Introduction
Feminism refers to the advocacy of human rights on gender equality through social, economic, and social fairness. It is an organized event based on the interests and freedoms of women. Feminism fights against how men are highly viewed in society, and women unfairly treated in the communities. It emphasizes on the need to change the stereotypes through advocating for change in eliminating gender indifferences through creating opportunities for leadership of women and education that brings equality of both the genders in the community. This paper reviews historically and practically the feminism advocacy, theory behind it, and the demographics efforts in eliminating gender inequalities.
In the past decade's women were treated differently in the community and had the role of cooking and taking care of the family alone, but this has changed in today’s society because women have ventured into education and are leading the men in various aspects. Feminism programs help in giving women a voice in the community through addressing the gender pay gaps, knowledge gap, assets ownership, as well as having equal rights as the men in social and economic activities in the present world (Hirsch, Marianne, and Evelyn, 49). Through social integration, feminism has advocated for women’s right to freedom and justice by protecting them from rapes, as well as domestic violence. With the evolving world of women taking up men’s roles, women have ventured into leadership and are leading various people strategically. The traditional defined ways of women's and men's roles are changing in the contemporary environment through feminists and other social justice movements.
Research has, however, shown that the feminist movements have brought a lot of change in the historical, societal changes for women and have achieved women's suffrage. The feminist theory emphasizes on understanding the aspects of gender inequality through analyzing the role of women and the experiences they have had over the past. The advancement in technology has significantly changed the role of women in the modern age and continues to influence women’s role in society. However, many scholars advocate that women’s role in the community is changing the liberation of men, and there is a need to also focus on men's equality and fair treatment.
There have been various waves in the revolution for the role of women: the women suffrage movement in the 19th century, the liberation on women’s movement in the 1960s, the diversity, and individuality, and the use of social media in 2012 to fight against rape cases, violence and sexual harassment. The waves show that over the years, the women’s right has been advocated to ensure women are respected, and the levels of education have emphasized the roles. Many nations have implemented legislation to fight for women and their functions, for example, the married women’s property act of 1870 in the United Kingdom and the custody of infants act. The feminist movement and the legislations focus on gaining political power through fighting for economic and women sexual rights. The women’s suffrage advocated for the women’s right to vote and lead through owning a parliamentary office.
The standpoint theory emphasizes on the feminist view that knowledge of an individual is influenced by the social position one holds in society. The argument, however, highlights the insignificant treatment of the feminist movement and the unbiased traditional science on women (Haraway, Donna, and Thyrza, 83). Yet many studies have stressed the need to understand the global issues based on the incest and rape cases and the cultural practices that involve problems with female genital mutilation in solving gender inequality aspects associated with racism and colonization. The feminist theory, however, analyses various standpoints based on disciplines like literary criticism and the evolving philosophies. It aims to evaluate the gender inequality practices and the importance of power relations in creating social associations and the significance of women’s rights. Through advocating for women’s rights and interests, many ideologies have developed: the political movements, the materialist ideologies, black and postcolonial ideologies, and social constructionist, among others.
The political movements evaluate the political aspects of the community like liberalism, and the conservation of the environment while the materialist ideologies require the ideology association to women and capitalism arguments on women discrimination (Black & Naomi, 48). The black and postcolonial ideologies emerged due to the postcolonial women's marginalization of western feminism and the lack of being passive. The social constructionist emphasizes on socially constructed roles of the women and men and the aspect of generalizing the experiences of women among various cultures and different histories.
The sociological research undertaken over the years shows that the increase in education has led to an enormous change in the feminist issues and that the political environment likely supports the role of women in communities in comparison with the conservative individuals. Over the years, the feminist views on sexuality have changed and differed from the historical perspective and the context of the cultures. The feminist movement has created the feminist poetry and fiction and influenced many researchers to write and developed a re-evaluation on contributions of women historically to the beliefs that the lives of women have been ignored in the areas of scholarly evaluation.
Many individuals support feminist knowledge is of significance than the feminist self-identification and feminism is associated with daily undertakings of various women. However, over recent years, many people have not supported the feminism concept due to beliefs and traditional values (Mitchell & Sally, 8). Furthermore, it emphasizes the maintenance of the role of men in society and women carrying out there activities without having power over men. The ability of women to rule has evolved over the years, where women were not allowed to speak in front of the men and the community. Today women lead in big offices and other leading countries because of technology advancement and the impact of education on all individuals. Many anti-feminists organizations argue on the roles of women and the evolution of women in the workforce and the process of voting and the fact that the purpose of men and their authority in family aspects are lessening in the community.
Conclusion
Many people believe in equal rights but find it hard to align the feminism aspect and the movement of equality and that changing the role of women does not align with their beliefs. Feminism is a doctrine that advocates for women’s rights, including the social and political aspects being equal to the role that the men play in society. Feminism, over the years, has involved strong women, and the community does not allow women to develop and lead. Societies, however, fear to support the feminist movement because of the fear that the men will eventually be overruled and lose their power and authority in the community.
