When I was a teenager in the early 2000s, riding a wave of nineties’ Spice Girl-branded 'girl power', my all-girls high school read from the same playbook: ‘Girls can do anything!’ I knew little about capital-F Feminism, which conjured up pictures of women burning bras or Suffragettes demanding the right to vote.
But the world was my oyster in the naughties. I could vote, drive a car, have a career, or have babies — whatever I wanted! I joined an all-boys cricket team when there weren't enough girls to form a girl's team, because #girlpower. I gave the bird to P-plater hoons, honking their horns at my friends and me as we walked home, because #girlpower. At school, we learned self-defence (‘eyes, throat, nose, groin, BACK OFF!’), because #girlpower. I experienced little sexism, aside from a few boys on the cricket team telling me that girls couldn't bowl (before I bowled them out, #girlpower).
Despite never feeling stifled as a woman pursuing what I wanted, the birth of my daughter in 2019 brought to light some of the battles women in the 21st-century face. The conflict between the biological necessities of motherhood and the drive to find job satisfaction outside of the home was a struggle I hadn't anticipated. These issues, which may have seemed trivial, became a significant internal battle once my daughter arrived. Suddenly, staying at home wasn't enough.
As I reflect on the feminist movement, which has seen significant revolutions in the past 100 years, I can't help but feel a personal connection. With a daughter of my own in 2024, my concern for the state of feminism is more than just theoretical. What does feminism mean in this day and age?
In its simplest terms, feminism is ‘the belief in social, economic, and political equality of the sexes. Although largely originating in the West, feminism is manifested worldwide and is represented by various institutions committed to activity on behalf of women's rights and interests’.
But like so many movements of the 21st century, feminism has splintered into ideological camps, many of which are at odds with one another, such as the newly created category of 'TERFs' (trans-exclusionary radical feminists, from which J.K. Rowling derives notoriety), who are virulently opposed to trans women having access to female-only spaces in the interest of women's safety. It is imperative to examine the fissures within modern feminism because I still believe in equality for women