What is
Feminism?
My own personal
definition of feminism is, “Women that are actively involved in bringing
women’s rights issues to the forefront of our society and finding ways to
equalize the female gender in our culture today.” I feel the women’s movement
first started with women been given the right to vote and gaining some equality
with the men of that time period. They probably didn't know at the time that
they would affect whole generations of women for years to come, and that they
were the beginning of something that was life-changing that would revolutionize
our society in the years to come.
The
1950’s is often portrayed as the “perfect family” era and we think of I love
Lucy and everyone eating dinner together and discussing their day and dad gets
home from work and mom gives him a foot rub. The children are all well-behaved
and have good manners and would never dare talk back to their parents. In a
class I took last semester this image was shattered into tiny, little pieces
when I read about the way that many women and children were poorly treated
and the amount of depression and mental disorders
that existed and the abuse that occurred. Domestic violence and child abuse
were rampant issues and child labor laws existed, but were not really enforced.
There were even women who went so far as to prostitute themselves out for extra
money. Does this sound like the perfect family or society to you? Me neither.
As women, we have come a long way since then in changing stereotypes and in
changing some of the expected roles that women have been in for years.
Fast
forward to the twentieth century and we have seen more women entering the work
place and more men as stay-at-home dads. When I worked at Wal-Mart a few years
ago, I remember there being a large number of African Americans that had come
to Utah to work and were all training with us. The rumors got around that the only
reason they worked there was because the company protocol was to hire a certain
number of women, a certain number of African American’s, a certain number of
men, etc. It turned out that after awhile they had just up and disappeared, and
we heard they were suing the company for thousands of dollars based on claims
of racial discrimination, and gender discrimination, poor working conditions,
and so on. We were all afraid of losing our won jobs and didn't want to get
involved, except for a few protesters outside of the store.
Feminism also conjures of images to me of
protesters and activists outside the State Capitol or outside of Temple Square,
and it all seems a little extreme, even though the homosexuals, the animal
rights activists, the non-Mormons, the anti-abortionist groups, and the
anti-war activists all take their turns protesting. I picture a bunch of women
holding signs and chanting. In talking to my mom, I thought she brought up a
good, valid point though that, “Isn't it a good thing that someone sticks up
for their rights and fights for the issues that affect all women? Isn't it time
that men and women are equal in the workplace and everywhere, after all this
isn’t the 50’s anymore?!” Well, yes, mom, I think it is.
