Who Stole Feminism

A detailed Summary of Who Stole Feminism

During the last decade issues concerning Who stole Feminism have been debated. Although the issues are complex and the opposition argues that it has not been stolen, that the fire burns on with ambitions of workforce equality monetarily and feminist leaders contend that they know exactly what this 2nd wave is and always was about. Their views do have merit, but I contend that it has been stolen for these cogent reasons: Feminism has lost it's identity as seen by the public and feminism has begun to backfire on its promulgators.

Feminism started as a movement in America and France in 1848 when the first group met to discuss what women needed in modern society. They concluded that the right to vote should be the right of women in America as well as of the men. The conclusions reached by the first American feminists manifested themselves in the 15th amendment along with the civil rights gained by minorities after the civil war. Of course the Civil War and the emancipation proclamation spurred the 15th amendment heavily, but the early feminist movement was on the minds of the legislators. Feminist pursuits maintained focused on the goal of achieving voting rights for women. In 1878 the article that would become known as the 19th am

endment was introduced to Congress. Not until 1920, after continuous feminist backing, would the article be ratified as the 19th amendment.

The early feminist's goal was easy to see: Equal voting rights. After 1920 the focus shifted from suffrage, and onto equal civil rights. The feminist movement gathered steam throughout the early and middle 20th century. There were new conquests to be made, and new inequalities to fight. Until 1954 women were not allowed to serve on juries. The demand for equal rights in Texas enabled the repeal of legislature in 1972 allowing men to shoot wives caught cheating without legal consequence when women started demanding the same ability when finding their husband being adulterous. The feminist activists became famous for bra burning and anti-male motto spewing. The popular phrase, "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle," came from this time. The results of this movement and newfound focus are far-reaching and easy to see. Women have become accepted in the workplace and legislation has been passed to protect women in such a situation. Sexual harassment laws were needed because women customarily have not been a part of the workplace and guidelines had to be set to aid proper office interaction.

Beyond the social conservatives though, out beyond the misperceptions of what feminism is, in the society that feminism has created is where the backfiring takes place. Kay Ebeling recounts her story of a blind date in the modern feminist age. In her story can be found the effects of such radical change in social structure in such a short amount of time. She describes a situation where a man, pressed for time, allots himself 50 minutes of his time to meet her for a drink. They speak for a while and she notices that he is watching her, studying her. The man is trying to adapt to the new role of women in society, as equals. Equal women destroy the notion of chivalry and only a nostalgic man can think of being truly romantic. Equal women contradict the idea of chivalry, which was based upon the inherent strengths of men that women did not possess: strength, protection, dominance and machismo, an intrinsic inequality between the sexes. In the feminist world of today women are supposedly just as apt to have machismo. The man is doing his best to treat Kay like an equal and also not waste his precious time in this fast paced wo

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Approximate Word count = 1599
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English