Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Is Feminism Still Relevant?

In today's society, people are often afraid to admit they are "feminists." Even though this word means equality between men and women, many people associate it with a negative connotation which results in less people identifying as feminists. This should be an obvious feat. Men and women should be equal in terms of opportunities, treatment in society, wages, etc., but that is not the case unfortunately. Or is it?

In the article Mr. Ogden had us read, I was rather surprised by the initial argument that women are essentially surpassing men in society. Every other presentation in this class was about how women have been treated inferior to men in society and the road to equality is a struggle for them. But in today's society, that isn't necessarily true anymore. Out of the top 15 rising jobs, 13 of those belong to women. This means only two belong to men, one of which is a janitor. I was shocked by this statistic as the social stigma that men dominate the workplace still seems to exist. Yes, there still definitely is a wage gap between the two genders, but women are dominating the workplace in both lower and middle class jobs. The only place that their presence isn't as prominent is in Fortune 500 jobs. Even the 3% of women within in the Fortune 500 are extremely successful and looked at with envy from other men. There companies have been incredibly successful, proving that women are in fact capable of taking on the task of such a big job. Also, the argument of "if women are inferior, why do the majority of parents choose to have a girl rather than a boy?" was surfaced. Again, I was very surprised by this statistic, as well was the man who discovered how to choose the sex, as he thought it would be used to choose boys. Parents think that girls will be overall more successful and intelligent, so most would rather a girl than a boy. Clearly feminism is making progress if this is the case, because I'm sure 100 years ago this would not be the case.

So this brings up the question: is feminism still relevant? I argue, yes, feminism is still relevant. Sure, it is true that women are thriving in the workplace compared to 100 years ago, but like I previously stated, there is still a wage gap. Sure, parents are choosing to birth girls over boys, but in today's society, women still face sexist comments on a daily basis. Feminism means equality. It is as simple as that: men and women are equal in all aspects. And as of today, men and women are not equal in all aspects. Progress definitely is being made and it definitely is getting there, but it is still not where it needs to be just yet.


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