Feminism
It is heartening to be alive in an age when humanity is actively challenging any status quo
that we deem unjust. We are constantly weeding out obsolete ideology that no longer serves us
due function, and an archetypal example is gender inequality. Feminism, the modern panacea
to this issue, has been gaining groundbreaking momentum in recent years.
To put it simply, feminism is the advocacy of equal rights for women. Women’s
organisations and activist groups have been springing up latterly to drive this remarkable
movement forward. Women everywhere are beginning to realise that they are deserving of
equality and capable of greatness, as much as their male counterparts. The long dark history of
the oppression of women has only served to strengthen her iron resolve to dissolve the barriers
that condemn her and her fellow sisters to a life of mediocrity.
Feminism has taught women that they deserve to have their voices heard, that there is no
longer a need for them to mute their stories in fear simply because the world is not ready to
supplant a dominant patriarchy. There are great women walking amongst us, like Malala
Yousafzai or Aung San Suu Kyi who are actively championing for a better world for all, and it is
time men and women join hands in making the world a better place rather than tear each other
down.
On the other hand, it is extremely important to note that there is no uniform feminism,
because each woman grapples with different issues. And to assume that all women struggle
homogeneously would be two-dimensional. Intersectionality is feminism that recognises that,
aside from discrimination, certain groups of women also struggle because their sexuality or
ethnicity, etc. does not favour their existence within a white supremacist community. This is
feminism that is not just for the typical white woman in America, who earns 77 cents to the
average 1 dollar of a man; because there are women elsewhere who do not even have a job,
as circumstance condemns them to a life of childbearing at home. The statistics that we see
online offers us only a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg that is gender inequality, and there are
millions of cases of injustice out there going unheard: Indian girls are terrified of stepping
outside alone to go to school, noncis females struggle with selfacceptance because “their
problems aren’t real and they will grow out of it someday”. There may be no news article
published on Huffington Post or The New York Times that talks about them, but does this mean
that they struggle any less?
Perhaps most important of all, feminism has taught women that we are our strongest
allies. In a world where many would gladly dismiss this cause for equality with disdain, women
can no longer afford to put each other down. Instead, we need to band together in solidarity,
because that is where our greatest strength lies. Women need to look out for each other, and
create an environment that is as safe and inclusive as possible for all. It is essential for us to
come to the realisation that feminism is a positivesum game, and just because a woman attains
her rights does not mean any other woman has to lose her own. It is only by linking arms and
recognising each other as friend instead of foe, that women can infiltrate and crack down on
patriarchy to overturn centuries’ worth of oppression.