Some individuals have the opinion that feminism is no longer necessary, but this couldn’t be further from the reality. While certain fights have been partially won, such as the right to vote and equal access to education, women continue to be disproportionately impacted by all sorts of violence and discrimination in all facets of life. Women have fought for equality and against oppression for millennia.

It is true that there have been advancements in some places and with respect to specific topics. For instance, in Saudi Arabia, women were given the opportunity to vote and run for office for the first time in 2015. There has, however, been little to no improvement on other areas, such as the negligible decreases in occurrences of violence against women. All around the world, women are still paid less for doing the same jobs as men; some nations still allow child brides and do not have laws prohibiting marital rape; and traditions like “honour” killings and female genital mutilation still take place.

Though many of them are homophobic and assume that being a lesbian is something “bad,” there are also jokes about feminism and expectations of feminists. Feminists might be men or women, gay or straight, heterosexual, bisexual, or transgender, or they can identify in other ways. Being a feminist isn’t actually exclusive to any one sex or gender.

The idea of feminism reflects a history of various conflicts, and as awareness has grown, the term has come to have more nuanced and complex meanings. Feminism, in general, can be viewed as a movement to eradicate sexism, sexist oppression, and exploitation in order to attain complete gender equality in both law and practice.