Gloria Steinem Influences

According to dictionary.com, feminism is the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men. Throughout history and even in present time, women have been subject to unequal treatment by their male counterparts. For example, in the biblical story of Adam and Eve, Eve is born from Adam’s rib, showing that Adam is the dominant figure in the narrative. Even today, there exists in certain professions a gender pay gap. Similarly, the way in which women are depicted in Beloved by Toni Morrison and the short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Stetson indicates that women are able to thrive independently and take on masculine roles, while men are able to experience feminine attributes.

The textbook definition of feminism is “a doctrine that advocates equal rights for women” (WordNet, 2010). While this is correct, there is much more to it than that.

Gloria Steinem, famous for being one of the faces of the second wave of feminism, was not always a great feminist leader. As a child, she had a great role model to be able to look up to: her grandmother, Pauline Perlmutter Steinem, was the leader of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association, a delegate to the 1908 International Council of Women and the first female member of the Toledo Board of Education. She experienced a lot of sexism in her career, she even had to use a man’s name to start her journalism career. But, she soon became a respected writer after she went “undercover” as a Playboy bunny and wrote about the sexism in the job. Steinem also got involved in politics; in 1970 she testified in the Senate in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment.

In the early twentieth century, the low to middle class women of the United States were burdened with frequent pregnancies often ending

The Birth Control Movement of 1912 in the United States had a significant impact on Women’s Reproductive Rights. Women in the 1800s would frequently die or have complications during or after childbirth. Even if the woman would have died, they would still have a great amount of children. As the years progressed into the 1900s, the amount of children being born dropped. Because of this, birth control supplements were banned, forcing women to have a child that she was not prepared for or did not want to have in the first place.

While growing up, Sanger witnessed poverty, uncontrolled fertility, high rates of infant, and deaths from illegal abortions. ii. Sanger found that about 250,000 abortions occurred every year and that the United States had the largest number of deaths from these abortions. This caused her to take immediate action in fighting for women’s rights. b. Influential goals i. Devoted herself to publishing a series of articles including “What Every Girl Should Know,” The Woman Rebel, and Family Limitation.

Margaret Sanger who created the birth control concept had experienced a lot that made her think about this discovery. She was one of 11 children but, her mother had 18 pregnancies so that made her want to continue and learn

Feminism, according to Merriam-Webster (2016) is defined as "the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men." Though this is the definition of the term,

What is feminism? According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary the standard definition defines feminism as “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” I believe the word feminism means a woman who is capable of doing the exact things a man can do. Both men and women are equal regardless the gender. There are many misconceptions when it comes to the word feminism such as, women having hatred towards men, women thinking they're above men, or only women can be feminist, and the gender stereotype. On the other hand, feminism is gender equality, acknowledging that any kind of violence is unacceptable regardless the gender, and realizing that women and men are not the same and recognizing that gender and sex are

The definition of feminism as stated on Dictionary.com is: The doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men. This definition is meant to include every woman - no matter her outward appearance or her essence. Yet, women of all ethnicities are degraded and pushed to be mentally lower than the male species. Earth has become a hierarchy of inequality.

The 20th century was an era of change in the world. Wars changed the landscape and people, African Americans were beginning to gain some basic human rights, and women were very slowly starting to gain equality with men. Women were now able to get jobs, but they were still not fully in control of their own bodies. There was a lot of (was much) controversy over topics such as pre-marital sex, birth control, and abortion, and these controversies were part of what led Margaret Sanger to give her speech about the morality of birth control in the early 1920s. Sanger used many different techniques in her speech to make it stronger and more persuasive, and also to make a lasting impression with the people who heard or read her speech.

Feminism is not about female superiority as many assert, and today, most men claim that women want to be superior to men especially after the fight changed to fighting against discrimination and equal chances in employment for women.

The definition of feminism is very elusive. Maybe because of its ever-changing historical meaning, it’s not for certain whether there is any coherence to the term feminism or if there is a definition that will live up to the movement’s variety of adherents and ideas. In the book “No Turning Back,” author Estelle Freedman gives an accurate four-part definition of the very active movement: “Feminism is a belief that women and men are inherently part of equal worth. Because most societies privilege men as a group, social movements are necessary to achieve equality between women and men, with the understanding that gender always intersects with other social hierarchies” (Freedman 7).

Feminism is the belief that women should have economic political and social equality with men. This term also refers to a political movement that works to gain equality within a male and female relationship. In a male and female relationship both the roles of the male and female should be equal. Equal in many ways ten one: they should trust each other, share responsibilities, listen to one another, respect each other, and of course love one another equally.

Feminism is the belief that people of all different backgrounds should be treated justly and fairly. Feminists believe that all people deserve equal pay to those in the same job. Otherwise put, “Feminism is an interdisciplinary approach to issues of equality and equity based on gender, gender expression, gender identity, sex, and sexuality as understood through social theories and political activism.” (EKU “What is Feminism?”) Such as, if a man in the same job doing the same things as a woman in that same job, they should be treated as equals. They should both earn the same amount of money for the job that they do. However, the wage gap is pushing this away from well-working women. If a man earns one dollar, a woman today earns just seventy-nine cents. This is unacceptable in many ways. Women are no different from men. They both can be hardworking and loyal employees. Sexism in the workplace is pushing single mothers and women back farther to being able to support themselves and support their families.