Things women wouldn’t have without feminism: thread
-Voting rights
-Property rights
-The right to divorce
-Bank accounts
-The right to work
-Recognition of marital rape as a crime
-Access to abortion
-Sexual harassment laws
-Rape crisis centres
-Women’s shelters
Things women wouldn’t have without feminism, cont’d:
-The right to hold political office
-The right to equal pay (still working on that ofc)
-The right to drink in a pub (yes, really)
-Contraceptive access
-Plan B access
-MVAWG being considered a violation of human rights
Things women wouldn’t have without feminism, cont’d:
-The ability to have a credit card
-The right to file patents
-The right to enter contracts w/o a man
-The right to inheritance
-The right to file a lawsuit w/o a man
-The right to apply for a loan
-The right to trade stocks
Things women wouldn’t have without feminism, cont’d:
-maternity leave
-childcare access
-access to primary education
-access to secondary education
-access to higher education
(these have been separate struggles and some still have yet to be achieved in parts of the world.)
Things women wouldn’t have without feminism, cont’d:
-Serve in the army
-Serve on a jury
-The right to...wear trousers
-The right to keep your “maiden” name
-Smoke in public
-Shop without an escort
-Compete in the Olympics
-Have your own passport
Things women wouldn’t have without feminism, cont’d:
-The right to *not* be fired when pregnant
-The right to marry who you want
-The right to testify in your own defence
-The right to breastfeed in public
-Criminalisation of domestic abuse
-Play football
-Run the marathon
Obvious caveats for sticklers—yes, it depends where in the world you are, yes this is Western-centric, yes, there’s still a long way to go on many of these, some of these haven’t happened in many places in the world, and so on.
So we have to always be vigilant. But we can and should celebrate our achievements, as women. Progress is slow, and not guaranteed, but it’s progress nonetheless.
Women can never rest, our rights are never secure—for example, in Revolutionary France women gained the right to equal inheritance, but lost this right again when the Monarchy returned. Here’s a more relatable example—until last month, women could go to university in Afghanistan.
Even just how much attitudes have changed in the last 50 years is remarkable. A better recognition of misogyny. An understanding of various kinds of abuse, from financial abuse to coercive control. Giving women language like “gaslighting,” “victim-blaming,” “rape culture.”
@cache_pas
-The right to practise medicine
-The right to be ordained
-The right to practise law
-State pension
-The right to marry a foreign citizen without losing your citizenship status
-Separate taxation
-Custody of your own children
-The right to apply for student loans
And by the way, when I say “things we wouldn’t have without feminism,” that isn’t some kind of claiming of territory.
I say it to sing women’s power. *Women* fought and struggled, and our struggles make up what we now call “waves” of feminism.
The point is this. It’s wonderful to me to see it all listed out like this. Obvs there’s even more than this, too.
It can feel like women are just swimming against the current most of the time, and it is really important I think to keep our progress in perspective.
MRAs these days LOVE to claim that feminism is unable to make changes, but HERE are the changes. This is what women have accomplished, in waves, because we inspire each other and move each other to action. Whenever you feel disheartened, think of that.
If you want a link to any of the above, reply and I’ll send it over, linking every single one just isn’t realistic for my time management, it’s mostly accumulated knowledge so I’d have to go search.