"Women should have equal political, social, sexual, intellectual and economic rights to men." This is what I read this morning on an article referring to "International Women’s Day on March 8." In fact, IWD is the day for women to be considered a human being having equal rights to men. It may sound "pretty feminist", but let me tell you that it is not that much. Women got important economic, political and social achievements in the past and they are now doing their best being in charge of important positions such as presidents, prime ministers, council officials, counsellors, etc, in mostly all the countries in the world. Anyway, there's no denying that there has been a great attitudinal change in both women's and society's thoughts about women's equality and emancipation in the last century. Since "feminism" has been a globally successful management to ensure that women's equality is nowadays being maintained in all aspects of life, I believe that the concept that many people had about feminists in the past seems to have lost its primary negative meaning, in other words, it has almost vanished into thin air in the present time. The following quotation may be a good example of the reasons given and mentioned on several occasions by women who believed in "feminism" or in any kind of women's liberation movement.
"Because women’s work is never done and is underpaid or unpaid or boring or repetitious and we’re the first to get fired and what we look like is more important than what we do and if we get raped it’s our fault and if we get beaten we must have provoked it and if we raise our voices we’re nagging bitches and if we enjoy sex we’re nymphos and if we don’t we’re frigid and if we love women it’s because we can’t get a “real” man and if we ask our doctor too many questions we’re neurotic and/or pushy and if we expect childcare we’re selfish and if we stand up for our rights we’re aggressive and “unfeminine” and if we don’t we’re typical weak females and if we want to get married we’re out to trap a man and if we don’t we’re unnatural and because we still can’t get an adequate safe contraceptive but men can walk on the moon and if we can’t cope or don’t want a pregnancy we’re made to feel guilty about abortion and…for lots of other reasons we are part of the women’s liberation movement.
~Author unknown, quoted in The Torch, 14 September 1987