Feminism is more than just a movement
Feminism.
Oooh, say it again.
Feminism. Feminism, feminism, feminism.
What is it? A movement? An ideology? A means to an identity? A really bad topic to bring up with the in-laws at the dinner table?
Actually, according to the Oxford Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus, it’s a word.
n. advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of equality of the sexes.
“Look at that definition,” said Pam Riley, sociology professor and director of the Women’s and Gender Research Institute at Utah State University. “If people think about what the word really means, there aren’t very many who would argue.”
The word hasn’t existed as long as its definition, which Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton stirred up back in 1848, when they and other concerned women gathered together in Seneca Falls, N.Y., to discuss the imbalance between men’s and women’s rights.
More than a decade later, women can vote, women can divorce their husbands, women can own property, women can play sports, women can get an education, women can have abortions – women can do whatever women want to do, and can fight it if they can’t. And we have come up with a word for the sentiment that made it all possible. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are “feminists.”
And most college-aged females are not.
“Students have a very negative view of feminism, and tons of misconceptions,” said Jean Lown, director of Women’s Studies and a professor of human environments at Utah State University. “It’s kind of sad and a little bit scary.”
The younger generations of American women don’t appreciate that they are living in a world that has only existed for a few decades, Lown said. Her experiences as a young woman, and those of most of this generation’s mothers, would be considered shockingly sexist today.
“I remember being surprised to see girls playing sports and finding out some of them had played in high school,” she said. “I thought, ‘Wow, hey, all we got to do was be cheerleaders if we wanted to do something.'”
That recent past cannot be forgotten, not only because those who struggled to build the foundation today’s women are building on deserve to be remembered, but also because the need for feminism isn’t over yet, Riley said.
The first female Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Conner – 1981. The first female secretary of state, Madeleine Albright -1996. The first female CEO of a Dow 30 company, Carly Fiorina – 1999.
“If we don’t appreciate the huge gains we’ve made and appreciate what it took to get there, and if we just say, ‘Well, things are better now. It’s no big deal,’ we’re really not paying tribute to those who worked so hard,” she said. “And it’s dangerous because we can’t just stop progressing.”
She said she doesn’t think that the women’s movement has seen its end, though every year there’s a fear that the newest generation isn’t going to be interested in the movement. In her classes, she sees women becoming interested and learning to appreciate their place in the world.
Student associations like the Feminist Majority Foundation and Take Back the Night allow college-aged women to get involved in the movement. And every woman who takes another step for womankind is another spark keeping the progress of feminism alight.