I am so disappointed with some of the girls in our generation. Every girl should be a feminist. For some reason the title 'feminist' has become a negative word in our society. Someone got it caught up in their head that being a feminist means you have to work 80 hour weeks, have no children, and your only goal is to be equal or better then men. If you think that then I'm sorry but your wrong.

Going to an all girls high school I got a taste of feminism, but when I was signing up for college classes I decided to take a course called "Gender, Sexuality and Culture". The first day of class my professor, Professor Alex Deschamps, stood in front of our class and gave us the real definition of feminism and a lecture on why not just every girl, but everyone should be a feminist. Her definition was, "Being a feminist means that you strive for not only equality but equity for women. Being a feminist does not mean you have to work, nor does it mean you have to be single, or childless. Being a feminist means that you believe that each women should have exactly the same rights as men, meaning that they get a choice. That a women can work if she wants to work, and a women can be a housewife and care for her children. But no matter what they chose to do they should be treated the same as men. They should make equal pay for the same labors, and not be discriminated against for their decisions in life whether that be the decision to strive to be a CEO or the decision to be a homemaker."

(this is not word for word, but it's pretty close)

Being a feminist doesn't mean you hate all men. It means you value yourself and what you can offer the world. Being a feminist doesn't mean you undervalue having a family. It means that you want equality for yourself, your mother, your grandmother, your daughters. You believe that women should be given the same respect that is given to a man.

As with any civil rights movement, feminism has extremists, but I don't want young girls to grow up thinking that they'll always make $0.77 to the dollar that men make for the same work and there's nothing they can change about that. Nor do I want girls being shamed for wanting families. This is the 21st century, we cannot give up now. I want to live in a world where every women is proud to be a feminist. You make think feminism in America is stupid, you may be thinking "were pretty much equal, why does it matter?". If you honestly believe that we don't deserve more than that's ok, but think about the girls in other countries. Female oppression is still an issue. Being a women in some countries could mean a death sentence. That's not right. We all need to unite to fight this oppression, and feminism is the key.

I'm proud to be a girl, a young women, and a feminist.

And I won't stop spreading the REAL word about feminism until we're all equal, in every country, in every home, in every aspect of all of our daily lives.

xoxo

AME