Feminism is a very controversial topic. The topic of feminism can start millions of conversations and disagreements or it can trigger a chain of violence and conflict.  How can an idea or view start all of that?

A notably large amount of people are against the idea of feminism.  The definition of a feminist is, “someone who is wanting equality on all races of men and women.” Essentially meaning if you’re a feminist you want equality, but it’s main focus is equality with men and woman. You may be thinking why is anyone against it?  Who would be against equality?

There are many answers to that question.  One of them is some people are confused or uneducated on the idea of feminism. Or someone may think a feminist favors women over men.  Other people may think feminists are ‘man-haters’ and therefore “hates” feminists in return. Other individuals may not like the idea of feminism because they prefer a old-fashioned view of society and don’t want things to change.

Since the beginning of time woman has been looked at as less than then men.  Women always had expectations that they were supposed to be poised and proper, gatherers not hunters, cheerleaders not players, and quiet not in charge.

In the timeline of history, women have made big leaps to equality and basic American rights.  As you look back, you see the changes in women’s clothing to dresses to shorter dresses, dresses to jeans, and jeans to shorts, women started defying social norms one clothing item at a time. To get to these small victories women protested and spoke up just to change men’s minds that women should be free to wear whatever.

Though feminism had an immense influence on clothing choices and styles, they had bigger plans and achievements such as voting. Through the process of trying to achieve the rights to vote, there were many drawbacks.  In 1777 all states in America revoked women’s right to vote. Their argument was “By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in the law? The very being and legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated into that of her husband under whose wing and protection she performs everything.” From 1777 to 1920, women were unable to vote ending almost a century of protests.

Looking through time you see the accomplishments, development, and growth feminist has constituted throughout history. Since feminist began there were always people who shunned or condoned the changes they were making.  Why is that? Change. Change is hard for a lot of people and men did not like the idea of being “equal” to their wives.

As we move on to modern times, feminist are still fighting for things to be equal, like salaries, running for office, the Pink Tax, and many more.  Though there still fighting and things have changed drastically, there will always be critics. The main difference from feminist then to now are how they are perceived and depicted.  As time moves on, feminism will always stand until women are looked at and equals.