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Do Western Women Still Need Feminism?

"Free" is a binary term. You can be legally be free and still be treated badly.
Sade Andria Zabala
January 23, 2017
“If you find yourself using the plight of women in foreign countries as a bludgeoning tool against the comparatively hyper-privileged women of America, you should be flat out ashamed and embarrassed...

Does domestic violence not happen here?... Does rape not happen in the US or something now?... Using women of the global community to try to silence American women and make them feel guilty for exercising their first amendment right of free speech is absurd at best, and embarrassing at worst. You don't have to cross an ocean or continental border to find examples of women who don't have the resources.”
— Erika Nicole Kendall, via Facebook
Tagged: Western Feminism, Women's March
“Women in THIS country are in poverty, partly because they are denied the resources to determine when they have children and how many they have. Women in THIS country are subjected to violence because they are a part of a society that uses a rubric to determine how "worthy" they are of comfort, freedom, and peace. Women in THIS country are unsafe, used as bargaining chips, used as objects, used as punching bags, used, used, used.”
— Erika Nicole Kendall, via Facebook
Tagged: Western Feminism, Women's March, Domestic Violence
“You were told America is the land of opportunity, but guess what? For far too many women, inside this country and out, the opportunities they can take advantage of are severely limited...

No you won't sit here and make women feel bad for coming together by pretending to give a damn about women who experience the SAME kinds of things women in Appalachia, rural communities, religious sects in random parts of the country, suburbs, and inner cities do.”
— Erika Nicole Kendall, via Facebook
Tagged: Western Feminism, Women's March, Sexism, Patriarchy, USA
“Sisterhood doesn't mean yelling "RAH RAH RAH GO YOU" at everything the women and girls we know do. Sisterhood is being able to cheer you on when you've done well, challenge you when you can do better, and admonish you when you drop the ball.

White women, you wanna talk about sisterhood. Welcome. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Get comfortable with being called out. Drop the victimhood, and know that being disagreed with is not always "bullying." Communication is cultural and it's interesting how we have to temper how we speak to you, and put critiques in the middle of compliment sandwiches. If you wanna be a part of anything resembling sisterhood, you're going to need to know that your feelings will be hurt along the way.”
— Luvvie Ajayi, via Facebook
Tagged: White Feminism, Western Feminism
“I was moved by the Women's Marches around the country (and world). And I was glad to hear that they were all "peaceful" and there were no arrests.

You know why there were no arrests? Because PR-wise, it was a march that would be attended by mostly white women. And in a world that doesn't protect women much, when it chooses to, it is white women it protects. If the marches were mostly Black and brown women, police would be emboldened to break them up, throw tear gas into the crowds, and be physical. How do we know? The BLM protests and marches, where the only things people had were their bodies and those were considered weapons. Ferguson. Baltimore. Chicago. Militarized police always showed up. LOOK AT STANDING ROCK.

White women and white bodies can hold space on streets and shut down cities "peacefully" because they are allowed to. Black and brown people who march are assaulted by cops, and in Trump's law and order administration, this will only get worse.

Remember that you as a white person are walking in a body of privilege. You didn't show up before but you can show up now. NOW. When the next Sandra Bland, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Rekia Boyd, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner etc etc etc happens, you better come out. We will need you to show up again and again, in these numbers.”
— Luvvie Ajayi, via Facebook
Tagged: White Feminism, Western Feminism, BLM, Black Lives Matter, Black Women, Women's March
“There'll be no cohesive women's movement until divisions are acknowledged and those who have perpetuated it take responsibility... when I speak about women of color and marginalized groups being sidelined and erased, I'm referring to a historical pattern. The very foundations of the mainstream western women's movement are steeped in inequity. And that won't change overnight.”
— Christiana A Mbakwe, via twitter.com
Tagged: BLM, White Feminism, Women's March
“Mainstream feminism, how (unnecesarily) grand its gestures tend to be and its hollow solidarity.”
— Christiana A Mbakwe, via twitter.com
Tagged: BLM, White Feminism, Women's March, Western Feminism
“Mainstream feminism only seems to make noise when certain women are impacted. Where were all these women when we lost Sandra Bland?... I want a multicultural feminist movement...

There have been calls to "Resist" since Nov 8th. A lot of us have been resisting since we were little girls. We literally had no choice.”
— Christiana A Mbakwe, via twitter.com
Tagged: BLM, White Feminism, Women's March, Western Feminism
“White women elected Trump... White women: let's get familiar with feeling uncomfortable...

Black, brown, trans, and queer women have been doing this for far longer and at far greater peril. We are the ones new to this.”
— Kellyanne Kanye, via twitter.com
Tagged: Western Feminism, White Girls, WOC, BLM
“Yes, women do have more social, political and economic rights than ever before — but the fact is, we still have to deal with the harmful side effects of gender inequality on a daily basis. We still have to deal with pay inequality, body-shaming, sex-shaming, slut-shaming, mansplaining, victim-blaming and the constant erosion of our reproductive rights here in the U.S. Additionally, women living in developing nations are still being forced to cope with harsh, gender-specific health threats like female genital mutilation and fight for basic rights like education. So despite what non-feminists might say, it's painfully evident that the global struggle for women's rights is far from over,”
— Elizabeth Enochs, 5 Reasons We Still Need Feminism
Tagged: Western Feminism, gender inequality
“In 2003, the European Commission started keeping a database to monitor the numbers of men and women in key decision-making positions in Europe. The statistics show that only 4% of executive-level positions in the largest publicly-listed companies in the EU are held by women.

Things aren’t much better in politics, where only 22.6% of sitting parliamentarians in Europe are female. Not to mention the fact that, on average, men are paid 16% more than women for doing exactly the same job.”
— Debating Europe, Do we still need feminism today?
Tagged: gender inequality, Gender Wars, Western Feminism
“Although women as a group have made substantial gains in wages, educational attainment, and prestige over the past three decades, the economists Justin Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson have shown that women are less happy today than their predecessors were in 1972, both in absolute terms and relative to men.”
— Anne-Marie Slaughter, Why Women Still Can’t Have It All
Tagged: Western Feminism, The Atlantic, The Atlantic Magazine, TheAtlantic.com, Atlantic, News, Opinion, breaking news, analysis, commentary, Business, Politics, Culture, international, Science, Technology, national and life
“Women still make less than men, on average, in every career field. Violence towards women gets worse with each passing day. The greatest insult to any man is to claim he is somehow effeminate. Prejudices against gay men are primarily so strong, because gay men are perceived as effeminate, or less than a man... Feminism will always be relevant, especially when we still have so far to go.”
— Unknown, Is feminism still relevant?
Tagged: Western Feminism
“If you think you don’t need feminism, that’s ok. I’ll respect your choice. But practice some altruism. Be informed, and think about how maybe other people do need feminism, and the potential damage you wreak by condemning feminism as a whole. And if you’re in a position in your own life where utter gender equality has been reached in all facets of your existence (really?), then reach out to others who may not have reached their nirvana of gender equality.

When no woman has to fear for her own safety or ownership or decisions about her own body, then we won’t need feminism.

When all brothers and sisters can access the same quality education, opportunities and future as the other, then we won’t need feminism.

When all women can choose if, whom and when to marry and have children, then we won’t need feminism.

When no woman dies in childbirth from reasons preventable in the 21st century West, then we won’t need feminism.

When all girls, regardless of culture, have the choice and knowledge that she can be anyone and do anything she chooses, we won’t need feminism.

But until these things are the norm, we do need feminism. Look beyond yourself. We’re all in this together.”
— Matilda Branson, Women Against Feminism? How About a Bit More Altruism?
Tagged: Western Feminism
“Feminism is needed because females and males are not seen as equals on any platform, the over-sexualization of women’s bodies in still seen as normal in mainstream media, and society maintains an incorrect idea of what feminism really is and what it stands for...Until women cease to be used as oversexualized objects by the media, until all sexes are seen and treated as equals, feminism will remain relevant and needed.”
— Brittany Anderson, The F-Word: Do We Still Need Feminism in 2016
Tagged: Western Feminism
“1. Our culture is toxic to girls
2. Our culture is toxic to boys
3. Our culture is toxic to those who challenge the gender binary
4. Too many students face harassment and violence on a regular basis
5. Those committing the harassment and violence urgently need education
6. Systems of privilege need confronting
7. Too much of our education is male-centric”
— Jon Greenberg, The Top 8 Reasons Why We Need Feminism in Our Schools- Everyday Feminism
Tagged: Western Feminism
“For the same reason why black people aren't slaves anymore, but still need anti-racist movements: it's possible to be legally free and still treated like shit.”
— Nora Rivkis, Why is feminism necessary in first-world countries?
Tagged: racism, Western Feminism
“Counter-question, first: Why are you posting questions on Quora when there are children starving out in the world?

Do you see how absurd this line of reasoning is? You have stuff you want and don’t think it’s at all odd to prioritize that over literally everything else in the world you could be doing right now to make the world a better place. And what you want is to ask why feminists aren’t…invading Arabic countries, I guess, to impose peace, maybe. It’s not really clear where you’re going with it, other than you’re clearly not doing anything about it, either. That’s the problem with trying to claim someone else is a hypocrite: You need to be very careful about your own life, first.

But look, the fact that there are crappier places than the United States (for example) doesn’t mean that the United States is ‘done;’ even the best place in the world can still be better. It also doesn’t mean—as we’re reminded any time any American speaks up about world events—that we have the right to impose our will and values on the rest of the world.

Mind you, many feminists do work throughout the world, because they have the resources to do so. But there’s plenty of work in our own backyards to go around, and it seems pretty dumb to leave it undone, and there are enough people acting against progress that it needs work to maintain it.

And heck, that doesn’t even get to the fact that we’ve seen time and time again that equality makes people happier, more productive, and more stable. And that’s a far better position to spread from. As another answer points out, the world is not a zero-sum game.”
— John Colagioia, Why is feminism necessary in first-world countries?
Tagged: Western Feminism
“Free" is not a binary condition.

There are many levels of freedom and many forms of negativity. Western women may be well off in some ways, but they still have many challenges to face. This is especially true when you consider that "western women" includes women of color, transgender women, lesbian women, bisexual women, disabled women and many other groups that also face additional societal restrictions.”
— John Colagioia, Why is feminism necessary in first-world countries?
Tagged: Western Feminism
“That does not mean, that women in the West do not face problems... I guess, we should just stop to evolve our societies. Women in the Western World should just shut up again and stop bothering men with their claims for equality. They have it better then other women on this planet, so why should they complain?

We should also stop helping homeless people, after all, being homeless in the rich west is better then being homeless in a civil war zone.

We should stop supporting poor people(like the European welfare states do), after all, poor people in the West have it better, then poor people in poor countries.

We should stop, criticising our police forces, when they do mistakes, after all, the police in dictatorships is far worse.

We should stop trying to make our educational system better, after all, almost everyone can write and read, which is far better then in other parts of the world.

Sounds stupid? So does your question.”
— Tina Mueller, Why is feminism necessary in first-world countries?
Tagged: Western Feminism
“You know how 1st world feminists get told that they don’t need feminism? They’re told that they should be glad they’re not ‘really oppressed’ like the women in 3rd world countries. That things could always be worse.

You know what my mother tells me? She says I don’t need feminism because I should be glad I’m born in an urban city of Pakistan. She says, at least I wasn’t born in a rural area where girls are married off to men twice their age. That things could always be worse.

And our house maid, Shabana, who was married to her uncle at 15 and, at 18, has 2 children, she doesn’t even know what feminism is. She was told by her father that she should be glad her husband doesn’t beat her and hasn’t thrown tehzaab (acid) at her. That things could always be worse.

Am I the only one seeing a very disturbing pattern here?”
— Unknown, via Tumblr
Tagged: feminism, Western Feminism
“Solidarity cannot come from only one group reaching out to the other. White feminists must come to grips with their own internalized structures of racism, classism, and even sexism that prevent them from seeing other feminists of color. It is also important to understand women of color may not be comfortable calling themselves feminists. Understand that this reticence stems from both historical constructs of feminism and structures of communities and beliefs that may not want to call ourselves feminists.”
— Anthea Butler, Women of Color and Feminism: A History Lesson and Way Forward- Rewire
Tagged: Western Feminism