Welcome, readers, to my Rhetoric and Civic Life Civic Issues Blog! Within this blog I would like to explore the feminist movement, its leaders and organizations, and impacts today. My inspiration for this was another class of mine in which we discussed the belief that feminism is dead, although quite untrue. The feminist movement is a powerful one. It started out as a movement that fought for pretty much half of the world’s population: women. I say pretty much because, like most movements, there has been a lot of history comprised of differing beliefs amongst members regarding the intersectionality of race, class, sexuality, etc with women. Now, this is a movement that focuses widely on equality and support for all people, regardless of their identity. I, as many feminists do, say that the statement “feminism is dead” is wrong because it stems from the idea that since women obtained the right to vote and the ability to have job outside the home amongst other achievements, there is no need for such a movement. However, there still is more that we would like to accomplish and change within a society that resembles patriarchal ideals, and not just for women. It is not about hating men, as many may believe, rather it is about allowing others to have an equal opportunity to achieve the same desires.
So, reader, now that you have a little bit of background into what feminism is, I would like to dive into the main topic of this first blog: International Women’s Day and Women in Power. This day was first recognized by the United Nations in the year 1977 and was observed for the first time on February 28th in the United States. There were many historical events that led to the recognition of this day such as workers strikes, anti-slavery conventions, women’s conventions, and even women’s movements during the Russian Revolution of 1917. Today, International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8th and is given a theme each year. This years theme is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.” According to unwomen.org, “The theme celebrates the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic,” reflects the theme from the Commission on the Status of Women’s 65th Session: “‘Women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls,'” in addition to the Gender Equality Campaign.
unwomen.org notes that during the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the most successful responses were of countries with women in governmental power. These countries include “Denmark, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, New Zealand and Slovakia.” The website also notes the disproportionate number of countries with women as head of government, just a mere twenty. Upon reading this page I reflected on the United States’ recent election results as, for the first time in history, we will have a female Vice President: Kamala Harris. This is a major accomplishment for feminism considering it has been almost fifty years since the first woman ran for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Shirley Chisholm did so and was supported by the National Organization for Women, although she did not win. However, she did achieve other accomplishments on the political agenda as the first black woman to be elected to congress in 1968. This success, alongside Kamala Harris’ victory, helps to show the continuance of the feminist movement, as well as its evolvement. As I previously stated, the feminism now reflects the ideals of people across all identities which consequently tends to create smaller groups within the movement. An example of this is of BIPOC women. (BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.) Not only is Kamala Harris the first woman vice president, but she is also “the first woman, first woman of color and first Asian American to serve as either vice president or president, and the first Black American to serve as vice president.” She is also “the first graduate of a historically black college or university… [and] the first member of a black sorority…to run for president or vice president” according to Forbes.com, alongside so many more firsts in United States history. As you can see, many of these account not only for women, but also for BIPOC.
With such an important moment in feminist history, I am quite excited to see how well Kamala Harris does while in office. It makes me wonder how this will further women in power and other feminist ideals. As for this year’s International Women’s Day Theme, it has truly brought to light the importance of women in power and how women have the ability to make strong, wise decisions, despite what centuries of living in a patriarchal society wants us to believe.
Information Sources:
https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/11/announcer-international-womens-day-2021
women’s studies class notes
jab7643 says
Hi Maddie! This is such an interesting topic, and I can’t wait to see what areas of feminism you decide to focus on throughout the semester! I noticed that International Women’s Day really took over social media this year, and it was cool to see how people have embraced the movement. There has definitely been a lot of progress for gender equality in the United States, and I believe the next steps for our country are to change peoples mindsets and biases. Hopefully having Kamala Harris in such a powerful position will begin breaking down the association between power and masculinity.
Grace Blaha says
I have never learned about the history of International women’s day, so I appreciated the background on it. I was previously unfamiliar with a lot of the organizations that you mentioned, and I am glad that you brought in the international perspective. I agree with you that the feminist movement is quite different than it was before, and that it must continue by further bringing equity for a variety of discriminated people groups. The modern day perspective that you shared about female leaders of state was very interesting, especially given the success of some female political leaders throughout the pandemic. The role of such leaders appears to be becoming even more important as women like Kamala Harris are being elected to positions of power.
emp5781 says
Hi Maddie! I love this topic! I am really excited to see where you take it. There is always so much more to learn about feminism so I think this blog can go in so many different directions. I agree with what you said about feminism not being
“dead”,this is an on going fight and I think now more than ever we have made so many great strides. I loved how you mentioned a present day example to really showcase how far we’ve come but also highlight how much further our society has to go. I think that these new accomplishments, having Vice President Kamala Harris in office, allow us to see how important it is to have women in office and will create a new narrative for women across the country.