Flying Cars Before Women’s Rights? How the Landscape of Feminism is Changing

Women and girls are excelling academically compared to their male counterparts. Whether they are 16 or 21, women have consistently been performing at a higher standard in educational institutions, despite facing more health inequity and a higher risk of sexual harassment. 

This raises an uncomfortable question: what might women be capable of in a world that always allowed them the same opportunities? 

Would diseases be cured sooner? Would the Cost-of-Living crisis have been avoided? And would, perhaps, the flying car have been perfected by now? 

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, feminism can be defined as the belief that men and women should have equal rights, power and opportunities. This may seem like an unambiguous concept to many, but in 2026, it is suggested that 37% of people disagree that gender equality benefits everybody (Kessler, 2026). 

And with the rise of social media, feminism is becoming an even more nuanced concept. After reading ‘Men Who Hate Women: The Extremism Nobody is Talking About’ by Laura Bates, I was enlightened by the depths of the manosphere, leaving me both fascinated and unsettled simultaneously. Not only are young boys being conditioned to perceive women as lesser than, but also as ‘sex-robots’, ‘selfish sluts’ and that we possess minds that ‘haven’t fully evolved’. More and more men are becoming vitriolic at the mere thought of a woman’s existence, despite the major advancements in women’s rights over the past century. 

Boys as young as primary school age are being exposed to this hate speech. With neuroplasticity at its fastest in adolescence, they are highly vulnerable to falling down this rabbit hole (Gazerani, 2025). A community of men with a façade of understanding and belonging, sharing their experiences of rejection from women can seem attractive to a teenage boy struggling with loneliness or insecurity. 

It’s easy to assume there is a certain demographic of boys in their adolescence actively seeking out these misogynistic videos. But that is not the case. Picture this: a teenage boy innocently searches ‘gym routine’, ‘football highlights’ or ‘Fortnite clips’ on TikTok. Only a few scrolls later he is met with men calling him skinny and unlovable. A few more scrolls and suddenly it’s all spiteful woman-hating content. Within minutes, self-improvement advice gives way to resentment and hostility towards women. This is due to intentional algorithmic systems designed to maximise engagement, provoking rage to keep users hooked. 

Without intervention, the continued expansion of the manosphere will inevitably affect schoolgirls. The playground is no place for a rise in gender-based hate speech, sexual violence and degradation of women and girls. Consequently, girls may have difficulty focusing in the classroom, a space that is supposed to be safe. When it is reinforced to girls that they are inferior to their male peers, their confidence and self-belief are bound to suffer. 

These inequalities become even more apparent when we zoom out. Intersectional feminism, a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, acknowledges the interconnected nature of how race, sexuality and disability can intensify the discrimination women face. Not all women experience discrimination in the same way, but intersectionality benefits all of us. While many women in the UK enjoy rights our grandmother’s grandmothers could never have imagined, millions of women and girls globally are still withheld from their potential.  

So I ask again: if girls and women never had to consider the attitudes of essentially everybody around them before they consider their own ambitions, what else could we have achieved by now? What innovations never left the ground, and what problems remain unsolved? Would the flying car be an ordinary part of everyday life by now? 

• equality
• feminism
• intersectional feminism
• women's rights