It’s 2015. It has been 175 years since the women’s suffrage movement began, a movement that has now evolved into the women’s equality movement, or the feminist movement. Feminism can be defined as the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. However, feminism today has begun to be viewed in a separate light from the movement for equality, a light that brings with it its own stigmas that are detrimental to exactly what the movement is all about: women’s rights.

People have started to associate true feminism with the stereotypical “angry feminist,” among many other stereotypes that are harmful to the movement. Such stereotypes are included in an article written by WhyFeminist.com, “Five Stereotypes About Feminism that Have to Stop,” which consists of the stereotypes that feminism looks down on women who want to live a more traditional lifestyle, feminists think that women are helpless victims that want handouts for everything, and most importantly, that feminists hate men (Matthew Reyes). These stereotypes have made the word feminism a so-called "dirty word." They have made the movement a joke, a joke that women are being whiny and unrealistic when they ask for the same rights as any man.

People now believe, thanks to these stereotypes, that all women do is complain about the patriarchy and do nothing to promote social change, to promote equality. This is not true. Feminists are pushing for equality, equality that has been kept from women since we began asking for it in the 1840’s. The gender equality movement has been expanding across the world, but the one place these stereotypes have become even more prevalent is here within the United States. The country that since its founding has claimed that everyone can come here to seek freedom. Freedom, but apparently not equality. It has been shown through multiple studies that women still make less than men (however, this is gradually changing), women’s employment is more insecure, women hold just under 17 percent of the seats in Congress, and most disturbingly 25 percent of women will experience domestic violence and 17.6 percent of women will be raped (TheNewAgenda.net).

In degrading feminists by calling them “radical,” “angry,” and “man-hating,” you are in essence saying that women do not deserve the same political, social, and economic status as men. Anyone should be proud to call themselves a feminist, and here are some quotes to prove it:

“Though we have the courage to raise our daughters more like our sons, we’ve rarely had the courage to raise our sons like our daughters” –Gloria Steinman

“For most of history Anonymous was a woman” –Virginia Woolf

“Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength” –G.D. Anderson

Feminism is not a dirty word; it is a word that promotes equality and equal rights for women and should be treated as such.