Is feminism still relevant?

As a female living in 21^st Century Britain I am in many ways lucky. I can vote. I can choose my education and my career. I can marry or remain single, bear children or remain childless. In many ways, I am as free to live my life and make my own choices as any man. 

So the question arises; is feminism still relevant? I do consider myself to be a feminist and I’m not reluctant to say so, but the discrimination between men and women has clearly evolved. Whilst women have obtained more rights in the eyes of the law, beliefs about women and indeed feminism have remained largely unchanged in many sectors of society. In my eyes feminism remains as relevant now as it ever was, and will remain so until the goal of feminists has been reached; nothing more and nothing less than equality.

To answer the question I first want to clarify what feminism doesn't mean using the words of Pat Robertson; 

‘Feminism is a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.’

 On a serious note, whilst the above quote may seem a bit over the top, it is a surprisingly realistic interpretation of the views often held about feminism. So what response do I receive when decelerating that I am a feminist? The responses range from dismissing the statement with jokes such as ‘go make me a sandwich’ to the more serious; ‘what I’m saying is that it’s a pointless word, it has no need or meaning’. Upon further investigation, the latter opinion was based more on the word itself that the strive for equality.

Feminism is a dirty word. When given the definition: A feminist is someone who believes in social, political and economic equality of the sexes, 65% of women agreed that they are a feminist. When no definition was given, and the question ‘do you consider yourself a feminist?’ was asked, this figure dropped to 24% (See the CBSNews website for further results of the poll).

 It is obvious from talking to many male and female friends that having a problem with feminism is not the same thing as opposing its main aims. Whilst many people I asked (especially males) disagreed with feminism or considered it unimportant, the majority holding such opinions agreed that whilst the gender gap has been dramatically reduced, there remains a lot of discrimination, and more importantly that it should end.

Many battles have been won so far in the war on gender equality in the UK: through the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act of 1928 all women over the age of 21 gained the right to vote. The Equal Pay Act of 1970 made it illegal to pay women less money than men for doing the same job. In 1979, Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister with the Tory party. There remain however, quantifiable examples of the gender gap that remains within our society. For example in the UK, at 15%, we have the highest pay gap between genders in the whole of the EU. In London, this increases to 23%.

 A simple explanation for this demonstrates that in terms of attitudes, not much has changed since the 70s. Women of a certain age are in effect riskier to employ than men of a similar age, due to their ‘selfish’ tendency to get pregnant- requiring maternity pay as well as paying for a cover worker.

Needless to say, the issue does not arise when considering employing men of a similar age, as there still remains a clear difference in the expectations of men and women concerning children. The discrimination is not deliberate, but there is an unwritten assumption that a mother will take on the role of looking after the children leaving the father free to continue forging ahead in his career.

All things considered, not only do I consider feminism to be as vital to our society as it ever has been, I also firmly believe that the label should be worn with pride, instead of as an insult. After all there is nothing embarrassing about standing up for your rights.