By now, I’m sure we’ve all heard the gist of feminism defending itself time and time again: it’s an equality movement, it’s not pro-female superiority, you can still be a housewife if you want, and so on. And I’m sure we’ve all seen the statistics about the wage gap and sexual violence, and seen people protesting for abortion. Yet, it’s brushed off; any decent person can be against those things, but it’s nothing to get to riled up about, especially when women have it worst in places like the Middle East.

The issue with this line of thinking is that it exactly proves why we need feminism. Sexual violence is most times men harming women, which directly stems from power dynamics that couple with misogyny. The wage gap puts women, especially women of color, at an economic disadvantage. The abortion problem isn’t a matter of irresponsible people wanting to kill babies, but rather a larger part of reproductive rights, from conception to abortion to birth, being deprived from women and trans/nonbinary individuals, who experience institutional discrimination because of their gender.

We need feminism because we assume that women in places like the Middle East are in more need of our help because they don’t align with the societal structures we have in place in Western countries. We need feminism because we dismiss the issues women have here with, “Someone else has it worse than you.” We need feminism because those people who “have it worse” are still routinely ignored, like black women, Latinx women, Native American women, lesbian women, bisexual women, trans women, women with disabilities, neurodivergent women, and so on.

Feminism in 2017 isn’t the same as feminism in 1917. It isn’t just about voting rights. It’s about fighting for the liberation of everyone regardless of gender, meaning that it fights for other marginalized groups like the LGBTQ community. Fighting gendered violence, inequality in the workplace, wage gaps, healthcare inequality, slut-shaming, body-shaming, eating disorders, and harmful gender roles go hand in hand with fighting other forms of discrimination like racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and classism, which is exactly what feminists mean when we say we’re fighting for equality. The goal of feminism isn’t just for women to equal men, but for anyone, regardless of whether they identify as a woman, man, or something else, to be able to move freely within the world without their gender having negative institutional and societal consequences.