The Philosophy of Feminism and How it affects modern society

Madi Babensee (G8)

Published Issue 2 2021-2022

Philosophy

Feminism: A term you have likely heard at some point in time. But what exactly is feminism? The term is thrown around so much that it’s meaning has dulled, like a piece of glass being thrown in the waves by a storm of protest. Feminism, in its most basic form, is the philosophy of gender equality. It is the very concept that women are equal to all other genders. To explore this further, I investigated the philosophy of feminism.

Feminism started being prominent in the early 1990s, but really, the movement started centuries before that, in the 1400s. Notably Christine de Pizan, a woman who lived in the 1400s, and was one of the very first people to propose equal rights for women. One of the very first feminists recorded after that was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was part of the abolitionist movement in the late eighteen-forties. I found one of her most famous quotes intriguing - “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal,” in that it is an adaptation of the Declaration of Independence. Now, at the time, feminism was relatively new in being brought to light, so this inclusion of women in a quote from the declaration of independence was monumental. And so began the philosophy of feminism, with that one simple statement; “and women''.

One of the most important parts of feminism, along with the idea that women are equal to men, is the idea that

women should be granted an equal opportunity. Until the feminist movement, women were very rarely permitted to hold jobs outside of the household - they were thought of as mothers and housewives. Now, equal opportunity is also sometimes protested. One very common misconception about feminism is that feminists hate men, which is very incorrect. Under the philosophy of feminism, men are simply not given priority over women, which some people seem to perceive as hate.

In conclusion, feminism is one simple concept: The concept that women matter just as much as other people, and

that they should be granted equal rights and opportunities. Feminism is not the hatred or repellence of men, but the embracing of women in society as equals.