The feminist movement has had its ups and downs. With every new wave, a new set of challenges to overcome. But the unmatched successes of the movement are undeniable. These successes lie in every girl child at school, every career woman, every female writer, every woman who has voted at least once in her lifetime, every woman who chooses to have or not to have children, and every woman who shows up with the unlimited freedom to be whatever she desires to be.
Women have come a long way and the movement has won more battles than any other social justice movement on the face of the earth. So why does feminism today seem so obsolete, so forgotten, almost dead?
The reality is, the feminist movement has been muffled by many extreme voices which have held so tight to the equality of the sexes as the ultimate goal of the movement, the end goal.
However, the equality of the sexes was a means to an end and not the end goal in itself.
The end goal of feminism was for every woman to be truly free to live her best life, to be whatever she wanted to be and to make the most informed choices for her happiness.
With so many barriers removed, today’s feminist can break the glass ceiling, has access to all spheres of government and society, and is indeed in a position to make the most informed choices for her happiness.
And indeed women are pursuing their happiness more fiercely today than ever before. The feminist movement has made this possible.
Women are living their best lives and are making choices from a position of power, not weakness. In fact, the movement has been so successful that many women are returning to traditional gender roles out of choice. Many qualified and prominent women are taking the backward seat vis a vis the men in their lives out of choice. Women are so free that they do not feel pressured to prove themselves or to hold fiercely to an equality that was only meant to liberate them.
Many have abandoned a misguided quest for clinical equality and are making clever choices from a conviction that equality only truly matters if we are all free to be the best version of ourselves, doing what truly makes us happy.
Feminism has come full circle, that end goal which is indeed for every woman to be free to be whatever she wishes to be and to be empowered to make informed choices for her life and her happiness is evident today more than ever before in history.
Today, women of unmeasured ability are making choices that do not necessarily align with the precepts of equality.
I have spent the last five years in deep reflection on the question of whether feminism is dead and it gives me great joy to say feminism is more alive today than ever before. It resides in every woman who is and has made an informed choice for their happiness, who has defiled the several moulds in which society constantly tries to put women, it resides in every woman who is more than capable of doing and is pursuing whatever we she wishes to be, in every woman who is making informed choices for her happiness.
These are the women pursuing their dreams and goals with no reservations. Feminism has become a delightful cocktail with everyone creating a unique combination that makes them happy.
We must then invest most of our energies in modern-day feminism to ensure that every woman has the right to self-determination and that every woman is in a position to make the most informed choices for her life. No amount of empowerment or equality should override a woman’s right to self-determination, her fundamental right to the pursuit of happiness. Indeed, happiness is so unique for each person that while we must continue to demand political, legal and social equality philosophically, the pursuit of happiness and the nuances of how each woman uses that equally to pursue happiness and foster harmony should be meted out as every woman sees fit in her circumstances and realities. If we attend gender parity with the freedom that this approach gives, great, if we don’t then perhaps that was never meant to be the end goal too.
We have evolved and we are evolved feminists. We are already living the end goal of feminism and our task is to ensure women everywhere under the sun can too.