Why I Need Modern Day Feminism

I come from a long line of powerful, bitchy women. My grandmother on one side survived an neglectful husband, a whole bunch of male children, and worked as a nurse in a NICU through it all. I remember looking at her and being in awe because she number one was the only person my dad managed to hold on a pedestal, and number two was beautiful through all this power. She held herself with grace and beauty, but was also a mighty force to be reckoned with. She didn’t take anyone’s shit, and was the epitome of “Do no harm, but take no shit.”

I watched these strong women hold themselves, and was encouraged to be strong myself so I was. But as I grew older I realized that women are still treated as lesser, and strong women are treated as demonic. The first time I was actively, intentionally told I couldn’t do something because I was a girl was when I told a little boy I wanted to be a racecar driver. He claimed that I couldn’t because I was a girl, and I had never been told so directly that I couldn’t do something because I was a woman. I was shell shocked and argued that I could do whatever I wanted because I was smart and just as good as any boy. 

This is when I became a feminist, before I even knew the world. This was where I decided that no one would ever tell me that I couldn’t do something because of my vagina. At the young age of seven years old I knew that the fight the women in my family had done was not over, and that I must keep going. I decided that the fact that I get charged more, assaulted more, and paid less was not something I would accept silently. I would call it out for what it was, I would call bullshit bullshit, and I would be part of this third wave of feminism. 

Feminism is still needed. Donald Trump has supporters who want to repeal the 19th amendment, aka the amendment that gives women the right to vote. We are still charged a pink tax, a tax that means women get charged more than men for the same exact products. Women get paid less than men, and get 80 cents to every dollar a man makes.  College women get raped more than men, one in four women in college get raped while one in 16 men are raped.  

Yes, we can vote, work, and voice our opinions but we aren’t done fighting. We are not equal yet, and I for one will not sit quietly while I’m treated as lesser than. And neither should you. 

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