November30
Feminism Powerpoint
November30
Feminism
November30
Cathleen Conrad, Reagan Edwards, Gracie Kim, Gabby Salazar, Emily Summerlin
Shelton Lewis
1301 N1
17 November 2014
HeForShe
Feminism became a leading issue in 2013 when celebrities identified themselves as feminists. Among this movement, magazines, television shows, and even themed headlines show how people are becoming more aware of what feminism actually is. Many people argue that it’s something that is “in season” or that “feminism is back in fashion” since the media coverage is a majority of celebrities and pretty faces. However, does it really If you simply look up the word ‘feminism’, the vast majority of it is articles that are something like, “Why are Men Against Feminism”, or “Women Against Feminism”, and “Who Needs Feminism?”. They aren’t how feminism is changing the everyday lives of women; it’s talking about people’s opinions on whether or not women’s lives should be changed.
The true first ‘wave’ of feminism was during the 1960’s and the 1970’s. The media has convinced people that if you’re a feminist then you are man hating and whiny. They have conducted this negative connotation for everyone, thus making it seem rebellious in a way when you identify yourself as a feminist. “Thus the mainstream media increasingly reinforced stereotypes of feminists as confrontational, aggressive, unfeminine, man-haters, bitter, angry, infertile, lesbian, and asexual.” As Patricia Bradley put it, “The problem with the equal rights strategy was that many of [National Organization for Women]’s demonstrations lacked drama, which limited the interest of the press.” During this time, many people, mostly men, did not take this concept seriously, creating a “complicated relationship between the media and the movement”. They had headlines titled “The Feminine Mistake” with stories that painted a picture for the general public that feminism was bad.
Now, the media is not as harsh. They don’t cover feminism as much as they cover Kim Kardashian’s latest divorce, but they don’t despise it anymore. People are more accepting of powerful women because women, at the moment, have the greatest influence than we’ve ever had, and the influence just continues to rise. The media now shows influential women speaking on behalf of feminism in a way that doesn’t make it seem negative. A popular quote that also goes along with a new song of hers, Run the World, Beyoncé states, “We need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality. It isn’t a reality yet… Today, women make up half of the U.S. workforce, but the average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change”.
The idea of feminism is completely based and controlled around the idea of leadership. According to the sixth edition of Leadership by Peter G. Northouse, leadership is defined as a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. Feminism would not exist without the many great leaders and the thousands of women who have been led throughout the past few centuries. The concept of leadership and how it should be defined and utilized has changed many times throughout history, and the idea of feminism leadership has changed with it.
Through the first three decades of the 1900s, leadership was geared toward domination with emphasis on leader-power and control. Within this time, we have what is now called “First-wave feminism”. First-wave feminism was the beginning of all feminism that focused primarily on legal issues and gaining equality. Within America, the fight for gender equality dealt with women’s suffrage, that is the right to vote. In synchronization with the popular definition of leadership at this time, many famous women are known as “activists” for the Women’s Rights Movement. Leaders such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Coffin Mott, Lucy Stone, and Susan B. Anthony led in a way that emphasized direct and vigorous action in support of women’s suffrage. With these strong and dominating leaders, women gained the right to vote in 1920.
From there, the idea of leadership changed drastically. By the time period of the second-wave feminism, the definition of leadership had become “a behavior that influences people toward shared goals”(Northouse, 3). Second-wave feminism began around 1960. First-wave feminism was densely focused on one goal: woman’s right to vote, whereas second-wave feminism was focused on a multitude of topics that required equality within genders. The debate was broadened in 1960s to issues of sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, domestic violence and rape. Women began to get jobs and apply for the military, two things that hadn’t been done before the second-wave feminism. Women were willing to change the way they lived because leaders during the second-wave showed them what they could accomplish. These women following were not just told what could be done like in the first-wave of feminism, they were shown they could make a difference with the leadership style of persuasion and demonstration. Within the time period of the second-wave, many important historical events happened for women’s rights. The following list of events that changed and improved women’s freedom from governmental laws that restrained equality: “The Food and Drug Administration approved the first oral contraceptive, commonly known as “the Pill,” for sale as birth control in the United States, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was signed into law by President John F. Kennedy, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, including the Title VII prohibition of discrimination based on sex, the National Organization for Women, known as NOW, was founded, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 was amended to prohibit discrimination based on sex along with race, color, religion and national origin, the United Nations declared 1975 International Women’s Year and organized the first World Conference on Women, the Supreme Court ruled in Taylor v. Louisiana that it was unconstitutional to deny women jury service”, along with many other milestones for women’s equality, (Napikoski). With these great accomplishments for feminism, we transition into the final wave.
Third-wave feminism began in the early 1990s and has carried us until the present day. Again the definition of leadership has transformed and is now generally recognized as one or more persons engaging “with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality”(Northouse, 4). Today’s leading feminist are numerous. A specific leader worth mentioning is Cathy Young. Young is an author and journalist with two published books, a column in Newsday and RealClearPolitics.com, a frequent contributor to the libertarian monthly Reason, and most importantly she is actively working towards women’s equality in America. Young is able to speak for the entire feminist population within her writings. In her recent journal “Yes, Patriarchy Is Dead; Feminist Prove It,” she discusses both the drastic changes that have been accomplished with America’s government and society, but she also targets what must be done in the future to continue the progression of gender equality. Feminism is commonly misconstrued as crazy women who hate all men, to this belief Young states that “focusing on ‘patriarchy’ as ‘an enemy we can take down’ is a counterproductive distraction from the real issues”. Young shares that the only way for feminism to have a positive future is to “reinvent itself” and the long-standing definition it upholds. The only way for feminism to survive is to a “gender equity movement advocating for both sexes and against all sexism”(Young). This idea is displayed within the recently famous speech by feminist and actress, Emma Watson. Emma Watson argues that feminism does not only affect women, but it limits men as well. In her moving speech at a United Nations Conference last September, Emma Watson stated, “I’ve seen young men suffering from mental illness unable to ask for help for fear it would make them look less ‘macho’—in fact in the UK suicide is the biggest killer of men between 20-49 years of age; eclipsing road accidents, cancer and coronary heart disease. I’ve seen men made fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don’t have the benefits of equality either.” Emma Watson argues that feminism is commonly misconstrued as a problem only for women, when infact the future of feminism itself lies in men and women alike fighting for gender equality. The leadership action that she is using is teaching the uneducated that men, too, should care about the feminist accomplishments and the feminist future.
Over time the identity of women has changed drastically. Women used to see themselves only as teachers or nurses, but have come to realize that they, like men, can be whatever they choose to be.
Even just sixty years ago women were not allowed to have some of the same jobs men were, as mentioned in the book Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders. In that time, and even still to some extent today, men believed that they “should be breadwinners and women should be homemakers,” leaving society to believe that a woman’s identity rested solely in her ability to cook and clean (Eagly 3). This “Concrete Wall” ideology keeping women from having the same rights as men is not nearly as pressing as the “Glass Ceiling” ideology of exclusion. Now women are no longer blatantly excluded from all work opportunities, just the more prestigious ones. But Emma Watson has broken through the exclusion, finding herself a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and an advocate for feminism.
Watson rocked the UN with her HeForShe campaign speech this past September. She became the face of the organization not in spite of being female, but because she is female. Watson identifies herself as a feminist, and has considered herself this since she was eight years old. In an article on The Daily Dot, Watson’s timeline of feminism is shown:
“I started questioning gender-based assumptions when at eight I was confused at being called ‘bossy,’ because I wanted to direct the plays we would put on for our parents—but the boys were not.
When at 14 I started being sexualized by certain elements of the press.
When at 15 my girlfriends started dropping out of their sports teams because they didn’t want to appear ‘muscly.’
When at 18 my male friends were unable to express their feelings.
I decided I was a feminist and this seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word.”
Though Watson finds identifying as a feminist “uncomplicated,” many women are afraid to be an advocate of feminism. There is a fear of ridicule and judging that comes with the term. Feminism comes with such a negative connotation now that women and men think it means “man-hating,” which most women are uncomfortable identifying with. Feminism means equality, not hatred of another gender.
It is important to note that power is, contrary to popular belief, arguably separate from identity in leadership. History and human nature has proven that it is incredibly easy to make one’s own power as their identity and often times, one can become consumed with and addicted to the pursuit of power, letting their lust ultimately define who they are. It is certainly easy to abuse power, if one has power. A leader’s identity is much more than being confined to be a person of full power as power comes in many different forms. However, power exercised appropriately can be used for great influence and movement and is absolutely necessary for great leadership. Simply put, “leaders who want to get things done need power. And to get power (in the sense of power through, rather than power over, Turner, 2005), they need to be entrepreneurs of identity.” (Haslam, Reicher, Platow, 2005). Often times, corrupt leaders or leaders who are slaves to the cycle of the sole pursuit of power over people get this part wrong. They seek power over people, rather than through. After all, leadership is influencing others to follow and behave a certain way by their own will because they want to.
“leaders gain power through their ability to define group identities.”
The issue of feminism is an extremely contentious topic, one that often evokes hostility and friction between the sexes. As Emma Watson stated in her He for She speech addressed to the United Nations, “fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop.” I believe the first step of a Christian approach to this issue is exactly this. Both women and men are at fault of blaming and hating and disregarding the sexes. As Watson stated in her speech, feminism by definition is fighting for the social, economic, and political equality of women with men, the intention of feminism is not to teach hate toward men and boys and their roles in society. Men and women both have struggles and have been made victims and oppressors in certain situations; however, it is time that we look at this issue from a different perspective. The fact is that as long as there is sin in this world, there will always be inequality. This, by any means, does not mean we should not speak for the oppressed or stand for justice; perhaps we should view equality in a different light. People may ask how we can achieve equality between beings that are essentially different. Equality does not necessarily mean that men and women do the same, it’s more about being the same. The truth of the matter is that men and women were indeed created differently, but equality can be achieved when two points of views are considered equally significant and when both men and women’s roles are seen as equally respectable and crucial to society, because after all, men and women are all made in God’s image.
As Christians and as leaders, we are called to love one another and “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:2). The fact is that the Lord created BOTH men and women and we are meant to be together in harmony. How can we serve each other and glorify the God who created us if we are constantly in battle with each other? It’s time we quit focusing on the word feminism and start acknowledging that gender equality is a relevant and weighty issue among both sexes. And among the two genders, women are more oppressed in the world. And the world needs both men and women to be on the same page to be able to successfully create change in the effort to eradicate some of the injustices evident, in some places more than others, in the world today.
Someone once said to “not let those who speak the loudest alter your perception of something,” which highlights the idea that extremists aren’t always the ones who create change. So, men and women, I encourage you to become “inadvertent feminists,” men and women who understand the significance of the roles of women and girls and the honor and rights they deserve as humans and show this awareness through seemingly trivial ways. These small, doable, actions are the baby steps to uplifting women in society and paradoxically, this awareness will be the segway to more intentional actions and changes. And if the word, “feminist” still makes you cringe, that’s okay. “It is not the word that is important, it is the idea and the ambition behind it. Because not all women have been afforded the same rights [that women in developed, democratic countries have]” (Watson). Women in America aren’t nearly as oppressed in other countries at all and that is why it is so important that we, as leaders with the resources and power to do so, spread hope and awareness of this issue across the globe to redefine and reconcile the estranged relationship between men and women.
Sources:
Napikoski, Linda. “What Happened for Women’s Rights During the 1960s?” 1960s Feminism
Timeline (n.d.): n. pag. About Education. About.com. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.
Haslam, S. Alexander., Stephen Reicher, and Michael Platow. The New Psychology of
Leadership: Identity, Influence, and Power. Hove, East Sussex: Psychology, 2011. Print.
Young, Cathy. “Yes, Patriarchy Is Dead; the Feminists Prove It | RealClearPolitics.” Editorial. Real
Clear Politics 23 Sept. 2013: n. pag. Yes, Patriarchy Is Dead; the Feminists Prove It | RealClearPolitics. Real Clear Politics, 23 Sept. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.
Watson, Emma. “Emma Watson: Gender Equality Is Your Issue Too.” United Nations HeForShe
Campaign. United Nations Headquarters, New York. 20 Sept. 2014. UN Women. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.
“Emma Watson’s UN Speech on Gender Equality Is Required Viewing.”The Daily Dot. N.p., 21 Sept.
2014. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
Eagly, Alice Hendrickson., and Linda Lorene Carli. Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How
Women Become Leaders. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 2007. Web. 16 Nov. 2014. <http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=b2kf_B_4f0kC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=how+women+identify+themselves&ots=CSzOf4vhjd&sig=Y3oUCnS5l4jgszRFJN2VMfm_aLs#v=onepage&q=how%20women%20identify%20themselves&f=false>.
Beusman, Callie. “What Does It Mean for Feminism If Feminism Becomes Trendy?” Jezebel. 23 Feb.
2014. Web. 18 Nov. 2014. <http://jezebel.com/what-does-it-mean-for-feminism-if-feminism-becomes-tren-1501305340>
Bradley, Patricia. “Mass Media and the Shaping of American Feminism, 1963-1975.” H-Net Reviews.
1 June 2006. Web. 17 Nov. 2014. <http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11832>
Knowles-Carter, Beyonce. “Gender Equality Is a Myth!” The Shriver Report. 12 Jan. 2014. Web. 17
Nov. 2014. <http://shriverreport.org/gender-equality-is-a-myth-beyonce/>He for She United Nations Emma Watson
