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Feminism Is Needed in America Today

In response to con, I will individually go through each of the points they presented, and post my rebuttal for each one. I hope you don't mind that I'm imitating your format for citing sources; I'm new on this site and I like your way of presenting data. Definition: To say that feminism today is the belief that men are inferior to women is simply untrue. Radical feminists, on the other hand, often do believe that society should be matriarchal, rather than equal, and it is very important to make a distinction between the two. It is these radical individuals whose arguments are often believed to be the cornerstones of feminist ideology, when, in reality, that is not what feminism means. I have seen numerous posts by radical feminists who believe that men should die or be subjected to the same sexism women have been subjected to, but, as a feminist, I do not agree with their viewpoints and believe them to be counterproductive. Only 17% of Americans self-identify as strong feminist, while 43% self-identify as feminist, meaning that radicals do not make up the majority of the feminist movement, and therefore most do not believe that men are inferior to women (1). Regarding the wage gap - firstly, con's sources are both outdated and contradictory. Their first source, from which they received the top 5 occupations for women, is from 2010. Furthermore, con took their information for the top 5 occupations for men from a different source than the first, a source from 2007. The top 5 occupations for women, according to that list, are dental hygienists, preschool and kindergarten teachers, secretaries, dental assistants, and speech-language pathologists. Because con presented two sources that are both outdated and also contradict each other, I think that it would be safe to discredit both sources. The actual 5 most common occupations for women, according to a more recent 2015 annual survey, are elementary and middle school teachers, nurses, secretaries, health aides, and customer service representatives, and the top 5 occupations for men are drivers and sales workers, managers, retail supervisors, laborers and movers, and retail salesmen (2). This information contradicts con's genetics argument, because only one of the top 5 occupations for men requires manual labor, meaning that the reason that men often have higher-paying jobs is not due to genetics. If there were more women who were drivers, managers, and supervisors, the wage gap would be greatly diminished, and so far, con has not provided any reason that women should not have these jobs. I think that the real reason for the wage gap, rather than genetics, lies in the sexist idea of what a 'woman's job' should be. For instance, there is a gender gap in STEM fields which cannot be accounted for by the fact that men have greater upper body strength than women. Only 14.8% of engineers in the workplace are women, according to a 2016 article (3). As of 2017, women make up only 19.6% of the US Congress, 21% of the Senate, and 19.3% of the House of Representatives (4). Women make up a dismal 4.8% of CEOs in America's top 500 corporations according to a 2017 list (5). None of these jobs require manual labor. The idea of 'normal women choices' for occupations, as con put it, simply needs to be abolished. The idea that women are nurses, secretaries, and teachers needs to be removed from society in order for women to realize that higher-paying jobs are available to them, and in order for male employers to remove any prejudices they may hold when considering who to hire. The fact that men dominate higher-paying occupations is reason enough to be concerned about the wage gap, especially when genetics cannot factor into the equation. When looking at statistics that show that men have higher-paying jobs, you are looking at the reason feminism is necessary in America today: the disadvantage women have in the workplace due to preconceived notions of what is normal for them. Now, I will respond to con's rebuttal. I will start with "You try being a woman in these countries, I dare you": Of course it is far more dangerous to be a woman in countries like Somalia and Afghanistan. America is an incredible place to live, especially for women, and most citizens are grateful for the freedoms and protections they are afforded in this country. However, it is illogical to dismiss a wrong by pointing out an even greater wrong happening somewhere else. Should law enforcement only stop crime in cities with the worst crime rates, and ignore everywhere else? Just as law enforcement should be concerned with all crime, feminism should be concerned with any and all instances of misogyny, whether it be rape apology in America or widespread, normalized violence against women in third-world countries. Simply because worse examples of misogyny exist does not mean that lesser examples should be dismissed out of hand. As for con's rebuttal of my point about rape, I do not see why it should not matter that women are far more likely to be rape victims than men. If roughly 90% of adult rape victims are women, there is likely a reason for that. If only, say, 52% of adult victims were female, I would understand why it would be nonsensical to think that the underlying cause is misogyny and the objectification of women, but that is simply not the case. I am focusing on why females are rape victims instead of males because, quite simply, women are raped far more often than men. According to a 2011 study, the most recent I could find, 98.1% of rapes against women were committed by men (5). I refuse to believe that there is no reason for this. In order to stop rape in general, it is necessary to understand who the victims are, who the perpetrators are, and why the perpetrators believe their actions are acceptable. In most cases, the victims are women, the perpetrators are male, and the reason for the perpetrators actions is misogyny and their view of women as objects. That is why feminism needs to exist today; not to deny the existence of male rape victims, not to deny the existence of female rapists, but to help Americans understand why women are so often rape victims and how to stop it. Finally, con used the typical 'not all men' argument that most anti-feminists use, verbatim. This argument is completely nonsensical and asks women to ignore misogyny because not every man is misogynistic. Since it is difficult to provide statistical evidence for something as conceptual as misogyny, I will use anecdotal evidence here. For every man I have met who is respectful and treats the women around him equally, I have met another man who is condescending or even blatantly sexist to the women around him. I have met men who completely dismiss the dissenting opinion of women who argue with them, men who believe women should not be allowed to vote, and men who lash out angrily at women without considering the consequences for their actions, all of whom believe that they aren't sexist in the slightest. Even if men do not blatantly believe themselves to be superior to women, sexism in America is, for the most part, deeply ingrained in a person's behavior, rather than being a belief that they have chosen for themselves. Just because women have equal rights on paper does not mean that they are treated equally in society, nor does it mean that sexism is not present in the workforce or in politics. 1: https://www.washingtonpost.com... 2: https://www.dol.gov... 3: http://alltogether.swe.org... 4: http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu... 5: http://www.oneinfourusa.org...