So we’re almost done studying the 3 (or 4) waves of feminism, and the question that should be at the forefront of everyone’s mind is this question – is feminism still relevant today? To recap the four waves of feminism (taken from the article, “The Waves of Feminism, and Why People Keep Fighting Over Them, Explained” by Constance Grady on Vox.com):
1st wave – begun in 1848 with the Seneca Falls Convention, led by Stanton, Anthony, and others, pushed for the right to vote and additional legal and social rights. Goal achieved was the 19th Amendment. A mjaor glaring weakness was that it didn’t include women of color. 
2nd wave – most historians say that this wave was sparked by Betty Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique, in 1963. They pushed for social, political, and legal equality – equal pay, reproductive rights, access to education, and other rights. Their main goals were achieved in the area of reproductive rights with the Supreme Court case, Roe v. Wade, and the very close passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. A major weakness of the second wave was exclusion of LGBTQ women and also women of color and the development of the stereotype of feminists as man-hating lesbians.
3rd wave – Most likely begun in 1991 with the Anita Hill / Clarence Thomas hearings regarding Thomas’s alleged sexual harassment of Hill. An analysis of the way Dr. Hill was treated during the hearings led to a reexamination of how men were over represented in powerful positions, namely government and business. Also, around the same time, there was the rise of the Riot Grrrls, music groups comprised of females who were in your face with their feminism. Their main goals were to put more women in positions of power and to end sexual harassment, but the article says that there was no central goal like voting or reproductive rights that drove previous waves. This was seen as the wave’s major weakness. Upside, the third wave was much more inclusive of all women than the previous two waves.
4th wave – There is some debate as to whether this wave has started, but historians have pointed to the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements in 2017 that aim to do some of the same things that the 3rd wave set out to do – put more women in power and end sexual harassment and assault. But, the major difference between 3rd and 4th wave feminists is that the 4th wave has been done primarily online. The 4th wave has also tended to be “queer, sex-positive, transinclusive, body-positive, and digitally driven.” Some of the achievements of this wave have been the election of more women to Congress than ever before in the Congressional election of 2018, the Women’s March begun on January 21, 2017, and the outing and firing of famous sexual predators in the media and elsewhere. A major problem confronting this wave has been the quick erosion of reproductive rights in some states around the country.
The article that we read asked the question about the relevancy of feminism. Keep in the front of your mind that this article was written in 2002, 17 years ago and a lot has changed since then. The yes side of the argument, written by then-president of NOW Kim Gandy, is that feminism is relevant because the world that we live in isn’t as friendly to girls and women as it should be. The no side of the argument, written by author Rene Denfield, basically says that feminism isn’t relevant anymore because most women don’t see themselves as feminists and that we live in a world of “near equality.” There is work that still needs to be done, she says, but today’s feminists go to extremes instead of working on campaigns that have a meaningful impact.
Your job:
- Argue the yes side of the argument convincingly w/ specifics from the article and your own research.
- Argue the no side of the argument convincingly w/ specifics from the article and your own research.
- Which side do you fall on and why?
Yes, feminism is still relevant because although we have made significant advancements in the past century, women are still only at a level of near-equality, not simply equality. Women, while they are viewed and depicted as more powerful, strong, independent, and individualistic, there are still stigmas and negative stereotypes about women that still remain. Insults such as “you punch like a girl” are still much to common and are used by people starting in their toddler years. Without it, we would halt any progress we are currently making and restrict ourselves from improving our society further. We’d be stuck in a society where derogatory terms against women are still used,sexual assault still occurs way too often, the wage gap still exists, and many other issues yet to be resolved would persist if not worsen. With the absence of feminism, misogyny, sexism, and patriarchism would be allowed to persist and reclaim a certain level of control in society and over women. It is important that we continue to push for full equality, and it is especially crucial to have strong female leaders pushing for worldwide feminism because without it, women might not recognize their power or have inspiration to be an activist or feminist at all. Strong leaders as well as strong female activists and feminists also inspires men to recognize the value of women and their right to equality as well; spreading that same message to men who have toxic masculinity and value a man’s opinion over a woman’s; and its important that happens because women and men both perpetuate negative stereotypes and oppress others based on sexist beliefs they hold. Even if we achieved a perfect world where women were accepted as the equivalent to men, feminism would still be needed to maintain that so that equality is never tampered with, especially as the political world constantly re-introduces ideas that are not conducive to enforcing women having rights. Parties that are more conservative may propose laws such as anti-abortion laws that restrict women’s right to sole control over their own body. With a strong presence of feminism in society and especially in politics, those restrictive and oppressive laws can be rejected and prevented. It is incredibly easy for societies to fall back into old habits, and regress in a dangerous way, which is why feminism will always be a relevant necessity in a fragile world with ever-evolving opinions and beliefs.
Yes. Feminism is still relevant today. According to the article, there are 4 main waves of feminism. The current wave is the 4th wave which includes the “#MeToo” and “Time’sUp” movements. The broad definition of feminism is still the same. They are still fighting for equality of the sexes. Their goals are still very similar to other waves of feminism. They still want to put more women in power, have more reproductive freedom, and end sexual harassment/assault. This wave of feminism is online too. This allows for sharing of ideas more publicly, and quickly. People tend to see your ideas online faster, rather than in person. “Women’s march”, a public online organization which coordinates thousands of marches every year. 2 years ago, I saw a Women’s march advertised online in Lansing, Michigan. Me and my family were able to march with millions of other feminist on that day because of their online organization. Feminism is very real today, and will continue to grow.
No, feminism is not relative today. When the first wave of feminism was started in 1848 at the Seneca Falls convention pushing for the right to vote and additional legal and social rights. Shortly after, in the second wave started in 1963 after Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique”, feminist pushed for equal pay, reproductive rights, access to education, and other rights. In the third wave, women pushed for the end of sexual harassment. They also were much more inclusive of all women than the first and second wave. Since then, feminism is not very relevant because the main issues have been solved in the past. The wage gap has been reduced significantly, women are in politics, women can vote, and all women are included. Feminism today is just relaying the same ideas that were pushed by previous waves.
I fall on the side of “Feminism is relevant today”, because women still continue to live in oppression, while men still have control. Sexual harassment/assualt is still a very real topic today. According to http://www.rain.org, every 73 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. Even with the progress that women have made since that convention at Seneca Falls in 1848, women are still fighting for equality of the sexes. I believe in the equality of the sexes and am not happy with how women are treated yet, so yes, I believe that feminism is relevant today.
Yes, I believe that feminism is still a relevant topic within today’s society. During recent years there has been “Slutwalks” made to bring awareneess to rape culture, including victim blaming and slut shaming of sexual assault victims. Within todays era, many excuse the rape by referring to any aspect of a woman’s appearance and/or clothing for the reasoning behind sexual assault. This movement stands as a united front to take away the stigma that no matter what a woman appears to be wearing, she is not deserving of being a vicitim to rape or societies unjust norms. Although there has been acts passed to obtain women their legal/equal rights, many problems still occur within today’s society which makes feminism a relevant topic. Along with what I stated earlier, there has been other movements such as the #Metoo movement and the anti-abortion movement that remain relevant on political topics. The #Metoo movement is against sexual harassment and sexual assault. A topic still being talked about today, as public male figures are stepping down from their careers to suffer the consequences of their unethical actions towards women. The anti-abortion movement advocates for legal access to induced abortion services, meaning the right to terminate one’s pregnancy. This has also been a major issue as certain states are revoking women their legal right to an elective abortion (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky…etc.) According to the yes side, there has been more objectives being arisen such as being “queer, sex-positive, transinclusive, body-positive, and digitally driven.” Even though society has made a drastic change since the 1900’s the LBGTQ community still receives prejudice and discriminatory behavior from many within their communities. With today’s wave of feminism, many are trying to target the issue and have accomplished many long term affects such as the right to same-sex marriage. As it relates to the opposing stance, it believes that although change has been made it has excluded many to get to their current position. Such as the exclusion of LGBTQ women and women of color due to the stereotype that feminists were “man-hating lesbians.” According to the No side, Author Rene Denfield describes feminism as an irrelevant topic because most women don’t see themselves as feminists and that we live in a world of “near equality.” That belief is strong due to the fact that many women are also pleased living within a two-income household where the male is no longer the breadwinner.
Though women have continuously fought for their freedom and liberation, for over 200 years there is still much needed to be done. Feminism is relevant in today’s times as there is still many cases of sexual assault on college campuses and in the workforce. The media portrayal of women, wage gap and the number of women in office needs to be addressed. There are still many stigmas and scorns around women; the vulgar language, and either ‘sissy’ actions to women’s ‘bossy’ attitudes. In 2018, female full-time, year-round workers made only 82 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 20 percent. This is unacceptable, especially as there are more women graduating colleges than men. This among many old inequities are still strong to this day. The ‘ideal’ beauty of women as demonstrated in beauty pageants, magazines, movies, social media, ect. This must be rectified as it holds a severe negative effect on the minds of young girls and how they perceive themselves and each other. About 1 in 6 college-aged female survivors received assistance from a victim service agency. Sexuall assault is very prelevant in colleges, and they don;t even report everything that happens. With that said there are also points on the other spectrum as to why it might not be so. In terms of abortion, there are many health (mental and physical) issues that go along with it, including severe damgers to mothers health, complications with future pregnancies and mental illness especially so with no counceling. Men may feel overthrown or threatened, and that they might not have as much power. Child care is an issue too. But these must be dealt with by both genders! If there is no understanding then no matter how much women will try to gain rights they will be met with a hard wall. Women go to college more than men, and they are in a variety of fields. There has been so much improvement, and there is a lot of other pressuring issues at hand. Climate change, animal protection, poverty, relations among countries… there is still so much to be done. Personally, there are points that I agree with on both sides so I’d rather say indecisive or neutral. I’ve never really thought of myself as a feminist or as any hard core group as I tend to avoid those; the lines are messy definitions blurred. It’s all a shade of grey to me.
I believe that yes, feminism is still relevant today. Women during the first wave of feminism fought for the right to vote, and their goal was accomplished. The second wave achieved reproductive rights. The third was much more inclusive of all women. We may have accomplished all of these things, but there is still much more to achieve. Women from the second wave up until now have been fighting for equal rights, and yet there are still a number of issues that women and young girls continue to face. To begin, body image. Both women and young girls alike are constantly fed dangerous messages by the media that suggest that being slim or meeting unrealistic beauty standards is key to success. These messages lead girls to eating disorders. Another issue that modern feminism faces is that one in four women experience domestic violence over their lifetimes. According to research, women who suffer at the hands of domestic violence are stuck in their situation on average for nearly three years. Women are afraid to walk home or to their cars alone at night for fear of being attacked. Women and girls make up 98% of victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation. Despite progress made in the past, in the United States and across the world, a reality in which opportunities are not defined by a person’s gender (male, female, or otherwise) have yet to be universally achieved. Government officials are still consistently misogynistic. State governments who once allowed for women to control their own bodies and maintain reproductive rights are regressing. Government figures show that around one in twenty five women aged 16-59 are a victim of stalking every year. A women today (on average) earns only 79 cents for every male dollar, but the gap for Latina and African american women is much worse. Wages are barely budging in the United States, but the cost for child care is rising. Childcare costs today are so high that they now cost more than the average in state tuition for colleges in most states. We do have some women in positions of power, but we are still lacking. Without women in senior positions, progress on solving majority of the previous issues mentioned is continuously stifled. Feminism is still vital to today’s society because of all of these things. Feminists need to continue to fight, post, protest, and speak out on the many issues that women of every race and sexual orientation face.The right to vote and equal pay are not the only two things that make a woman equal to man.
For the yes side I’d say that feminism is still relevant because there are so many feminist out there: walking home at night by themselves, feeling uncomfortable in a work environment, and even not knowing how to show off how educated they are. Feminist today still have plenty of fights to win. There use to be portrayed as this hairy lesbian, some feminist embraced that and never looked back. Yet, the media tells them that this is wrong and that they should be groomed to perfection, skinny, and pretty. There will always be feminist around as long there are issues oppressing women
For the no side I’d say that sometimes women don’t know about feminism or don’t want to put that label on themselves. There is more equality then there has ever been. In the mid 1900’s women were not allowed or not encouraged to go to college. Decades later more women go to college than men. There are only 2 jobs that a woman has not yet achieved (President and Vice President). We are always flooding male dominated fields making breakthroughs. There is no debating whether there’s a wage gap or not. But for younger women it is starting to decrease into non existent. When women want something they just go out and do what they need to do. Some women’s issues have an impact on men so it is a shared fight. For example, child care. Men are more involved in children now but both parents are working so the child needs to be taken care of for these hours away from the home. We can’t ignore men forever. Get them active and involved.
I think feminism IS still relevant. Women have really embraced their sexuality. One prime example of this movement is the hot girl summer. It’s about wanting to embrace sex and be able to talk about it. It’s also about how women can be dominant over men. Even though women have issues that can involve men, somethings men can’t understand from their perspective. Sexual harassment can include men but women are the majority. A man does not have to walk around looking around frantically scared out of their minds about getting taken or sexually abused. 1 in 5 women will be raped in their lifetime. But only 1 in 71 men will be raped in their lifetime. Those numbers do not add up. It is hard to change mindset of abusive men but we can change the punishments that are handed out to these individuals who think it is okay and is their right to take advantage of these women. That is why feminism is still relevant
Yes, some people still believe feminism is still relevant to this day. With the #MeToo movement the light has been shown on why we still need the torch to be carried to advance our causes. Causes that are still preventing us from obtaining jobs and advancing our careers. For instance, Harvey Weinstein and his production company, Miramax, stopped many actresses from starring in films if they did not “sleep on his couch”. His power was so widespread that a young actresses career could be over before it even started. Is that fair? Is that right? Absolutely not! If one brave soul had not exposed him and then gotten the backing of celebrities and other media outlets he would still be doing what he had been doing for thirty years. We now have jobs, and other outlets like Times Up to help promote a feminist agenda that is still much needed. Women want the same things that started the feminist move long ago…a chance. Although we’ve made lots of progress we still have a long way to go. Feminism isn’t relevant for a variety of reasons. Now more than ever we see women in roles that were once held solely by men. For instance, there are women, CEO’s, utility workers and even football players. The gap in pay is being closed as well. Women have real buying power, and financial decision making skills that they once did not have. A woman can buy big ticket items like cars and homes without the financial input of her mate. Women feel less and less pressure to decline unwanted advances at work or speak up when there is pay disparity with a male co-worker because now there are laws in policies in place to prevent that. Problems are becoming problems not men or women’s problems. There is much work to do. Women’s feminist agenda was on the decline in my opinion but got a much needed boost from the Me Too movement. It brought back all the areas that women are still not on par with men on. Such as leadership and military advancements as well as child rearing. Particularly, on who will stay home, and put their career on hold, once a child is born. From big to small issues there is much progress that needs to be made. I do not see the feminist movement going away any time soon.
I definitely believe that the word feminist and the idea of being a feminist and in support of women’s equality is still and will be forever relevant because of the all the powerful women of the past setting standard for the future up till now, With all the growth we have had over the past years with the improvement of organizations and events having todo with rights in the community by standing up and making your voice be heard over certain issues like gun control or LGBTQ+ rights whatever you want your voice to be heard up then that’s your opinion and your oppinon never going. to change unless you want it to. Same with the relevance of feminism is not going to change unless certain people in the community use reverse phycology to make us believe this ideology is irrelevant, To me we need feminism a thing so we can set an example for kids living in this generation that it’s okey to have oppions and it’s ok to have these idea because it only makes for a better and stronger community of not just women but for everybody to have a safe community and place to share their view and get respectable feedback and learn somethings from each other because that the best way to grow as a community and as a individual in a world that might not accept your view indevisuality is very important because it is needed nowadays to make your voice heard and be the loudest person
For the yes side, women are still disadvantaged because women end up carrying the majority of the caregiving whether they have a job or not. Women also put many more hours into household things than men. Most often discrimination is towards the gender category of the person. Leadership roles in women are often to ‘’follow’’ male behavioral traits. In some situations, women’s voices are often discounted in public affairs even when they have seats at the tables of ‘’power’’. Women’s confidence soon get shut down and they start to speak less and make fewer power moves and ignore disrespect. For the no side, Feminism isn’t relevant because women are able to now have equal educational opportunities and labor work. For example, 58% of Penn’s undergraduate student body is female. 17.5% of Penn’s professors are females and they’re ranked #2 among peer instructions. Female are trying to make themselves known and its soon to be working. There are now more female supreme court justices than it has ever been. Even Team USA have more women than men on the team for the olympics and women has won the majority of medals. Women of color are even getting recognition. Only 20% of women of color out of 90 are serving in the congress. Women also have an act called The Affordable Care Act which requires and ensures to cover women’s gynecology visits, birth control, baby care and more without charging copays. I’m kind of inbetween of the no and yes side, women have equal rights in the majority of things in american but at the same time women still deal with commons issues. Women shows a lot of empowerment being out of the house and working while taking care of children also. Playing/ being apart of sports teams and being as good as men. Getting into the legal field and being apart of the supreme court and congress. Yes, there has been some changes but not exactly all the way. Women still deal with situations like if you live in a state that doesn’t allow abortion or if you’re a woman playing a sport you don’t get exactly as equal pay as men does in other professional sports. Days have been better than what they were before but there still is some adjustments that needs to be added.
Autumn R-N
Feminism has come a long way in the past two centuries. Women have gained the right to vote and earned more reproductive rights but there is still a lot to do. Women across the nation are struggling to get abortions, are being sexually or physically assaulted, and women are still highly trafficked in Michigan. Women all around the world are still fighting for their rights. A little girl in a third world country was rapped by her uncle and became pregnant and can not receive an abortion. Girls are still not allowed to get the same education men can get and some countries treat women like second class citizens. Why do we need to discuss if feminism is still relevant when I’m more likely to be murdered than my male peers just because of my gender?
Argue the no side of the argument convincingly w/ specifics from the article and your own research.
Women today are too radical and too pushy. Feminists aren’t needed anymore. Women are given a lot of respect, I don’t see what the big deal is. Women can go into whatever job they want can stay home or work and don’t even need an education when they get married and have kids. Women are dominating the work force yet that doesn’t seem to be enough for them. Feminists today are called Nazi feminists for a reason. they want to take over the world and put down men. Calm down ladies! many girls today don’t even call themselves feminists so why does anyone?
Which side do you fall on and why?
I fall on the side where we still need feminism because there are young girls all around the world who are fighting and I would be ashamed if I didn’t. I Find the side that is pro-feminist to be more factual and to have evidence than the other doesn’t give. There are women out there like Malala who make me proud to be feminist. She was so brave then and still is now. The world needs feminism because if men and women work together then there is a better chance our world can be bettered. Men have been in control so long that some have grown to be corrupt. The world need’s a feminists touch to remind people we can only better our lives and the world if we work together to solve the problems.