In 1993, during a rally supporting women’s rights, Gloria Steinem articulated a statement that would forever change the feminist movement. Affirming what she deemed the true aim of the women’s right movement, Steinem said “A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.” With this quote, the focus of the feminist movement and what it stands for was brought into question.

With their historical importance unnoticed and not included in the collective memory of society, the actual feminist cause has become shrouded in uncertainty, and still today, most don’t know what it means to be a feminist.

“The problem with feminism is that it isn’t one defined thing,” said junior Robert Kneller. “No one really knows what it is, since no one understands what they stand for, I question if even they [feminists] know what they stand for,” said Kneller.

In a most basic sense, feminism is simply a movement for social, political, and economic equality of men and women, but even its strongest proponents see a different picture of what the movement is.
Though the feminist movement is intended to convey the humanity of women and counter the perceived inferiority of females, it does much more. Utopian socialist, Charles Fourier, who coined the term “feminism” in 1837, never established a specific definition of the term, and since then the movement’s evolution from promoting equal property, contract, marriage, and parenting liberties for women has broadened to encompass promotion of voting, economic, and reproductive rights as well, and defining what it means to be feminist has become ever more difficult.

Lacking rights and relegated to second-tier gender, the rise of American patriarchy in the 1960s allowed the feminist movement to sprout.

“The sixties is when the women’s rights really became a hot button issue that everybody started caring about,” said Lillian Getachew, junior.

During the 1960s, a leading figure in the feminist movement, Betty Friedan, led over a hundred protests in support of women’s rights, and when asked about the objectives of the movement she helped spearhead, she said, “This isn’t about women, this is about the whole of the human race.”

“There was a stigma during that time that women were less than men, obviously that’s not true, but that stigma, even though it’s less pronounced, still exists today,” said Ms. Adkins, librarian. “Feminism tried and still does try to level the playing field, which helps everybody.”

While the purpose of feminist movement may be debated, it has caused a paradigm shift in jurisprudence, like the landmark case of Reed vs. Reed in 1971, over the real estate rights of women, which resulted in the Supreme Court’s decision that discrimination against females is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. But while such cases eliminate some barriers for women, most feminists agree that more work needs to be done.

“The law should protect women, and I think that more and more, protesting for more women’s rights is making that happen,” said sophomore Jerron Carrico.

Though patriarchy is very deep, equality of the male and female gender has become more apparent as societies and the laws they adhere to change over time.

Though feminism has broadened, it isn’t undefined because the basis of its existence remains constant; feminism is about both women and men. Though its primary aim is to reinforce the humanity of women, it is not an effort to degrade the humanity of men. Rather it is a cause to dismiss patriarchy by promoting the humanity of the male and female gender alike.

“I’m a traditionalist in that I believe there are things that both genders should and should not be allowed to do,” said Adkins. “But still, men and women are created equal as humans, and it pleases me that this is becoming more generally accepted.”