Did you know that feminists can be men, grandmothers, lawyers, elementary school teachers, and most likely you! yep. So let's go over this... what makes a person a feminist?
*Do you believe that men and women should be paid equally for the same work?
*Do you believe that a woman should have the right to a safe and legal abortion?
*Do you believe that women have the right to be in a loving relationship with another person, free of domestic and/or sexual abuse?
*Do you believe that you should be able to love and be in a relationship with who you want??
Did you say yes to any of these... then, yeah -- you are most likely a feminist. Don't worry, plenty of women are, it's just hard to "own" that F word.
Interested in learning more?
Check out "Full Frontal Feminism," by Jessica Valenti.
(Recently interviewed on the Colbert Report and also has a great Web site, www.feministing.com)
Also, feminist.org has great resources
Want a more advanced book??
Check out "Manifesta: Young women, feminism, and the future," by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards
or
"No Turning Back," by Estelle B. Freedman.
What can feminism do for you?
First, let's look at what feminism has done for us!
Women didn't get the vote until 1920 ... that means that our grandmas or great grandmas couldn't vote. feminists protested, marched, were arrested, and engaged in hunger strikes in order to gain the woman's vote...
Also, when abortion was illegal, women were forced to carry pregnancies to term, even if they would die as a result. Women who chose to get an abortion the only way they could-illegally-often died or were left infertile due to rusty knives and malpractice. Many of these "doctors" performed the illegal procedure in the back seat of cars. Other women would try to induce an abortion themselves, by throwing themselves down stairs or using a coat hanger or knitting needles to induce a miscarriage... oftentimes, as you may well imagine, this resulted in infection, death, or permanent reproductive and/or bodily damage. If abortion were made illegal today... we would have to go through the same things in order to end a pregnancy... scary.
Keep in mind that although we have come far,...we are not yet equal. For instance, we can't marry a person regardless of sexual orientation in most states. Love is love, and people should be able to love who they want. Feminists are fighting to make same-sex marriage and/or same-sex civil unions legal. Why is this important? Because there are a lot of economic benefits to being married, and these benefits can't be shared by those who are in same-sex committments. Also! Our nation was founded under the primise of "the pursuit of happiness"... we should be able to marry, love, or live with whoever we want, regardless of nationality, spirituality, sex, gender, race, etc.
Feminism is also working to improve the wage gap. Yes, there are a couple of female CEOs now... but women today still make on average 72 cents to a man's dollar for the same amount of work. Clearly this is not fair, and feminists are pushing to correct this.
Also, feminists are working to end racism and prejudice in the US. For instance, look at those on death row... count how many of them are not white. There is a reason for that: institutionalized racism. Also, if you count how many individuals are graduating from MA or PhD programs...the racism becomes quite clear. If you have questions about racism or issues of privelege, check out the book: "Privelege, Power, and Difference." It will change your life.
There are many more things that feminists are doing to change the world... check out the blog for updates on just what those are!
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