feminism at home essay

Essay on Feminism

500 words essay on feminism.

Feminism is a social and political movement that advocates for the rights of women on the grounds of equality of sexes. It does not deny the biological differences between the sexes but demands equality in opportunities. It covers everything from social and political to economic arenas. In fact, feminist campaigns have been a crucial part of history in women empowerment. The feminist campaigns of the twentieth century made the right to vote, public property, work and education possible. Thus, an essay on feminism will discuss its importance and impact.

Importance of Feminism

Feminism is not just important for women but for every sex, gender, caste, creed and more. It empowers the people and society as a whole. A very common misconception is that only women can be feminists.

It is absolutely wrong but feminism does not just benefit women. It strives for equality of the sexes, not the superiority of women. Feminism takes the gender roles which have been around for many years and tries to deconstruct them.

This allows people to live freely and empower lives without getting tied down by traditional restrictions. In other words, it benefits women as well as men. For instance, while it advocates that women must be free to earn it also advocates that why should men be the sole breadwinner of the family? It tries to give freedom to all.

Most importantly, it is essential for young people to get involved in the feminist movement. This way, we can achieve faster results. It is no less than a dream to live in a world full of equality.

Thus, we must all look at our own cultures and communities for making this dream a reality. We have not yet reached the result but we are on the journey, so we must continue on this mission to achieve successful results.

Impact of Feminism

Feminism has had a life-changing impact on everyone, especially women. If we look at history, we see that it is what gave women the right to vote. It was no small feat but was achieved successfully by women.

Further, if we look at modern feminism, we see how feminism involves in life-altering campaigns. For instance, campaigns that support the abortion of unwanted pregnancy and reproductive rights allow women to have freedom of choice.

Moreover, feminism constantly questions patriarchy and strives to renounce gender roles. It allows men to be whoever they wish to be without getting judged. It is not taboo for men to cry anymore because they must be allowed to express themselves freely.

Similarly, it also helps the LGBTQ community greatly as it advocates for their right too. Feminism gives a place for everyone and it is best to practice intersectional feminism to understand everyone’s struggle.

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Conclusion of the Essay on Feminism

The key message of feminism must be to highlight the choice in bringing personal meaning to feminism. It is to recognize other’s right for doing the same thing. The sad part is that despite feminism being a strong movement, there are still parts of the world where inequality and exploitation of women take places. Thus, we must all try to practice intersectional feminism.

FAQ of Essay on Feminism

Question 1: What are feminist beliefs?

Answer 1: Feminist beliefs are the desire for equality between the sexes. It is the belief that men and women must have equal rights and opportunities. Thus, it covers everything from social and political to economic equality.

Question 2: What started feminism?

Answer 2: The first wave of feminism occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It emerged out of an environment of urban industrialism and liberal, socialist politics. This wave aimed to open up new doors for women with a focus on suffrage.

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Gender Equity Starts in the Home

• David G. Smith
• W. Brad Johnson

The shift to remote work is highlighting domestic inequity in many households.

Many men teleworking from home for the first time are getting a front row seat to the daily demands of running a home and caring for kids, as well as a crash course in learning to “balance” work and family. Although many men have experienced traditional role reversals for short stints, most have never worked from home for an extended period while leaning in as primary caregiver for children. Most of this work has fallen on women.

The presence of more men sharing more fully in domestic duties for an extended period of time has the potential to create a sea change in gendered norms — at home and at work. Men teleworking during the pandemic are more likely to appreciate women’s work-family experiences, understand the value of flexible work arrangements, appreciate the benefits of relationships with work colleagues, and role model more equitable work-family gender roles for their children.

In these difficult times, we’ve made a number of our coronavirus articles free for all readers. To get all of HBR’s content delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Daily Alert newsletter.

Jack Koban, a geologist and engineering project manager, is working from home during the pandemic shutdown while his wife, Ashley Saucier, works long hours as a pediatric emergency medicine physician. In our recent call with Jack, he reflected, “I don’t remember the last time I’ve cooked three meals a day and done the dishes for three straight weeks. It’s been nice being home, having more family time, and being more involved with the kids. We’ve definitely achieved a new work-life balance.”

• David G. Smith is an associate professor in the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. He is the coauthor, with W. Brad Johnson, of Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace and Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women .
• W. Brad Johnson is a professor of psychology in the Department of Leadership, Ethics, and Law at the United States Naval Academy and a faculty associate in the Graduate School of Education at Johns Hopkins University. He is the coauthor of Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace , Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women , The Elements of Mentoring , and other books on mentorship.

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Gender equality starts at home: Seven tips for raising feminist kids

Date: Wednesday, 15 May 2019

This story was originally published on Medium.com/@UN_Women

Gender equality begins at home, and families are at the front lines of change. For the next generation, the examples set at home by parents, care-givers and extended family are shaping the way they think about gender and equality.

From breaking down gender stereotypes to sharing the care work, and educating children about women’s rights and gender equality, here are some ways you can inspire the future feminists in your family.

1) Talk about it.

Embrace talking to your kids about gender equality and women’s rights. By talking to your kids about equality between the sexes and what still needs to be done for us to reach a gender-equal world, you’re setting them up to lead the way for a better future for all.

Ukrainian singer and jury member of the Ukrainian X-Factor TV-show, Dmytro Shurov makes sure his son understands that everything in their home is 50/50 .

“In my opinion, the best way to raise a child is by example as your child takes after you… I often talk to my son about gender roles because this topic is relevant.,” Dmytro said. “People are born to be happy and all of us have equal rights. Everything starts with families: I think, kids should get their parent`s attention equally, they should see their father is not afraid to be weak sometimes, and their mother isn't afraid to be strong.”

2) Share the care work.

From cooking and cleaning, to fetching water and firewood or taking care of children and the elderly, women carry out at least two and a half times more unpaid household and care work than men. As a result, thousands of women and girls miss out on equal opportunities of going to school, or joining full-time paid work, or having enough time to rest!

Set the example by equally dividing all housework and childcare in your home. Involve boys in care work and household chores from an early age, along with girls!

3) Embrace diverse role models.

  rel="noopener noreferrer" View this post on Instagram   When we fight for human rights, we must be inclusive. #LGBTI rights matter. Laverne Cox shows us how we can all use our platforms to advocate for others. A post shared by UN Women (@unwomen) on Aug 13, 2018 at 11:00pm PDT

Role models come in all shapes, sizes, genders, skin tones and cultural backgrounds. Encourage your children to embrace diversity, show them role models from different genders, ethnicities and colour.

And remind them that they can be anything they want to be, regardless of their gender, for example.

4) Empower your kids to speak out.

Young people around the world are stepping up for gender equality. When we empower and educate young advocates about women’s rights, we are ensuring a better future for us all.

In Kyrgyzstan, Aigul Alybaeva is doing her part to advance women’s rights and gender equality by supporting her daughter’s participation in a school-based programme that works to empower girls, generate inter-generational dialogues and change attitudes about child marriage.

“We try to support her, create an enabling environment at home, so that she gets the time she needs to study, prepare for her assignments,” Aigul says of her relationship with her daughter. “Feminism is in her character. She knows her rights and she shares with me what she learns in school.”

Aigul’s daughter, Aiturgan Djoldoshbekova, has learned about women’s legal rights in her country and wants to pursue a career in law. She also knows the importance of sharing her knowledge with others.

5) Fight stereotypes, including your own.

Gender is not about biological differences between the sexes, rather, it’s a social construct—people define what it means to be a boy or a girl, and these social conditionings often expect children to conform to specific and limiting gender roles and expectations from a young age. Researchers say, children start absorbing stereotypes by age 3, causing the world to expand for boys and shrink for girls by age 10 . That’s why we have to start conversations about gender roles early on, and challenge the features and characteristics assigned to men and women at home, in our daily routines, in school and in places of work.

Normalizing violent behaviour of a child might lead to an enabling environment for violence against women to flourish. Let’s make the right conversations early on. #HearMeToo #orangetheworld #16days pic.twitter.com/ybDuZVQOJJ — UN Women (@UN_Women) November 25, 2018

We all have unconscious gender biases. These are roles that we've internalized based on our society’s set expectations about how men and women should dress, behave and present themselves, and in some cases, what kind of work they should do.. It’s in our hands to become aware of these biases and challenge the stereotypes that our children constantly encounter, whether in the media, on the street or at the school. Let your children know that your family is a safe space for them to express themselves as they are, by affirming their choices, by reassuring them that it’s OK to be different, and by encouraging a culture of acceptance.

6) Stop the body shame.

Our world is constructed in a way that makes us compare ourselves to the beauty standards set by the media, culture and society. We constantly measure ourselves against other people and feel judged by our physical appearance. Body shaming is a learned behavior, so it’s important for parents to lead by example. Be careful not to be critical of body image, including your own, and reject sexist, negative stereotypes of unrealistic body standards.

It's time we challenge societal constructs of beauty, perfection, and what constitutes a "normal" body. Malvika's mother never made Malvika feel that she was less of a person because of her #disability : https://t.co/8J4GnBlzDq #bodypositivity pic.twitter.com/rFYun5pomu — UN Women (@UN_Women) January 29, 2019

Foster a body-positive lifestyle at home by showing your children that they are not defined by how they look, but by how they act.

7) Listen and learn from them.

Today’s youth—1.8 billion strong—represent boundless possibilities and enormous talent to build a better future for the world. But to truly harness that power, we need to listen to them. Girls and boys have a role to play in achieving gender equality, today.

Over the last few years, young people have been speaking out about the issues affecting them, and the world. From Malala advocating for youth education, to Greta urging us to take climate action, young people have a lot to contribute to conversations on human rights, climate action, gender equality and more. We just need to listen.

Hear @GretaThunberg ‘s call to #ClimateAction . She is proof that we need to listen to the young generation for a sustainable future. pic.twitter.com/J0Sc7uG6Iv — UN Women (@UN_Women) March 18, 2019

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Discrimination — Feminism Argumentative

Feminism Argumentative

• Categories: Discrimination

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Published: Mar 14, 2024

Words: 652 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

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In her words

The Household Work Men and Women Do, and Why

Men are more likely than ever to embrace the idea of gender equality, but when it comes to the home front, traditional values dominate.

By Francesca Donner

“Our beliefs about gender are really strong and sticky.”

— Joanna Pepin, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Austin

Men, while they’re more likely than ever to embrace the idea of gender equality, are still slackers when it comes to household work, according to a new Gallup poll.

Multiple surveys and studies have documented men’s changing attitudes toward women in recent years: There is almost universal support for women to pursue careers and political office, and attitudes have become far more accepting around gender identity.

But when it comes to the home front, traditional values dominate , writes Claire Cain Miller. Nearly one-quarter of high school seniors, when asked about the ideal at-home arrangement, favored a setup where — you guessed it — Dad works full time (for pay) and Mom stays home (for free).

These attitudes bear out in practice too: Men between ages 18 and 34 in opposite-sex relationships are no more likely than older couples to divide household labor equitably. And while it’s true that men have picked up some of the household labor, a significant gap remains: In the U.S., women spend about four hours a day on unpaid work , compared with about 2.5 hours for men according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development .

I caught up with Claire Cain Miller, a New York Times correspondent who writes about gender, families and the future of work. Ever wonder how unpaid work breaks down along gender lines and whether some chores are better than others? She had answers.

A new survey found that younger opposite-sex couples are no more likely to divide home chores equitably than older couples. Wait … is that news?

Fair — it’s probably not news to most people living this reality! But it still surprises the social scientists who study these topics, because they expect younger generations to become more open-minded and egalitarian over time, and when it comes to most things related to gender roles, they are. But not in terms of domestic labor.

But men have been taking on more household chores over the years, right? They just don’t do as much as their female partners.

Men do a little more at home — they’ve doubled the time they spend on housework since 1965, and women now do less — but women still do about an hour more a day. In one of the new surveys I reported on, by Gallup, almost half of respondents said they split daily child care equally.

Why child care over, say, loading the dishwasher or doing the laundry?

One reason is that intensive parenting has become the norm — people value spending as much time as possible engaging with their children. Dishes and laundry just aren’t as fulfilling and, I imagine, men might not think the payoff is as great. There’s also a lot of societal pressure on women to have a clean house, and the expectation is different for men (and no, it’s not that women see mess and men don’t — that’s been disproved ).

Is there an unspoken hierarchy of chores in the household? I would think that vacuuming is worse than say, folding clothes, but maybe that’s just my preference.

One study that amused me looked at various tasks and how they affected people’s satisfaction with their relationship. For women, it was all about dishwashing — if that task was shared, they were happier, and if they did all the dishes, they were discontent. Men were happiest when they shared errands, and least happy when they did more cleaning and laundry than their partner.

I wonder if male-aligned chores like, say, washing the car, end up being more “desirable.”

It’s striking to me how much chores break down along gender lines. The chores men do more of are usually outdoors, like car upkeep and yard work. The chores women do more of are indoors, like cleaning and cooking. But there’s a big reason men’s tasks are more desirable — the chores they do happen weekly or less often, and the ones women do happen daily or several times a day.

Another study you wrote about showed that many men support women going to work in part because they’re happy to share the economic burden. As we’ve explored above, clearly the domestic burden is a different animal.

I think a big reason is simply that men are happy for their partner to bring home another paycheck, but aren’t as happy to do more chores. Social scientists offer some other explanations. Work and parenting have both become more demanding, so it’s often easier for couples to divide those responsibilities , even if they didn’t plan to. Masculinity is strongly tied to earning an income (and to avoiding things that are considered feminine). And the authors of one of the studies I covered suggested another idea: economic uncertainty. Perhaps young people are open to women’s equality at work not because their attitudes about gender roles have evolved, but because they need a second income, so they still act more traditional at home.

When’s it going to change?

It seems to me that it will change when it’s not just women who want it to change. Men would have to step up at home. Policymakers could ease work-family struggles with ideas like paid family leave or public preschool. Employers could stop expecting people, especially men, to work at all hours. There are also smaller changes that could make a difference — like parents giving their sons as many chores as their daughters , or schools and pediatricians’ offices who need to reach families calling fathers, not just mothers.

Readers: Tell us how household labor stacks up in your home. Email us at: [email protected] .

Read more: Young Men Embrace Gender Equality, but They Still Don’t Vacuum

Today’s In Her Words is written by Francesca Donner and edited by Adam Pasick. Our art director is Catherine Gilmore-Barnes, and our photo editor is Sandra Stevenson.

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