Living in a world where a person cannot wear what they want, have the job they want, or even make crucial decisions about their body would feel dystopian and unrealistic. Now, consider the fact that this is the world women of many cultures have lived in since the dawn of time. However, the feminist movement has done a great deal of work to progress the role of women in society, and thankfully, quite a bit has changed for modern women.
ABC News reporter Kiara Alfonseca defines feminism as “the belief in the equality of people of all genders, a set of values aimed at dismantling gender inequality and the structures that uphold it.”
To understand the role feminism has played in the lives of modern women, one must first look to the past to see what life was like for women and how different feminist movements have impacted their reality.
In early colonial times, American women were expected to spend their time on domestic duties, such as raising children and keeping the house tidy. They were expected to aspire for nothing more than to care for their family. There were even legal restrictions against women, such as a law passed in the late 1700s that expressly prevented women from voting.
However, times began to change, as the American Revolution saw an increase in women contributing to the war effort. The National Women’s History Museum notes that in addition to running farms while their husbands were on the frontlines, women gained a viable influence in politics, served as spies and messengers, and even fought on the battlegrounds, alongside their husbands.
Notably, Deborah Sampson, who disguised herself as a man to fight in a Massachusetts regiment, even became a war hero and early figurehead of women’s empowerment.
Opportunely, not even 70 years later, a new feminist movement took the Western world by storm: first-wave feminism. The First Wave, led by trailblazer suffragettes Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, concentrated its efforts on legal issues, most importantly, women’s right to vote.
The beginning of the 20th century saw the First Wave of feminism, comments History Channel contributor Sarah Pruitt.
The Second Wave came in the early ‘60s and championed women taking back their sexuality, breaking down societal gender norms, and gaining power in both the workplace and at home. This is the traditional idea of feminism that people conflate with its modern counterpart when saying feminism as a whole is unnecessary today. Finally, the Third and Fourth Waves emphasized individuality, intersectionality, and the #MeToo movement. Additionally, these waves challenged earlier assumptions and definitions of feminism. All of these waves have led to the development of our modern definition of feminism.
This modern take on a historical concept is what the world needs more of. The continued fight for equal pay, reproductive rights, and political representation may be issues for which women have been fighting for decades, but recent changes to American society have made this fight all the more important.
Many people continue to say that feminism as a whole is outdated and inessential in a modern context. This is because many Americans indifferently believe the ideology that modern feminism remains unchanged from its predecessors. More needs to be done to achieve true equality, the wage gap being a perfect example of this. Forbes reports that “women earn just 84 cents for every dollar a man makes,” meaning even now, at the supposed point at which feminism is no longer necessary, women are still not equal to men in major ways.
Some have expressed the idea that feminism is just a polarizing attack on all men and is aggressive. For centuries, women have been told they must be dainty and polite to be respected in society. It is clear no one respected women then, and there is still more to be done now. So, why should people’s opinions of what women do sway the impact women can have when they work together?
Instead of listening to the doubters, the ill-informed, and the simple misogynists, women everywhere must own their power. Women must think of how far they have come and how much they could accomplish with their combined vigor. It may feel hopeless, but, in the wise words of former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”
