by Anna Gimilaro

For a term that originated out of a desire for equality, the word “feminism” is greatly misleading. With the same stem as “female”, the word instantly evokes thoughts of women, but doesn’t that immediate association contradict its purpose? Maybe it would be a little more fitting one hundred years ago—when women were seen as the lowest members of society who solely existed as subjects of their husbands—but in the 21st century, this gender-specific term is out of place. Die-hard feminists praise themselves for putting women above men, but the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines feminism as the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. A word geared towards females often entices women to view themselves as victims of a controlling patriarchy, but if you take a step back, that is a huge generalization that hardly holds true today. Generated by the misuse of the word, the infamous stigma of feminism can only be eliminated by utilizing a more suitable term.

 Historically, women held a spot at the bottom of the social ladder in a majority of cultures. Even in the supposedly progressive United States, women weren’t granted suffrage until 1920, a shocking 51 years after African Americans were permitted to vote. In those times, the strength of a female-specific word significantly bypassed the effect of a neutral one in terms of advocating for comparable power, but today equality is not such a far-reaching goal. According to a 2013 finding by the US Department of Labor, 57.2% of women participate in the labor force compared to 69.7% of able men. In fact, the amount of women who receive higher secondary and and tertiary educations is greater than the number of men who do (UNESCO Institute for Statistics).

Statistically, the gender gap in the United States is quickly closing up, but many ardent feminists argue that women are still inferior in less obvious ways. Sexual assault, wage gaps, and domestic abuse are certainly real, pressing issues faced by women, but a word that emphasizes the female is only going to further exacerbate the problem by exaggerating the dividing spheres between the two genders. This word caters self-righteous women the opportunity to bash on men and gather pity for females which certainly isn’t going to help harbor equality. It allows angsty, oblivious celebrities in the media to put a bad name to a positive movement. Some people who claim to be feminists find the need to arbitrarily search for instances in which men treat women unfairly―these situations are often embellished to depict women as a victims at times they really aren’t.

Extreme feminists often abuse this term to prove a point, but in reality, they are widening the distinction between men and women instead of patching up the gender gap. The goal of this movement isn’t to make women superior to men, but equal, so why not use a term like gender equality instead of feminism?