A Woman's Place: Feminism in the 21st Century

Feminism began as a movement for equality, a fight for better-paying jobs, higher education, and greater liberation for women. Groundbreakers like Abigail Adams and Elizabeth Cady Stanton pushed for change in developing America, leading to a movement that eventually transformed the power of women in society. (Flexner)

Today, American women experience a degree of freedom and liberation hitherto unseen in the western world. The National Women's Political Caucus and other organizations have supported such movements as the rights to choose, to vote, and to receive equal status, wage, and opportunity for women. More women than men now achieve higher education in American universities; women are more empowered, enabled, and independent than ever before in our country. (Sommers)

But sexism and female oppression are by no means eliminated, in America or worldwide. Women continue to average lower-paying jobs, higher childcare responsibility and costs, more economic dependence, and an almost non-existent voice in politics. (Crusius/Channell) Strides have been made that put American women on the forefront of female equality, but the war is by no means won, and it is in part the fault of the women themselves.

While women claim to want our financial independence, leading organizations like NOW favor governmental tax increase that puts control straight into the hands of our dominantly male government. (Lucas) Women want a voice in politics, yet they make up only thirteen percent of Congress and ten percent of the U.S. Senate. (Crusius/Channell) What began as a fight for freedom and equality has become a pattern of useless resentment, where complaining about our present role in society is easier than changing it.

It is time for a new wave in feminism. We must look beyond the past, towards the future; we must begin to embrace a tri-fold vision of self-awareness, true equity, and global consciousness. We must know ourselves, know what we want, and fight to spread freedom beyond the United States.