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Modern Feminism (Third-Wave Feminism) Destroys Men and Their Families

Outline: I: Introduction II: The Background of Feminism III: Current Problems Women Face Today IV: Objectives and Effects of the Modern Feminist Movement I. Introduction The modern feminist movement: some people see it as a great activist movement fighting for justice and equality, whilst others may see the movement as being no more than a brood of crazy over-privileged women prancing around and causing stirrups for their campaign to eliminate all men from the face of this planet. My opponent argues that this movement is no more than a counteractive movement that does no more than destroy families, increase prejudice between the sexes, directly attack motherhood, and promote the mentality that women are better than men and deserve more rights because of so. By no means will I brush off these allegations towards the activist movement by saying that this is complete and utter boondoggle, but by no means is this relevant to the movement and the majority of its activists. There are, and always will be, people with radical beliefs that stray from the original goal of any movement. For example, many Donald Trump supporters simply supported Trump's strong opinions on foreign policy, and favored the taxes. Some even wanted to vote for him solely because they hated Clinton so much. However, the Klu Klux Klan greatly endorsed Trump. They were a small part of Trump's supporters, but by your logic, does a small part of Trump's radical supporters make the majority of his supporters as racist white supremacists? II: The Background of Feminism The Feminist Movement started as the "Women's Suffrage Movement" in 1848. As you can tell by the name, the movement's primary objective was for women in the United States to gain a voice in politics by giving them the right to vote. In 1920, as declared by the 19th amendment, women were given the right to vote. After the women were given suffrage, however, the movement died out and failed to make any further changes to increase women's civil rights. It was not until the 1940s that women were given more opportunities. After the United States entered WWII, men had to leave their jobs to join the warfront. Women had to take the vacant manufacturing jobs. They were an essential part of the war effort, supplying the American military with weapons, munitions, etc. The 1940s were a large turning point for feminism, giving women more of a voice, and proving to society that women are capable of taking the roles that were believed to be only for men (S1). From that point forward, the feminist movement grew. III: Current Problems Women Face Today By no means will I argue that women are being denied their basic rights, nor will I bash anyone in by declaring that modern-day sexism is even close to how bad it was in the early 1900s, however, that does not mean that women don't face any sort of sexism that requires action to protect them. Even though, in the United States, we live in a progressive society where women are given almost all the opportunities men are given and are protected legally as much as men, women still face prejudice, and they have every right to assemble and protest against it. One such problem that women face is the wage gap. According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research, "in 2015, female full-time workers made only 80 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 20 percent," (S2). Imagine that you are a hard-working construction worker making about 30,000 USD. Then, imagine that your malicious boss decides to lower your annual wage by 20%. You would lose 6,000 USD from your yearly salary. A large part of the feminist movement is actively fighting to close the wage gap, and rightly so. Women also battle domestic violence and sexual assault. An article by "The Shriver Report" claims that one in five women has been sexually assaulted in college. It also has recorded over 270,000 instances of sexual assault worldwide on average annually. Admittedly, my third reason is fairly graphic, but I find that it is necessary to add: human trafficking is very real, and women are the biggest victim of it, though males are also the victims of sex trafficking. Sex trafficking is the exploitation of women and children for sex work It is estimated that human trafficking is a 32 billion dollar annual industry worldwide (S3). IV: Effects of the Modern Feminist Movement Pro argues that the Modern Feminist Movement has been nothing more than a movement which has ruined men and their families. However, the Modern Feminist Movement's objectives and accomplishments say differently. Modern-day feminism strives to close the wage gap, strike down sexual assault against women, and advocate for women's rights in the Middle-East. Third Wave Feminism has, through the news, protests, public speeches, and social media, informed people of problems that women face (as I mentioned above). Informing people is the first step to change and smite down wrong stereotypes.As they say, "knowledge is power." For instance, organizations such as the Feminist Majority Foundation have taken the opportunity to inform people about sexual and domestic assault by defining what it is and by helping victims by providing them with instructions on how to end it, also including the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights phone number to seek out further help in these situations. Additionally, within around fifty years, feminists have closed the wage gap from a woman's 59 cents for a man's dollar to 80 cents for a man's dollar, and it will continue do close as the movement grows stronger (S4). Feminists still continue to strive to close the wage gap, protect women against prejudice and sexual assault, and fight for women in the Middle East. Janet Mock, a popular feminist, hopes that for the new year, "that feminist, racial justice, reproductive rights and LGBT movements build a coalition that centers on the lives of women who lead intersectional lives and too often fall in between the cracks of these narrow mission statements," (S5). V: Sources S1) http://feminism.eserver.org... S2) http://www.iwpr.org... S3) http://shriverreport.org...; S4) http://everydayfeminism.com...; S5) https://www.washingtonpost.com...