The definition of feminism is the idea that
"men and women should be social,
political and economic equals"
According to a recent YouGov poll, Only 1 in 4 Americans claim to be feminists. However, when given the dictionary definition of feminism , 87 percent of people (67 percent of women and 47 percent of men), agreed with the definition and admitted that they were feminists after all.
The gap between those who do and do not consider themselves feminists may be due to a branding problem with the word. 37% of people consider "feminist" to be a negative term, 26% consider it a positive term, while 29% percent said it's a neutral term.
It seems a lot of people don't want to call themselves
feminists – but many people change their minds when
feminism is associated with equality.
So perhaps there is a problem with the word itself rather than what it stands for? In addition to the negativity surrounding the word, there may also be a lot of ignorance. Many Americans adopt feminism through higher education, with more than half of college-educated women identifying as feminists. I think a lot of people know the common markers of feminist success but not always the long haul that led to them.
-Women secured the right to vote, but it took nearly 100 years of campaigning.
-Women won the right to use contraception and terminate pregnancies, but only after many campaigns criminalized these practices and landed many health advocates jail time.
-Hilary Clinton could potentially be the first female president in the U.S, but it will have taken a half a century from the time that Victoria Woodhull first ran in 1872.
-Today, domestic violence is illegal, but beating your wife wasn't a criminal offense just a few decades ago.
-And did you know that it wasn't until the 1960's that women couldn't even open a bank account without her husband's permission??
Does having this education make it really difficult not to own a word that represented generations of struggle to set women on the path to equality? Is knowledge power in this instance?
Tell me what you think!!
Labels:
Women
