The Continued Necessity of Feminism

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On August 18, 1920, women were granted the right to vote in the United States. Many people believe that this right means that feminism has outlived its purpose, but that simply is not true. The right to vote does not mean equality between genders, and feminism is just as important now as it was before that day in August. Even now, the inequalities that separate men and women are many, and these inequalities are hurting our society. The examples of inequality between genders are nearly infinite, but there are several which are more prominent than others. Some of the most glaring examples of inequality include the significant wage gap between men and women in the work force, endless examples of misogyny and sexism in the media, and a phenomenon which is commonly referred to as ‘rape culture.’ These blatant examples of favoritism and inequality in our country are inexcusable, and people should be fighting to put an end to it. Feminism remains not only relevant to our society, but necessary.
A common topic in modern feminism is the gap between men’s earnings and women’s earnings. A study from the IWPR in 2012 revealed that women working full-time earned 80.9% of what men earned in weekly pay –a drop from 82.2% in 2011 (Khimm, Suzy). Why does this wage gap persist even 50 years after the Equal Pay Act was passed? It is not due to education, as some people claim. Today, women outplace men in college by a ratio of 14:1 (Grasgreen, Allie). If more women are graduating from college, then why does the wage gap persist? It could be due to their college majors, although even men and women working in the same field have different pays. Some of the largest pay gaps are in the occupations of insurance sales agents and retail sales, where a wom...

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