As a young woman a few years from entering the workforce full time after college, I wanted to take a moment to discuss why I identify as being a feminist, and to also express why I feel everyone should identify to be the same way.
It has become funny on social media platforms to make fun of feminism. Maybe that's why we need it most. It is a movement that has gained more popularity since the end of the 19th century in America. We have deemed societies where it is encouraged that females should be at home, bearing children, and submitting to a man's direction as nearly medieval and horrible. However, as we've moved away from this "men rule all" system, there are new issues we must overcome.
Before I discuss the issues however, I would like to acknowledge what feminism is not. Feminism is not a movement that deems all men to be evil and sexist. There are females, however that do believe in the matriarchal society, and I do not agree with them at all. The entire basis of feminism is that all genders are given equal opportunities in the workforce, and that females do not have to face discrimination for just being a woman.
Feminism is also not exclusively for white, cisgender, straight females. To be a feminist means to support the LGBTQ+ community and people of color communities. As the world changes, there aren't human beings that identify within the two genders we have given, and it is important to not alienate these people. They are vital points in the world, and they can help others understand differences within human beings. In the early 20th century in the United States, Susan B. Anthony aligned herself alongside Frederick Douglas's civil rights movement. The Women's Rights movement assisted and learned from other minorities, and fought for their equal rights too. To be a feminist doesn't mean I can pick and chose what type of woman gets equal opportunity, its all women, all men, all communities.
In regard to the issues I mentioned before I would like to provide a couple of statistics to you.
1. In El Salvador, there were 6,000 femicides in the years 2009 and 2010.
2. Females ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault in the United States.
3. Women hold only 25% of senior roles across the world in 2016.
4. 42/51 states in the US alone tax feminine hygienic goods.
No one should have their life cut short, be subjected to sexual torment, or to be discriminated against in the workplace just because they identify as a woman. The feminist movement is about equal opportunity at a life. I should not be killed because I am a female. I should not have to be taxed on products that relate to my health and the health of others. I should not be subjected to rape because I have a vagina and some horrible human being needs to "get some." I also should be able to have equal opportunity as a man to be promoted in the work place.
I get my period once a month, 12 months, every year. It is almost outlandish for me to openly discuss this. I bleed and yet if I walked through the streets of Manhattan, freely allowing blood to drench my clothing and every surface I sit on, that has been deemed as absolutely disgusting. Yet, we tax the sanitary products required for women to present themselves to the world. How does that make any sense?
There needs to be a steady flow of conversation between men and women in law, where men hold a greater number of positions, to eliminate all these odds stacked against women everywhere. We can't have a government making decisions for women when it is mostly male-based; it will alienate us from each other. Politics isn't a middle school cafeteria where boys sit on one side and girls sit on the other. It is a college lecture where intelligent people are mixed together despite gender identification to have understanding conversations about the hardships and difficulties we all had to overcome.
