RUNNING HEAD: FEMINISM

Community Problem Report: Feminism

The University of Texas at El Paso
RWS 1301
March 30, 2016
JAnais Holland

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Abstract
The lack of knowledge when it comes to feminism is quite extensive. This lack of knowledge is
not only setting women back but it is setting men back as well. As a society, feminism is a
necessary belief to follow. Identifying as a feminist only means that one believes in the social,
political, and economic equality of the sexes. Also, by becoming a feminist, communities can
begin to thrive one by one. These communities can begin to thrive not only by getting rid of the
gender pay gap but also by making happier, healthier, and smarter families. Besides the
economic factors, feminism allows both men and women to overcome standards that have been
placed upon them from the beginning, which is a social aspect of feminism. As for politics, many
regulations have been made in regards to a womans body by a group of mostly men. Overall,
feminism allows people to breakthrough societies miniscule box of standards, compensated
everyone equally for equal amounts of work, and also results in happier communities.

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Introduction
Although it is the year of 2016, an astonishing amount of people are still unaware of what
the term feminism means. Most people genuinely think that it is the belief that women want to
and should be superior to men. Most people believe that it entails man-hating, burning bras, and
refusing to shave. And most people believe that feminism is only for women. However, each and
every one of those ideas toward feminism are ignorant and lack the very basic ideology that
feminism holds. Feminism is, in the simplest form, the social, political, and economic equality of
the sexes. For some, it may be common sense that women and men should be held at the same
standard whether it comes to politics, social expectations, and economic values. So, this report
will discuss more in depth common misconceptions, basic ideologies such as the glass ceiling,
the benefits of everyone being a feminist, and overall social, political, and economic inequalities
that affect the sexes alone and society as a whole.
Feminism vs Society
The term feminism tends to put a bitter taste in the mouth of those who say it and makes
the stomachs turn of those who hear it. But why is that? When asked whether both men and
women believed in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes, a whopping 89% of
respondents agreed with the statement. However, when the same group of people were asked
whether they identified as feminist, only 20% of them said they did identify as feminist and of
that percentage only 23% were women and only 16% were men. Now, this just goes to show
how misunderstood feminism truly is. When asked about the basic definition of feminism, very
many respondents agreed with it however when that definition had a name to it, respondents
disagreed with it. This is where the problem starts. Not only is the basic lack of knowledge about

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the definition of feminism holding society back, but so are the other very common
misconceptions about feminism.
One of the most common misconceptions is that feminism is only for women. Thankfully,
this statement is completely misled. Feminism is for both men and women. One of the only
reasons as to why people believe that it is only for women is the fact that the first half of the
word has fem in it and that tends to scare away the typical masculine man. This part of the
word has scared off so many men that they felt that in order to identify as someone who believes
in the equality of the sexes, they had to change the name of it in order to make it sound more
masculine. This is where the term meninist comes from. A meninist is a man that believes in the
social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. Now, this may just be one of the reasons
feminism is needed in the first place. Rather than accepting the fact that this belief has a name
that sounds feminine, some men got the idea to change the name so that they could identify
under it.
Another common misconception about feminism is that it is all about man-bashing,
burning bras, and refusing to shave. Lets address the man-bashing first. Being that the definition
of the word feminism actually says equality of the sexes, this argument invalidates itself. Now,
as far as burning bras goes, that was simply a wave of the feminist movement and has nothing to
do with the modern feminist movement. However, that is just another step in feminism that
emphasizes that women are free to wear what they please and are not confined to what society
has told them is appropriate to wear. The same would go for women refusing to shave. If we take
this idea all the way back in the day, the only reason women started shaving was so that mens
razor companies could broaden their audience and bring in more money. The thought that women
have to shave in order to be feminine only came about in the early 1900s. Food for thought: if

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women werent supposed to have body hair, they would not

grow it.
Not only are society's standards setting

Figure 1.
Illustrates original advertisement that
began the stigma of women having to
shave.

women back, but they are setting men back as

well. Men, in todays world, have to live up to
extreme expectations placed upon them by
society. One expectation of them is that, when
in a relationship, they have to be the
breadwinner. The man is always expected to
provide for his significant other rather than the couple splitting all expenses like equals. Another
standard that has been placed upon men is the fact that they have to be this really masculine
human and it isnt accepted by society for men to show their own feelings and emotions without
the fear of them being seen as soft or as less of a man. The phrase man up is a phrase used
way too often in order to correct a man from showing any type of emotion. With simple
examples such as these, it is clear to see that feminism can correct these standards placed upon
everyone by society.
Glass Ceiling vs Body Policing
Lets move into politics and economics starting with the glass ceiling. A basic definition
of what a glass ceiling entails is the barrier to advancement in a career that mostly impacts
women and people of color. This still holds true today. Although women are able to have and
hold jobs now, they are still seldom compensated for equal amounts of work when compared to
their male counterparts. In todays age, women are making 79 cents to every working mans
dollar, making a 21% wage gap. This means that by the time an average women in todays

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society reaches the age of 60, she will have made $450,000 less than that of her equally qualified
Figure 2.
Illustrates the Gender Pay Gap.

male counterpart. Not only that, but men occupy the top
jobs of every single industry in the world. In
addition to women not occupying any of the
top jobs in the world, only 1 in 4 women hold
STEM jobs, 6% of TV stations, and 5% of
executive positions in the media. If those
numbers scream equality to you, feminism has
its work cut out for it.
If were talking politics in the body

policing category, in the year of 2013, over 700 bills were proposed to regulate a womans body
versus the number of bills proposed to regulate a mans body, zero. The irony within those
numbers is that the political body proposing those regulations on womens bodies is over 80%
male. Further into body policing, in many court cases involving rape, the victim is still asked
what she was wearing as if that played an actual role in whether a man took advantage of her.
Feminism is necessary because society still teaches women not to get raped rather than teaching
men not to rape. This is not to say that men dont experience sexual assault cases as well.
Another reason this belief is so important is because most male rape victims are less likely to
report their case because of the stigma that men always want sex anyway or for fear of not
being taken seriously because of the idea that men cant get raped. Both men and women are
reaching for equality but in some cases both tend to get a short end of the stick.
Feminism vs Wo/Men

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Now that it has been addressed that feminism is for both men and women, it is only
appropriate to point out that feminism also applies to every race, religion, background, and
sexuality. For some, that may have been common sense. But for others, that may not have been
so common. This leads into the next example, color and privilege. As America has developed,
many barriers have remained between the sexes and races and still continue to remain. The
barrier of color and/or race has been a large focal point for society for a very long time. As if
gender didnt already set society apart, now race is added into the picture. To state the
significance of this in a simple way, privilege is invisible to those who have it. For example, as
shown previously, men tend to get the longer end of the stick in most cases. However, that is
more so narrowed down to white men in particular rather than all men. That can even be said to
go for white women when compared to colored women. In todays culture and beliefs, even if
people have been conditioned to believe that everyone is equal, it is still subconsciously taught
that not everyone is equal. Whether that be male versus female or black versus white, equality is
still nonexistent between everyone. However, in order to combat that lack of equality between
everyone, feelings of entitlement need to be addressed. As stated by Michael Kimmel, without
confronting mens sense of entitlement, I dont think well ever understand why so many [white]
men resist gender equality.
With sense of entitlement, whether it be about jobs, pay, opportunity, or social
expectations, out of the way, lets proceed into why gender equality also suits men just as much
as women. Rather than talking money, another important aspect to a high quality human life is
happiness. According to various studies, most of the countries that have higher rates of gender
equality are also the happiest countries. Not only is gender equality good for countries, but it is
also beneficial to companies. The companies that tend to have better rates of gender equality

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produce numbers that show more productivity on the job, higher worker satisfaction, lower job
turnovers, etc... Gender equality may weigh well on the happiness scale but it also costs less
which wont weigh as much on various companies wallets. Gender equality doesnt only apply
in the workplace, it applies in households as well. Studies have shown that families that consist
of two working parents as well as having both parents act as caregivers together, produce happier
and smarter families. When it comes to family, there should be nothing a parent could want more
than the equality and happiness of each of their children. Overall, it is plain to see that gender
equality is beneficial for the masses.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The world still has a long way to go in order to reach complete gender equality. However,
one step toward gender equality is better than no step. With that, the first step should be to
educate the masses on exactly what feminism is. In order to allow more people to identify
themselves as feminist, they have to know what it means and thats where information is needed.
The next step would be to allow men to see that gender equality is not only a womans battle. It
may have been men that put women into this hole, but they can sure help to get them out. In
order to assist women and other men with getting out of this lack of equality, any sense of
entitlement must vanish. Everyone needs to be given an equal chance and entitlement doesnt
play a role in that. Society has conditioned all humans to think the same way and that makes the
idea of feminism that much harder. However, it is better to be a bad feminist than no feminist as
all.

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