Women have made tremendous strides in the fight for gender equality, but the fight is far from over, as women continue to face discrimination in employment, education, and gender-based violence.
We’ve all learned about the women’s suffrage movement of the late 19th and early 20th century and feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s, and how the women of those times were able to make changes for the women of the future. They fought for the rights of women everywhere to be equal to their male counterparts, and they succeeded…right?
Some people would like to believe so. Others will tell you that feminism is still very necessary because today in the United States, women still face oppression.
If you do a quick Google search on feminism, it will be defined as “the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.” In other words, women are fighting for the right for equality.
Anthony Covert, 18, a fine arts major at Bucks said that, “a lot of ignorant people think feminism is just for females.”
Many people do still hold the belief that people who call themselves feminist hold true to certain stereotypes.
There are some extreme forms of feminism that people think about when they hear the word, and it seems that people tend to focus on those forms, and the negative parts of them, rather than the actual basis of what feminism stands for, and the overall positive message that feminism has.
There is the belief that feminists hate men, and wish to overpower them, rather than the definition that Google along with the views of others, including Ashely Pottrell, 20, who is a fine arts major at Bucks. She calls herself a feminist, and describes it as fighting for “equality across all genders.”
“So many people are unaware of the fact that women are still unequal today,” said Pottrell.
But the question for a skeptical person would be, how are women still unequal and oppressed in today’s modern society.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, “Despite the tremendous progress made in the struggle for gender equality, women still face violence, discrimination, and institutional barriers to equal participation in society.”
A major issue currently plaguing women is the wage gap and workplace discrimination.
Aside from what wageproject.org calls, “discrimination in hiring, sexual harassment, occupational segregation, bias against mothers, and other ways”, women also make less than men when they are equally as qualified.
According to wageproject.org, a female college graduate will make $1.2 million less than her male counterpart, because of the obvious wage discrimination in today’s society.
Some women face discrimination in the form of unequal treatment in the workplace.
Ashley Pottrell talked about men at her work calling her “honey.”
“It’s just kind of uncomfortable, and makes me wonder, do you also call the male cashiers honey? This is just a small part of why feminism exists,” said Pottrell.
Amber Horton, 19, a pre allied health major at Bucks has dealt with another form of discrimination. She was working at her job, carrying a box, while also training an associate. The person she was training was mentally disabled, and so he had an aid with him.
“The aid asked him why he wasn’t carrying the boxes, and told him, ‘how could you let a girl carry that for you? I was just shocked,” said Horton.
Horton said she felt put-down by the aid, as if she were being described as a weak person.
The issue of gender-based violence and harassment is another issue that feminism strives to address.
“Survivors of gender-based violence face discrimination when police, schools, landlords, and other institutions fail to adequately address and prevent violence and also when laws and policies penalize them, impeding the ability of women and girls to live safely and with dignity,” according to the ACLU.
One Bucks student, who wished to remain anonymous, described a form of abuse she was put under when she was 17, which motivated her to become a feminist.
“I was grabbed by someone at my work. It was when I was closing. He wouldn’t let me go for a few seconds, but it felt like forever. It was scarring. I was too scared to say anything to anyone, because I didn’t want to be called a liar, or a drama queen if I got him fired. I guess I decided to become feminist after the shock went away, because I realized I shouldn’t have been scared to call him out for violating me.”
Women also continue to face hurdles when it comes to their pursuit of education. Equal access to education is perpetuated through obstacles such as sex-segregated educational programs, lack of support services for pregnant and parenting students, gender-based violence and harassment in schools.
The idea behind what most women believe feminism is, is that women should be equal to men, and also feel safe in their society. Horton said, “It sucks, but by now we’re just used to it.” Feminism would like to say that women should not have to get used to it. Rather, men and women should work together to fight for equality on both sides.