Feminism means equal rights for everyone and no fear for anyone. Feminism means not tolerating violence and hatred against women* and transgender people. The goal of feminism is freedom for each individual. No one should have to suffer due to gender roles. Feminists have been around for a long time. It‘s been more than a hundred years since the “first feminist wave” swept over society. We don‘t consider everything that has been happening under the label of feminism since then a good thing – but there are lots of things we can draw from: For example, socialist feminists denounced the double burden that women* face through having to combine house work and wage labour. The “second wave” of feminism showed that criticism needs to go deeper still. They coined the phrase “The private is the political”. Interpersonal relationships were also critically re-examined. Quite recently the concepts of masculinity and femininity have also started to be questioned. Sex and gender are neither natural nor have they come out of the blue.
Now, we as feminists are dealing with the question how inequalities between women* and men* are connected to what else is going on in society. It can‘t be a coincidence that women* are still worse off than men*. We haven‘t found a perfect explanation yet but are rather in constant examination of the problem. Just like the history of feminism, feminist theory formation is not yet complete. But one thing is for sure: feminism will not rest until everyone can be different without fear.
