The Fight for Equality

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23-04-2019 | 11:16

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What is feminism? Feminism is the public support of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the different genders. The idea of feminism dates back to the beginning of the eighteenth century when it was stated that human rights should be extended to women.

While men might have it a little easier, women have to go through several hardships to reach a high point in their life, especially since our society seems to deny us plenty of rights. As time progressed, feminists started fighting for the ability to vote in a democratic country. The advocates of this idea, also known as suffragettes, issued several protests for their rights. Up until now, a lot of females, as well as males, have to fight to earn place in our society. After women received the right to vote, feminists worked hard to make the rest of society believe that women are as capable as men. We view females as weak and less intelligent than men, just because they aren’t as ‘physically’ built, when in reality, women can achieve wonders if they put their mind to it. Why do we have to fight for rights that should have been given to us freely? Feminism is generally known to have ‘waves’ based on the different aspects of feminism, but with every new rising, and with a more knowledgeable generation, we manage to work off the ideas presented before. The reason why women wanted to gain political power was that it helped them bring about social change. For that cause, women formed several ‘waves’. The first wave dealt with women in workforce, as well as the right to vote and own property. The second wave of feminism was depicted by the affliction of equality. This wave marked a shift in the politics of liberal feminism, discussing plenty of more important topics. Many waves were later organized to help achieve the goals we so clearly need.

Nowadays, people call feminists toxic. Why? It’s because feminists are no longer abiding by what their ancestors stood for. Feminism is about the equality between the sexes, not the superiority of one gender to the other. People are against the idea of women exercising more rights since in their eyes, women are already more privileged and important in the eyes of the law. On the other hand, some people disagree with the logic of feminism as they consider it a boulder in the way of the strength exhibited by women through care aspects or as hinders by labeling their emotional concerns as close to weakness or slavery. While some agree that feminism is destructive for our society, others beg to differ. People should focus more on the similarities between females and males, and be able to look past the biological differences. There exists different types of feminism such as liberal, radical, equality, and socialist feminism. While they all fight for the equality of women with respect to men, they differ slightly in their goals. For example, liberal feminism is the emphasis on the power of the individual regardless of gender. If everyone stands up for what they think is right, then a huge change will occur in the world. Discrimination against us will decrease. Change is a vital part of society, and we need to do the right thing to help stand up as it’s about time.

At the end, feminists’ goal is not to derail the power of men. We simply want to be ‘equal’ with men. We want back the rights that were taken away from us because men thought they needed to put leashes on us, to restrain us. This is all because they were afraid of what would happen if we were on the same level as them. The concept of equality should be a strong notion in society, and it must influence and help shape young minds. It has not been said once; it has been said a hundred times, “equality is a necessity.”