With all the positive evolution of women’s place in society, does feminism still have its place in our modern lives ?

Theme 2 : Representations

Axis : Speaking out : representation and participation

> With all the positive evolution of women’s place in society, does feminism still have its place in our modern lives ?

Plan :

The old gender inequalities, and women’s place in society

Their place, representation in today’s society and the remaining inequalities (2 docs)

(The impact of the current pandemic on this situation)

« Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings » explained Cheris Kramarae, a professor in the field of women's studies and communication, joining the first axis of the second theme studied last year called speaking out. Coming back to the quote, indeed, for so many years, women were considered inferior to men, to whom they were bound to obey. They were expected to stay at home, take care of the children and all the housework and chores while the husband was the one bringing money to the family. In the US, women obtained the right to work in 1938 for minimum wage, nonetheless almost all families remained completely dependent on the husband financially. That’s one of the causes feminism fights against. Indeed, going from Ancient Egypt with Cleopatra, to the 20th century with the suffragettes, feminism has reunited millions of people around the world to fight together against gender inequalities. Moreover, according to recent surveys, only 19% of women describe themselves confidently as feminists, however 82% thought men and women should have equal rights, which leads us to think there might be confusion in the interpretation of the term « feminism ». Indeed, while some people understand it as the wish of women being considered superior to men, the university of Oxford describes this cause as the belief and aim that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men; and the struggle to achieve this aim. That’s why, contrary to popular beliefs, everyone can be a feminist, no matter their gender since feminism doesn’t fight against men, but against gender inequalities. But nowadays, women can vote, work, have a bank account, and just live by themselves, which they couldn’t do before in any circumstances. So, with all the positive evolution of women’s place in society, does feminism still have its place in our modern lives ?

To find answers, we’ll briefly see the place women had in society before. Then, we will focus on their place and representation in today’s society.

This first document is an ad for the tie society Van Heusen that dates back to 1951, on which we can see a man in his bed, being served breakfast by his wife. The wife is on her knees, and overall, this vision is really conservative and old, but also belittling : the man is looking to on his wife as if she was just a basic maid. It is even more striking to see the slogan that says « show her it’s a men’s world », which associated with the inferior vision given on women is almost too extreme to be believed true. However, this ad did exist, and played with the credulity of some men to sell ties and make money. Indeed, presented like that, the company made it seem as if buying and wearing this company’s ties would make men manly and make them have many as many women as they wanted under their thumb. That slogan is openly stating that men are superior to women, and that women should obey to men. Even worse, in the little text on the bottom of the ad mentions that « and make her so happy it is », encouraging women to accept an inferior place as if it was normal for everyone. That ad looks so sexist and shocking from our modern point of view that more and more parodies of those sexist vintage ads are created.

Nowadays, things are finally moving and changing. Indeed, women are finally able to raise their voices, certainly not without getting cut off, but still, women’s voices have been freed. Indeed, we can see on document 3 a demonstration with a big banner on which is written #MeToo. This movement was created in 2007 but became well known mostly in 2017 and is a silence-breaking

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