"So, what exactly IS feminism?"

Hi guys! Remember me talking about getting more involved and emailing the women's officer at uni? Well today I went to a meeting held by the women's network! Met a few lovely and interesting people, heard some great ideas and shared a couple of my own thoughts. There's quite a few opportunities this week for me to start doing more, and I'm actually pretty excited! Several things to do on campus this week, a panel on women in the media and lots of great plans for the future. One of the things this week includes the launch of a magazine created by women across several campuses, that anyone can contribute to. I'd already planned and started a post about what I think feminism is (as I've had several people ask me), and decided to send that off for consideration for the magazine after I'd finished it - why not! But I'm also putting it here, since that's what it was for in the first place :) I've sort of covered this on here before (and reused a bit of a past post), but maybe I didn't say enough or I didn't say it in the right way. So here we go!:

Do you believe men and women were created equal?
Do you believe every person has the right to choose what happens to their body and when?
Do you believe a woman should make the same amount of money as a man, for the same amount of work?
Do you believe every women should have the choice of whether or not to get married and have children; and not have to give up a career to do so?

If you answered yes to these questions, congratulations! You're a feminist!

Since starting this blog, I've had several discussions with the women in my life about what feminism is. Those conversations have started with quite a few of them saying "I've been reading your blog, and it's interesting, but I'm not really even sure what feminism is". Hearing that surprised me, until I reminded myself that until very recently I was just as clueless.
Last year, a male friend at uni asked me if I would call myself a feminist. I said that "while I obviously agree with a lot of aspects of feminism, I wouldn't call myself one." He didn't understand why not. Evidently, neither did I. Over the next several months up until now, I regularly pondered that and looked into this whole "feminism" thing, getting more and more angry about how much it's ignored. About how I didn't even understand it enough, at 19, to realize that it's awful hard to be a woman and not be a feminist.
So what exactly is a feminist?
When people hear the word "feminist", they tend to think of intimidating women protesting about how men rule the world and its time women take over. But most of us don't want to take over the world - we just want to change it, and make sure our future daughters will be born into a world that supports them, protects them, values them and respects them. We want to guarantee that when our daughter tries to become a doctor, an astronaut, a lawyer, a scientist, an artist - she won't be looked over because she's a woman. We want to guarantee that our daughters will not have to grow up scared of men, and that if they ever need to they can stand up for others and protect themselves. We want our sons to grow up to be feminists - with a respect for women, a desire to make them feel safe and a willingness to stand up to anyone that threatens them.
"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people." (Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler)
In plain and simple terms, feminism is the idea that women deserve choices. That only we are allowed to define ourselves and our place in society. Only we get to make decisions about what we do with our lives and our bodies. We get to say what we want from life and then go get it! Feminism is about the freedom to be ourselves. It's about helping other women be happy, independent and strong. It's about putting women into positions of authority to ensure that only those with vaginas and wombs get to make laws and rules about vaginas and wombs. It's about creating equal access to education, careers and medical information and services; providing protective and legal services to women in need; and ensuring a woman's right to feel safe no matter where she is.
While we have a lot more choices than we used to, and are largely free to do with our lives what we will, there are still many obstacles. A woman can become almost anything she wants, but she certainly has to work harder for it. And even once she's made her choices, she will still be less respected than a man in her position. Every woman faces disrespect every day. I strongly believe that our generation's 'version' of feminism needs to include a focus on changing how the world sees us in social contexts, on an every day basis. We need to demand the respect of our friends, coworkers, family members, partners, and bosses.
There's a dire need in our society to erase the negative connotations surrounding the word "feminism" and replace it with the basic idea that started it: that women are equal to men, and need to be treated as such. That getting paid equally, having the same opportunities, not allowing anyone else to define you, belittle you or have a say in what happens to your body are the most important things we need to make happen. Accomplishing this will take more than just "radical women" fighting for their rights; instead, it will take every woman, and every man that values and respects women