Reina Werth, News Editor
Since the mid 1990s, a new wave of feminism has risen called third wave feminism. This brand of feminism is not fighting for one particular change, such as the suffragettes of the first wave who fought for the right to vote. Third wave feminists are fighting for a much needed societal change.
Many people doubt the need for this new movement, feeling that legal equality has already been achieved, and the rest will just sort itself out.
However, there are certain things that women have faced since they gained legal “equality” that have not just sorted themselves out, such as the wage gap. On average, a woman will earn 80 cents for every dollar a man makes. This figure does not account for factors such as differences in career choices, but any gap purely due to gender is unacceptable.
Others are ignorant to social problems that women face simply because they are women.
This is often combatted by the idea that women are free to run themselves, and those elected received votes from women. But, when women do run, they face crude statements that are entirely unprecedented and off topic.
When Sibohan “Sam” Bennett ran for mayor in Allentown, Penn., she saw first hand sexism in the media. During her first campaign speech, she was interrupted and asked by the (male) chair of the meeting “Sam, I want to ask a question all the men in this room have been dying to ask you: Just what are your measurements?”
The local paper covered the meeting, but did not report the sexist and inappropriate comment made by the chair of the meeting.
In 2008, when Bennett ran for Congress, Lisa Boscola’s (Bennett’s opposition) chief of staff, Bernie Kieklak, made a comment that is so incredibly vulgar, I am not allowed to quote it in a school newspaper.
This inequality in government then leads to women feeling underrepresented, and especially in the case of abortion, like old, white men, who have never been, and never will be in their shoes are telling them what they can and cannot do with their own bodies.
Some confuse feminism (defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary as the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes) with misandry (defined by the same dictionary as a hatred of men).
This misconception is toxic to the feminist movement. The true feminist movement is fighting for the equality of all, not for women to be better than men. This being said, misandry is just as wrong as misogyny.
Third wave feminism is fighting to end inequality in all of its forms. The National Organization for Women has stated that it supports the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as LGBTQ+ rights movements.
There is far too much inequality in our world. Third wave feminism is just one more movement fighting for something so many people agree we need: equality.