As I walked along the hallway of my school, I heard the sound of someone screaming for help. It was 9pm and I was just going to my car from the library. The sound became louder as I came across a slightly ajar door and saw a man trying to strangle a female student. I gasped in fear and wondered what I could do. The next thing I heard were words that came from my lips “Leave her alone or I will call the Police.” The attacker left her and turned towards me. As he did so, I ran as fast as my legs could carry me all the way to my car and all the way home. Luckily, I made it home safe and he must have given up the chase. The next day, I drove down to school hoping that I would not meet this mean guy. Luckily for me, I did not meet him and so I went down to my car. As I got to my car, I saw a young lady standing beside my car. She said to me “Thanks for saving another sister” and I replied Sure. In order to show her gratitude, she wanted us to be friends and extended me an invitation to join a society for Feminist students. I told her politely that I would love to be her friend but that I did not consider myself to be a feminist. She looked at me in dismay and said “How can you not be a feminist when you are a woman”. I told her that I was not because I do not believe in its actions. We became friends but one thing we have never agreed on is that I am a Feminist.
Why did I refuse to be called a feminist? Feminism began in the late nineteenth and early twenties with the aim to open more opportunities for women especially the suffrage. The second wave feminism saw a lot of women of color joining the movement with a major focus on reproductive and women’s rights. The second wave feminism also focused on guaranteeing social equality regardless of sex. Third wave feminism displayed strong and empowered women who eschewed victimization and displayed feminine beauty boldly. Feminism has been a huge topic in recent years with incidences of celebrities coming out and identifying with the feminist movement. Last winter, popular singer Beyonce in British Vogue described herself as a modern day feminist and female author, Chimamanda Adichie in her TED talk states that “we should all be feminists” and further describes a feminist as one who believes in the social, political and economic quality of the sexes [We should all be Feminists]. President Obama, in his words “That’s what twenty first century feminism is all about: the idea that when everybody are equal, we are all more free. However some big time actresses have dissociated themselves from being feminist: An example is Shailene Woodley who starred in an assumed feministic role in the movie “Divergent” mentioned that she was not a feminist because she loved men and felt that feminism was not balanced. We can see that the concept of feminism is quite complex.
Contrary to popular belief, feminism has nothing to do with equality. One of the mighty arguments that Feminists make is that they believe in the equality of the two sexes. Do they really do? Let us consider issues that affect both men and women, for instance, the prevalence of cancers. Feminists are quick to cry about the alarming rate of breast and ovarian cancers thereby advocating for thousands of American dollars to go into research, chemotherapy and double mastectomies. What feminists fail to show the whole world is that Prostate cancer, the leading cancer in men kills more males than breast cancer kills females. According to estimates from the National Institutes of Health, “in the United States in 2010, 207,090 women and 1,970 men will get new cases of breast cancer, while 39,840 women and 390 men will likely die from the disease. The estimated new cases of prostate cancer this year — all affecting men — is 217,730, while it is predicted 32,050 will die from the disease”. The American Cancer Association asserts that breast cancer research receives twice as much grants than prostate cancer. It should be noted that 1% of men are likely to develop breast cancer and 400 men are expected to die from breast cancer every year. Men have breast tissue and can develop breast cancer but women do not have prostates so they cannot develop prostate cancer. If truly gender equality is in play here, there would not be so much disparity between the awareness and funding that goes into one cancer versus the other. Let us also consider work place violence and suicide rates among men and women. Statistics show that women are more likely to attempt suicide while men are three times more likely to commit suicide. Most of workplace violence victims, are mostly men and these social ills are yet to be addressed by feminist who hypothesize equality [American Foundation for Suicide Prevention]
Another area that feminists complain of inequality is the gender wage gap. The feminist declares that for the same work, women receive 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. This is a misleading statement because it looks like employers are monsters who are out there to garnish female wages. When this wage gap was analyzed by Forbes, they discovered that the wage gap diminished. The theory that women earn less than men for the same work is not true. Consider the Field of Medicine, it was discovered that female physicians are more likely than men to enter lower paying specialties such as pediatrics or family medicine than higher paying specialties like cardiology or anesthiology. Are the cardiologist and the pediatrician doing the same work? Even though they are both doctors, the cardiologists deal with major organ in the body for people of all ages while the pediatrician is responsible for only children and young adults. Also, female physicians are more likely to take longer leaves of absences to start a family thereby reducing the number of hours they may work in a certain year [The Washington Post].Another point to consider is that women are likely to work part time to cater to children. When these evidence was presented, the National Organization for Women asserted that “powerful sexist stereotypes steer women and men toward different education, training and career paths” but is it really social conditioning that accounts for women’s occupational preferences and special attachment to children. Could it not be that in the pursuit of personal happiness, men and women seek different career paths [The American Interest]. Economically speaking, the gender wage gap, if really true, would be very beneficial to employers. If it was really true that employers could get away with paying women less than men for the same work, would it not make sense for all employers to fire all the male employees and hire only or mostly female employees. They would enjoy huge market advantage.
The National Organization for Women claim to advocate for gender equality but they fail to acknowledge women’s progress and refuse to complain of certain benefits that women receive based on their gender. Over the years, we have a remarkable rise in the numbers of women that occupy managerial and political positions. Women have come a long way and are occupying previously male dominated occupations like computing and sciences but National Organization for Women will not tell you this: they portray women as victims who have been taken advantage of and manipulated by men. Logically speaking, women are the advantaged ones. Everything that feminist complain that happens to a woman happens to a man as well: Rape cases, domestic violence happens in both cases but feminists only address these issues when they affect females. In doing so, they fail to see the unique strengths that females possess, women are more people oriented and more organized hence their success in managerial roles. If feminism was really for gender equality, feminists would celebrate the unique strengths of each sexes and acknowledge the progress that women have made. Prison sentences are another area that females enjoy huge advantage due to their gender and the fact that they have the one ability that men don’t. A new study by Sonja Starr, an assistant law professor at the University of Michigan, found that men are given much higher sentences than women convicted of the same crimes in federal court. According to the study “Men receive sentences that are 63 percent higher, on average, than their female counterparts. Starr also found that females arrested for a crime are also significantly more likely to avoid charges and convictions entirely, and twice as likely to avoid incarceration if convicted.” Another research suggests that Judges are more likely to treat women more leniently because of their great caretaking ability”.
What is feminism to a transgender woman and a prolife feminist? When Vogel, the founder of the Michigan music festival was addressing the issue of transgender inclusion in the one week camp, she responded “There’s something that I experience on the land when I walk at night without a flashlight in the woods and recognize that for that moment I feel completely safe. And there’s nowhere else I can do that.” She continued, “If, tomorrow, we said everyone is welcome, I’m sure it would still be a really cool event, but that piece that allows women to let down their guard and feel that really deep sense of personal liberation would be different, and that’s what we’re about.” Many transgender activists were offended by these remarks which implied that transgender women were different from other women and constituted a threat to women’s’ spaces. If feminism was really about gender equality, would it not be excited to accept these brave women who have decided to break all barriers and be themselves instead of composing another roadblock of opposition they would have to face. Recently, the women’s march which was supposed to bring together all women from all walks of life to achieve a particular purpose excluded a particular group of women, the new wave organization because they were prolife. In a statement from the women’s march, they reacted to the exclusion of the prolife group by stating that the women’s march was firmly pro-choice and that “the anti-choice organization in question was not a partner with them”. The Womens’ march which was supposed to be a strong, united female voice became divided by the prochoice mentality of feminists. If they were for gender equality, should they not accommodate opposing values and represent the interest that all women all share.
If feminism is a movement for equality, why do we not see an adequate representation of both genders’ issues? The word feminist is no longer useful as it does not define me as a person. I believe in gender equality. I believe that both sexes’ issues must be represented and fought for with the same degree. I believe that we must celebrate the strengths and unique abilities of both sexes. I believe in inclusiveness and not exclusiveness because of a different value system. I want to be happy with the work I have chosen and not be told that I have been socially conditioned to choose that career. I want to be happy as a stay at home mom and do traditional female duties and not be viewed as weak and not lacking ambition. I believe in female happiness and not conformity to a particular value system. I want my future boys to grow up in a world that sees them as equal to their female counterparts and not as predators who must be despised and put in their place. I want transgender and Pro-life feminists to feel like they are women and not be excluded, so I am not a feminist. I consider myself to be an egalitarian: one who believes that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.
The term feminist is no longer useful as its actions do not equal its values. It is now a term that is gender biased that when mentioned presents a picture of women fighting for only women’s rights. Even among the women, feminist have divided women into transgender women, prolife women and prochoice women. No wonder only 18% of women agree to be identified to as feminist [Vox poll]. The term “feminist” contradicts themselves in many ways: they claim to love men and mention male privileges but refuse to mention male sacrifices or female privileges. A feminist claims to believe in choice and complains of lack of female scientists or lack of females in male dominated professions but fail to respect the choices of women who have declared that they would be happier spending more time with their kids. I applaud the National Organization for Women for fighting for women equality and rights. They have done a great job with ensuring that women move up the corporate ladder. I suggest that in fighting this great battle,they must include all women and not neglect the opposite sex in doing so.