"Third Wave" Feminism, where are you?!
What has happened to the "third wave" of American Feminism? While we have come a long way since the first wave of feminism of the1920's (after all we DID achieve suffrage) we haven't gone far enough. Women still do not earn the same salaries as men for the same careers, and politicians are fighting long and hard to deny us the right to our own bodies, among other injustices. Why don't more Americans see these policies for what they are, an attempt to deny rights to women, minorities, the elderly, and the poor?!
The recent attack on Planned Parenthood, Welfare, Medicare/Medicaid, and Social Security programs DIRECTLY impacts women. Women are the ones who need the services that these programs provide. Young, poor women are the ones benefiting from Planned Parenthood, which provides birth control/contraceptives, gynecological visits, prenatal vitamins and other vital female medical treatment. Single mothers make up the majority of the women on Welfare. Older women are largely the ones effected by any cuts/changes in Medicare & Social Security programs because they outlive their husbands. Etc, etc.
Women, and the services that they benefit from, are still seen as second class. These programs are deemed "frivolous spending" yet we continue to pour billions of dollars into a defense budget. This is unacceptable. WHY do we stand by and do nothing? Our 1920's female ancestors, who fought long and hard for women's suffrage, would be ashamed, and outraged. They marched day and night, were imprisoned, undertook hunger strikes just for the basic right to vote, which most of us take for granted! (ever seen the Hilary Swank film "Iron Jawed Angels" ? If not, rent immediately!)
Even our own mothers must be ashamed of our generation. The women of the 1960s/70s, the second wave, fought to be accepted in professions that were previously male-dominated; they burned their bras to protest the corporate male view of femininity; they marched on Washington in support of Roe v. Wade (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=410&invol=113,) a trial that established the CRUCIAL notion that a woman has the right to CHOOSE what happens to her own body! What has our generation done? Where is the third wave?
Equality has not been attained. Yet, the notion that American women have achieved complete equality with American men is a widely held believe, particularly in the younger generations. Where is their outrage?
Is breaking through that professional "glass ceiling," that has oppressed generations of women, even a goal of the modern woman? It doesn't seem to be a concern of most. If anything we continue to slip further away from that glass ceiling.
Why do we insist on believing the hype that feminism is no longer necessary? It is absolutely necessary. But it is trivialized...no,WORSE, it has been made a dirty word!
Women in other parts of the world are still fighting, passionately for their rights:
http://www.rferl.org/content/Women_Call_For_Gender_Equality_Ahead_Of_Irans_Presidential_Vote/1620494.html
http://womenfound.org/2010/11/02/un-women-and-iran/
http://anushayspoint.com/2011/02/03/the-fight-for-democracy-how-protests-in-egypt-itan-shatter-myths-about-muslim-women/
http://www.elcjhl.org/news/2007/mar.asp
http://scandegypt.blogspot.com/2009/03/egypts-struggling-women.html
The recent attack on Planned Parenthood, Welfare, Medicare/Medicaid, and Social Security programs DIRECTLY impacts women. Women are the ones who need the services that these programs provide. Young, poor women are the ones benefiting from Planned Parenthood, which provides birth control/contraceptives, gynecological visits, prenatal vitamins and other vital female medical treatment. Single mothers make up the majority of the women on Welfare. Older women are largely the ones effected by any cuts/changes in Medicare & Social Security programs because they outlive their husbands. Etc, etc.
Women, and the services that they benefit from, are still seen as second class. These programs are deemed "frivolous spending" yet we continue to pour billions of dollars into a defense budget. This is unacceptable. WHY do we stand by and do nothing? Our 1920's female ancestors, who fought long and hard for women's suffrage, would be ashamed, and outraged. They marched day and night, were imprisoned, undertook hunger strikes just for the basic right to vote, which most of us take for granted! (ever seen the Hilary Swank film "Iron Jawed Angels" ? If not, rent immediately!)
Even our own mothers must be ashamed of our generation. The women of the 1960s/70s, the second wave, fought to be accepted in professions that were previously male-dominated; they burned their bras to protest the corporate male view of femininity; they marched on Washington in support of Roe v. Wade (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=410&invol=113,) a trial that established the CRUCIAL notion that a woman has the right to CHOOSE what happens to her own body! What has our generation done? Where is the third wave?
Equality has not been attained. Yet, the notion that American women have achieved complete equality with American men is a widely held believe, particularly in the younger generations. Where is their outrage?
Is breaking through that professional "glass ceiling," that has oppressed generations of women, even a goal of the modern woman? It doesn't seem to be a concern of most. If anything we continue to slip further away from that glass ceiling.
Why do we insist on believing the hype that feminism is no longer necessary? It is absolutely necessary. But it is trivialized...no,WORSE, it has been made a dirty word!
Women in other parts of the world are still fighting, passionately for their rights:
http://www.rferl.org/content/Women_Call_For_Gender_Equality_Ahead_Of_Irans_Presidential_Vote/1620494.html
http://womenfound.org/2010/11/02/un-women-and-iran/
http://anushayspoint.com/2011/02/03/the-fight-for-democracy-how-protests-in-egypt-itan-shatter-myths-about-muslim-women/
http://www.elcjhl.org/news/2007/mar.asp
http://scandegypt.blogspot.com/2009/03/egypts-struggling-women.html
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