As Women’s History Month comes to an end, I wanted to help everyone understand feminist objectives and reasons why being a feminist is so important and beneficial. Feminists seem to have attained a bad reputation in past years, and many women are scared to identify as one or think that the goals of feminism have been reached. However, there are several struggles and inequalities still present today and many reasons to identify as a feminist. I will outline some of these issues below:
1. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men will be raped in the United States in their lifetime.
Although this number is obviously significantly higher for women, and therefore an issue worth more attention, feminists fight to end the rape of ANYONE. These statistics shouldn’t exist at all. The feminist initiative will not end until 0 people are in danger of rape in the United States. Everyone is impacted by this violence–whether or not you have faced rape, there is an extremely large chance someone you know has. There is a desperate need for people to be aware of and work against this violence.
2. According to NSRVC, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men face some kind of contact sexual violence in the United States in their lifetime.
This number is once again larger for women than men, but an extremely large amount of men also suffer from this issue that feminists work against. Sexual violence towards any person of any gender must end and until it does, feminists still have work to do!
3. According to NSRVC, It’s estimated that 325,000 children per year are at risk of becoming victims of commercial child sexual exploitation.
Feminists work against this issue that even exploits and harms young children. The impacts of such exploitation could carry into these children’s lives forever, with mental and health effects–and that’s if they live through such exploitation. The danger fought against by feminists is for all genders and all ages–nobody is exempt from harm, unfortunately. That is what feminists want to change.
4. According to NSRVC, 20-25% of college women and 15% of college men are victims of forced sex during their time in college.
This statistic shows the specific danger that college students as a whole face. Feminists use initiatives like Take Back the Night (something we do on Coastal’s campus every year) as a movement to end this violence and push for freedom and safety of all people, including college students.
5. According to the Human Rights Campaign, 47% of transgender people are sexually assaulted in their lifetime.
The percentage of sexual assault and rape cases jumps significantly higher for people within the transgender community, as almost half of transgender people suffer from sexual assault. This is unacceptable and feminists work against this violence and for fair treatment of all individuals, including transgender individuals.
6. According to Payscale, Women with the same job and qualifications make 98 cents for every dollar made by men.
Not only do women earn less than men for the same job and qualifications, but this does not even account for the fact that women struggle to attain the same promotions and job advancements that men have the opportunity to get simply based on their gender. There is no reason women should be paid less for the same work and suffer more job discrimination. On top of this, women of color suffer significantly more from this unequal pay and job discrimination, showing institutionalized racism. Until this changes, the feminist initiative is not over.
7. Many American schools perpetuate sexism with sexist dress codes.
School dress codes often promote victim blaming by only targeting the way female students dress and insinuating that if a girl wear something “too short” or leggings, it is her fault if a guy in class “cannot concentrate.” This is a very backwards way of thinking, and creates a culture in which girls always feel to blame for being overly sexualized. This goes much further as when rape victims are raped, people often blame the victim for their attire or actions rather than the perpetrator. This victim blaming starts at an early age and carries on throughout life. Victims should never be blamed, and feminists work for the end of this.
I hope that from this list, you have learned to look at feminism a little differently and maybe even identify as a feminist yourself. There are so many issues left to be resolved that feminists are making strides towards and everyone is impacted.