Friday thought: Feminism. 

Over the past week I have come across feminism in most of my History Topics at University, and it got me thinking about the subject and the questions I started thinking about and what, as a women, we should be thankful to feminist's for. 
Feminism has been around for years, and Mary Wollstonecraft can arguably be known a the first feminist; with her righting of 'The Vindication of the Rights of Women'- in which she states that women should have an education due to their crucial part in society through educating the children and being companions to their husband. 
But Feminism has moved on, it's no longer about the right to vote and women's role in society (well not as much) but the equality of women and how they should have equal pay to men, not be discriminated in the work force, allowing them to have maternity pay. 

However, in the last past of the century the word Feminism has become seen as an ugly word; which I have never got my head around why- the word has almost become tarnished and if women proclaim to be feminist they expect the stereotypical look of a feminist. 
This creates the question of 'Why has the word feminist become tarnished?' Is it because of past campaigns of the 1970's and 18th century and the fact women are actually standing up to a patriarchal society and challenging their position in society; demanding more rights and this is something men don't want to share. Whatever the reason, it has started to hider the growth and awareness of future campaigns of Feminism, as seen with the He/She campaign- its a feminist campaign so why is it not called that? Yes I believe in the ideology of both men and women fighting for women's equality but can't men be called feminists? 
My recent favourite campaign ideology, in which I only came across yesterday was the AND campaign, empowering women to not just say they are one thing but instead I am a student AND a sister AND a friend AND a blogger. 
I'd love to see more campaign like this for the next wave of Feminism, especially centred around the development of women's rights in less economically developed countries in which everyone can get involved not just feminists and campaigners but politicians and the UN. 

Lastly, yes I believe I'm a feminist but only recently I have discovered this, I'm proud of the past of the suffragist movement and the 1970's women's campaign, without them I wonder what position women would live in society now and therefore I'm thankful for those women who challenged the masculine and biblical society.

This blog post is completely different to anything I've done and I do hope you like it, its not as light hearted as previous blog posts but even if it inspires 1 person to look at Feminism in a different light I'll be happy.

Hope you have a good day, Happy Friday! 

Kelly 

xox