First, women’s equality meant having the right to vote.
In the 1850s, women like Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were sick of living as second-class citizens in their own country.
Soon enough, however, voting wasn’t enough. Women were still unable to be financially independent from men. In the 20th century, finding a job, an apartment, and even a doctor’s appointment was hard to do without some kind of help from a man. Women could have their say politically, but when it came to living full, independent lives, they had a long way to go. The third wave feminism movement borrowed from, and grew up alongside, the Civil Rights movement of the same era.
Today, we’re faced with an even more difficult problem to solve.
Feminism, as a word, means the same thing it did way back in the 1850s when the term was first coined: a belief that women and men should be equal in the eyes of society and the law. But with the political environment constantly changing and societal expectations shifting by the day, it’s getting harder to figure out how to fight for a movement that seems, to many people, dated and discriminatory.
While intersectional feminism is becoming (slowly) mainstreamed, many feminists of color still find themselves fighting to be heard.
With native women disappearing, Black women at higher risk for fatalities during childbirth, it’s clear that the feminist movement of the 1970s isn’t serving everyone equally.
Here’s the thing: feminism, as a word and a concept, has been a battleground for upwards of a century now.
That’s why the movement needs to change and adapt to the cultural growing pains we’re experiencing in the #MeToo era. At Bazooka Grooves, we believe that intersectional feminism is the way forward. No one should feel left out of a movement that should feel positive, inspiring, and world-changing.
Feminism has to change as our political environment changes.
If women are still fighting for basic equal rights all these years later, we have to put our heads together and unite to find a definition of equality that works for everyone.