Small Strokes Big Oaks

Danine Spencer

Today’s post comes from Danine Spencer, and is part of a Salon of blog posts asking feminists to define what feminism means to them.  You can follow Danine on Twitter, read her blog, and check out her answers to the Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community interview.

Feminism is the belief that women’s rights are human rights. No matter where they live, women and girls should have the same social, political, legal and economic rights as their male counterparts.  Because women and girls have historically been marginalized by patriarchal societies worldwide, feminists have had to fight for every right men take for granted: the right to vote, work, go to school and oh yeah, make her own decisions.

I believe women’s rights are human rights because:

• Every woman has the right to freedom of speech
• Every woman should have the same legal rights as men
• Every woman has the right to an education
• Every woman has the right to own property
• Every woman should be able to find work that pays a living wage so she can provide for herself and her children
• Every woman should receive equal pay for equal work
• Every woman should be able to choose her own spouse, when and if she chooses to marry
• Every woman should be in control of her own family planning, which includes the right to decide whether or not to have children
• Every woman should have access to affordable health insurance
• Every woman should be able to go to a doctor when she is sick and obtain prescription medication when necessary

I also believe:

• No woman should be discriminated on the basis of her gender, age, income level, race, sexual orientation, religion, disability or other life circumstance.
• No woman or girl should ever be raped or sexual abused, period.  Rape against women and girls should never be used as a weapon during war.
• No woman or girl should be subjected to genital mutilation.
• No woman or girl should be a victim of human trafficking, sold into sexual slavery or work in a sweatshop.
• No woman or girl should be forced into marriage without her consent.
• No woman should die in childbirth or as a result of pregnancy-related complications

Feminism has been quite successful, particularly in the Western world. Many women today take it for granted that we can vote, go to college and work, all of which were unheard of one hundred years ago. We still have much to do. Pay equity, violence against women and health care are just a few issues of many we have to work on the United States. Still, we are incredibly fortunate to live in relative wealth in the U.S. “To those whom much is given, much is expected” applies here. We have to use our leadership to address issues like human trafficking, rape as a weapon of war, international family planning and women’s economic security.

I am proud to be a feminist. I think every woman and man should be. Feminism is making sure that every single woman and girl, half the world’s population, has the tools and resources to be the person she can be.

To read all of the What Feminism Means To Me Salon posts, click here.