Feminism is an economic, political, and cultural belief system

Feminism is an economic, political, and cultural belief system centered on women’s gender equality and rights. Discrimination against women was highly encountered in the world due to their gender or sex.  They could not work in an office or hold a public office, vote, earn equal pay, education, and a top position in a firm, and they were treated with contempt. However, feminists rose and called for changes in the economic, social, and political status to decrease the rate of discrimination against women and fighting for their rights in society.

“Voices of Post Feminist Generation@, by Susan Bolotin, published in 1982, drew heavily on interviews with other women who shared Feminism’s ideas and wanted to be heard by the public. Women ‘s studies is an area of study that uses feminist and collaborative methods to put women’s lives and experiences at the center of research. The fields of ethnic studies, cultural studies are all related to gender studies, sexuality studies, and feminist studies. Women’s due to learning have portrayed how women act as a mirror image in society.

Multiracial and third-wave feminism focus on the inclusivity of all women. As we are seeing different cultures and genders in this world, these groups of feminism want to make room for all. It isn’t including just a specific kind of woman, but all. However, marxism feminism focuses more on that women aren’t treated right in regards to the capitalist/private property system.

Feminism backlash is an opposition against the beliefs and stances for feminism. It is finding things wrong with the movement and making them known. Feminism is relevant to my life because it affects me in the little things. Even if it’s just walking down the street, I think about the consequences of me being female. I feel as often I am seen as weak because I am a woman, and I want to stand against that. I am capable of much, even if it’s different things. I am thankful for our differences and I hope one day we can appreciate each other and stand hand in hand instead of against one another.

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Feminism is the advocacy for the social, economic, and political equality of the sexes. There are several kinds of feminism but, the ones that I find fascinating are multiracial and Marxist feminism. Multiracial feminism stems from the record of women of color’s active participation in women’s rights issues while their own unique experiences involving racism and discrimination were often disregarded. From this neglect grew a movement of women of color and their allies to promote not only gender equality but race and class equality as well. One of my favorite sections of our textbook so far is #BlackLivesMatter by Alicia Garza. Her words, I feel, are a wonderful summary of why multiracial feminism is important.

“Progressive movements in the United States have made some unfortunate errors when they push for unity at the expense of really understanding the concrete differences in context, experience, and oppression. In other words, some want unity without struggle. As people who have our minds stayed on freedom, we can learn to fight anti-Black racism by examining ways in which we participate in it, even unintentionally. Instead of the worn-out and sloppy practice of drawing lazy parallels of unity between peoples with vastly different experiences and histories” (Hadjicostandi-Anag, 2021, p. 83).

Where multiracial feminism is built on the understanding of unique experiences of different groups of people within the larger female population, Marxist feminism fails to account for the individual experience. Marxist feminism believes that women are suppressed by the current system of production within our Capitalist society and again, unlike multiracial feminism which advocates for policy change and systemic restructure, Marxist feminists believe that communism, not incremental legal changes, is the answer for equality.

Feminist backlash is a negative reaction to the feminist movement. One example I can think of is popular misogyny and its competition with popular feminism. I see examples of both across social media platforms daily. Feminism is very much relevant. Not only am I exposed to feminist promotions and marketing throughout the day but, I, as a woman, do have different life experiences than men based solely on the fact that I am a woman. I’m pretty sure that men aren’t the target audience for nail polish that can detect certain date rape drugs but that kind of safety concern is more prevalent for us than our male counterparts. The female body has been a legal hot topic for decades. Did you know that birth control was first ruled legal for married women back in 1965? Single women weren’t “allowed” access to contraceptives until 1972. That wasn’t too long ago (my mom was born in ’65). With so many current issues that still center around the safety and autonomy of female and gender minorities’ bodies, I think feminism is relevant and still very much important.