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212What is feminism In today's society people tend to believe that feminism is one gender being in power above another but that s not true The actually definition of feminism according to merriam webster com is the theory of the political economic and social equality of the sexes That being said Why do people have misconceptions of this We as human learn most of what we know through school The history of our people literature over the years but why when it comes to feminism it s not taught or discussed with our youth Feminism has a big impact on our lives and I don t get why we let it be unknown to many out there This is why we should implement feminism into our school s courses The terms feminism and feminist did not gain widespread use until the 1970s but it was used in earlier times According to Maggie Humm and Rebecca Walker Famous women activist the history of feminism can be divided into three waves The 1st feminist wave was in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Originally it focused on the promotion of equal property rights for women and the conflict of ownership of married women and their children by their husbands
However by the end of the nineteenth century activism focused primarily on gaining political power particularly the right of women s suffrage the 2nd was in the 1960s and 1970s first wave focused on rights such as suffrage whereas the second wave was largely concerned with other issues of equality such as ending discrimination the 3rd extends from the 1990s to the present the 3rd wave observed failures of the second wave and responses to the backlash against movements created by the second wave Third wave feminism seeks to challenge or avoid what it deems the second wave s essentialist definitions of femininity internal debates between difference feminists who believes that there are important differences between the sexes and those who believe that there are no differences between the sexes and that gender roles are due to social conditioning If we all just take a second to learn the history the struggles and why feminism is important in today s society then the misconceptions that come with feminism will disappear Knowing about the battles we ve already won is half the victory Girls in today s live in such an oppressive society on billboards grocery store shelves and cell phone screens sending sex obsessed slut shaming fat shaming whitewashed youth washed heterosexist cissexist ableist messages all with one take away in common you are not good enough According to The Representation Project In the last ten years rates of depression among girls and women have increased twofold Suicide was the number one leading cause of death in teenage girls ages 15 18 globally in 2014 Among children as young as 6 8 half of girls feel they should be thinner Boys also benefit from deconstructing these systems
Everyone deserves to feel safe and to be treated equally The only way to find true equality is to hear the voices that are constantly silenced Meaning that the United States a country with deep gender inequality can manage to integrate more Gender Studies courses into the many credits needed to graduate high school Intergrading feminism in our school system would be helpful as a whole Opening up and discussing these topics that will create a better future for our country and the people in it Work Cited Educators The Representation Project the representation project org educator school Statistics Stop Street Harassment www stopstreetharassment org resources statistics