Once upon a time, women were not allowed to live their lives on their terms, they had no right to decide what they wanted to do with their lives, they had no liberty to become who they wanted to become, and summarily they had no hold over their lives. That is what life was for women, but it was the opposite for men. They not only got to live their own lives on their terms but also got to do that on behalf of women. Sounds unfair, right? That’s where women’s empowerment comes into the picture; to make it all fair for men and women. It is all about giving women the power and control over their own lives; it is a process in which women get their deserving rights which have been denied continuously from early times. Women Empowerment believes in giving women power and their rights. Rights, are not more than what men have, but equal rights, and that is exactly what feminism is.
Feminism is a gamut of ideologies, social movements, and political movements that work towards one goal, goal to establish equality of sexes. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the first appearance of the word ‘feminist’ was in the year 1852, and for feminism, it was in 1895. Feminism over the years has attracted a lot of attention towards it, some good, some bad. A movement that was started years ago to redefine how we look at women and their rights has been misused over the years. Feminism is a spin-off of the lack of women’s empowerment because if women were empowered as men in the first place, there would not have been any need for this movement.
For thousands of years, our society has been constructed on the notion that men are superior, more capable, more knowledgeable, and stronger than women. This notion has given men the right to dominate women and their lives. Our society has always talked about how men are always right, how we are supposed to follow them blindly, how every decision of our lives has to come from them, and how we are not supposed to stand for our rights. This isn’t equality. As human beings living on this planet, women deserve equal rights as men; they deserve personal, social, political, and economic equality as men.
Because of this gender inequality, a movement was started years ago, which was called feminism. Four waves of feminism began to fight against gender inequality. The first wave (19th and early 20th century) came intending to open up opportunities for women, with a focus on suffrage (the right to vote in political elections). Women weren’t even allowed to vote as a citizen of their respective countries, thus the first wave to gain their right to vote. The second wave began in the 1960s and continued into the 90s. This wave drew attention to the issues of domestic violence and marital rape. This wave encouraged women to understand how their personal lives reflect sexist power structures. The third wave began in the early 1990s to the backlash against the second-wave initiatives. This wave demonstrates that race, class, religion, gender, and nationality are all significant factors when discussing feminism. And the fourth wave began around 2012 and is linked to the use of social media. The issues that fourth-wave feminists focus on include workplace harassment, rape, and sexual assault. These are the four waves that began to fight against gender inequality and to make people believe that every human deserves respect and dignity and that every human has rights over their own life, including other aspects like politics, economy, and society.
Feminism never suggested that women should have it all or they should have more than what men have. The idea of this longest movement started in history is to create a world where there is no discrimination based on gender. Women have faced a lot of wrongdoings and injustice. What feminism does is help women to fight that inequality.
Some people believe that feminism is no longer relevant in today’s society, but statistics have something different to say. An estimated 15 million girls under 18 years of age are married worldwide every year. An example of child marriage. 30% percent of women who have been in a relationship report that they have been a victim of some form of physical or sexual violence by their partner. Every year, approximately 1000 honor killings are occurring in India and Pakistan. Women aged 15-44 are more at risk from rape and domestic violence than from a disease like cancer from around the world. 62 million girls are denied education all over the world.
I believe that we indeed need feminism to empower women. And it is also true that being a feminist does not mean that we have to hate men. Feminism is not about believing that women are better than men or that they deserve special privileges over men. It is about equality amongst all genders and their rights. Our society has always presented women with the idea that there is the right way to be a woman. It does not let us be what we want to be. There are certain sets of rules that have been established for women to follow to be accepted in society, and if not done so, we have to face criticism, violence, and hatred from people around us. This is wrong. No one can decide how a person should be or look like, whether a male or a female. Modern society needs to change. Modern society needs ‘conscious’ feminism. Treating men and women equally is what is required to do.