Feminism, the key to empower women

It is beyond imagine that even in today’s world, that is, in the world of the twenty first century, there is still gender discrimination all over the world, including the first world countries. It is known that from time to time women movements have taken place in every country and in every nation. It is quite humiliating for the developed and the developing countries and it is indeed a shame in the name of modernity. The world must feel ashamed of its acts of discriminating the male and the female in case of their capabilities, competence, skill and merit. A woman is not a babysitter but a fighter as well.

 

The notion of feminism is deeply rooted in the ancient Greece with Sappho (d. c. 570 BCE), or the medieval world with Hildegard of Bingen (d. 1179) or Christine de Pisan (d. 1434). Definitely Olympes de Gouge (d. 1791), Mary Wollstonecraft (d. 1797) and Jane Austen (d. 1817) are the flag bearers of the modern women’s movement. However, a large number of people distinguish women’s movement by the idea of the three waves of feminism.

 

The first wave of women’s movement took place from the 1830’s up to the early 1900’s. The movement of this kind covered the areas of women’s fight for equal contract and property rights. It has been taken for granted pretty often that women comprehended the fact of gaining political power, including that of voting, in the late 19th to the onset of 20th century. They believed that there must be a transition to add fuel to the fire. Day by day, their political plan broadened to the sexual, reproductive and economic issues. Actually, the idea that was implanted was that they have the latent power to have a say in each domain of the society just like the men.

 

The second wave broadened the debate from the 1960’s up to the 1980’s. It concentrated on the workplace, sexuality, family and reproductive rights. At the time of restructuring of the United States, it was apparent that women had congregated their goals of equality. The only exception was that the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, that is yet to be passed, did not come to success. In Britain, the women eloquent in this wave of feminism in Britain began its journey from the environment created by the 1944 Education Act that assured the completion of secondary school by all girls, with a minority giving access to academic girls’ grammar schools.

 

The third is the movement in which we are living at present. It commenced from the 1990s and is active till the present. It is concerned with the “micropolitics” of gender equality. Now-a-days, unlike the previous movements, the term ‘feminist’ is taken by the female persons less seriously due to the different feminist outlooks. There are a number of feminists, such as, the ego-cultural feminists, the radicals, the liberals or the reforms, the electoral, the academic, the eco-feminists and so on and so forth. This wave of women’s movement makes three crucial tactical moves for responding to a series of theoretical problems within the second wave. First and foremost, it answers back the collapse of the category of “women”. It is said that it forefronts the personal narratives that illustrate an intersectional version of feminism. Secondly, as a result of the rise of postmodernism, the third-wavers usher in multivocality over synthesis and action over the justification of theory. Lastly, responding to the divisiveness of the sex wars, the third wave feminism stresses upon a comprehensive approach that refutes to police the boundaries.

 

The present women’s movement is exactly a catalogue of five things. They are, namely, knowledge, linguistics, listening, intersectionality and equality of opportunity. If knowledge is shared, the notion that feminism is pointless can be dismissed. Women can actually still make about 80% in comparison with their male counterparts in identical jobs, and so on. Then language comes that is culturally built. For example, languages like German have masculine and feminine nouns. One of the most significant and undervalued goals of feminism is that we listen to the attacking cultural messages. Again, previously the feminist movements made clear decisions about intersectionality. Equality of opportunities includes the job scopes, educational opportunities, promotional opportunity, bonus and benefits, and equal pay. For instance, abortion, contraceptive, prenatal and other health issues, maternity love, childcare, child support and custody issues, workplace rights, and equal scopes for jobs and education may be mentioned.

 

Moreover, science is such a subject that the feminists have a number of different interests in, and viewpoints on. The implementations of science have been a vital resource for comprehension of nature, its impact and hopes for changing forms of oppression based on gender.

 

A research has proved that the female physicians even now earn less than their male counterparts. From the point of view of both social justice and feminist perspectives, the laws need to pay equally to the female persons in accordance with their male counterparts. Gender bias in case of the incomes of the physicians may be conceptually understood, provided the impact of specialization and other variable things differ in terms of gender.

 

However, a light of hope has to be invited by hook or by crook for the empowerment of the women, for the betterment of the world, for the beneficence of mankind, and for enlivening a better future. Otherwise, the entire world shall be ruined one day, and if any positive step is yet to be taken, it should be done immediately, because the days must be near when men and women are supposed to work together hand in hand. Both the genders should be treated equally. They must stand together to welcome a new era of hope and peace. Only then our beautiful earth will become even more pretty, for a woman can begin the war and she can finish the same war as good as a man, for women and men are not only equal in power but also in intellect.