26).
One of the most significant cases during this era was Roe v. Wade. This court case gave women the right of abortion up until a certain point of fetal growth. Reproductive rights were very controversial and unfair to women. Men were allowed to get contraceptives for a long time, but women were not. The second wave brought on options for women and feminists continued fighting for these options and more, while becoming more and more focused on their sexuality and individuality.
The focus on sexuality and individuality led to the contemporary, or third wave, of feminism. Kristen Rowe-Finkbeiner wrote in the chapter, “Signs of the Times: Defining the Third Wave,” that “the third wave has worked hard to incorporate the voices of many different women” (104). She explains that this is necessary in contemporary times, but it can also be a danger because women will focus more on individual needs, “thus diluting the political strength that comes from mass numbers” (104). She raises the question, “are we post feminist,” because the focus on female votes is declining, although more women are getting higher degrees and better careers (107).
Surprisingly, fashion was one of the biggest feminist issues in the workplace next to the wage gap for past feminists. The book Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by Bell Hooks describes in “Beauty Within and Without,” how the past feminists movements have pushed the idea of self-love that we have today in the workplace because “women had to demand that the fashion industry (which was totally male-dominated in those days) create diverse styles of clothing” (32). This was important because women needed to be equal in the work force and not be seen as objects of male desire with their beauty at the office. Women needed to feel comfortable and at ease just like men. Sexual harassment in the workplace has and will continue to be an issue in the workplace. Yes, it does go both ways male to female and female to male, but it used to happen to females by males more. Now, there are laws against sexual harassment as well. It’s important that women have confidence to work with men, while maintaining their sexuality (in this case with fashion) and individuality.
We are not post feminists. We’re still thinking in the contemporary ways, but through a different angle. We have reproductive rights, so now people are looking towards getting more education and information that go along with those rights. The professional opportunities, as already pointed out, are greater but there is still a wage gap that is being fought against. Most importantly, there are more life choices for females that have never been thought about before. Bell Hook describes the economic struggles in the “Women at Work” section of her book. She says that more than half of American women are in the work force, and that many white feminists argue that this is a sign of liberation. According to Hooks, the white feminists would say that feminism isn’t for those who are already in the work force. Being from a working-class African American background, Hooks says, “Most importantly I knew firsthand that working for low wages did not liberate poor and working-class women from male domination” (48). Yes, there are more rights to economics, but gender discrimination has not been fully eliminated.
Education is the key to gender discrimination elimination. Hooks says in the “Feminist Education for Critical Consciousness” section of her book that, “The formation of women’s studies programs in colleges and universities provided institutional legitimation for academic focus on work by women” (20). This marked the stepping-stone for learning about feminism in an unbiased atmosphere. Later, feminists went on to critique sexist thinking in children’s books and other areas. It’s important to start young, because society and elders are the cause people accepting the patriarchal way of thinking. Sexist thinking is a learned behavior, which is why feminism goes along with women’s studies. If people are not educated in an unbiased atmosphere they remain unaware of the problems in society because they are never taught differently.
In 2003, Lisa Belkin wrote “The Opt-Out Revolution” for The New York Times, which follows the patriarchal way of thinking with feminism. She makes a very controversial argument that so many intelligent women these days are slipping back into the ways of patriarchal thinking because they are taking the “mommy track.” This mommy track is the trend of women opting-out of the workforce to stay home with their children. The women she interviewed had law degrees from Harvard and Columbia, yet “they chose husbands who could keep up with them, not simply support them,” which was great, until they decided to opt-out and live off of their husband’s salary.
Belkin argues that this “mommy track” is not how the feminist movement was intended to evolve. Belkin states, “women—specifically, educated professional women – were supposed to achieve like men,” and yes, barriers from long ago are down, but there is still work to be done. This opt-out revolution is, in a way, undoing the work of the women getting through to the mass media by ways of the fashion industry and undoing the work of feminists that have critiqued children’s books because they are teaching their little girls that they do not need to work and make something of themselves. Women’s studies follows the feminist movements to make sure that people are aware what is going on currently, so issues don’t slip back to the way they were and to show people that feminists are only here to fight against the inequalities between the sexist and that they are not man hating lesbians.
I am a feminist. I’m not a lesbian and I like men. I believe that women and men were put on this earth as equals, but because society has been shaped in a patriarchal way of thinking, people do not realized that. We need gender studies programs to help raise awareness of this issue and continue to thrive in this struggle toward equality of the sexes. The women of the first and second feminist movements did not fight hard so that women today could opt-out of the work force giving people an excuse to say that women should be in the homes and not use their intelligent minds. Women and men alike need to continue the feminist movement and fight toward the equality of the sexes around the world, for we were put on this earth to work in unity.
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