Effort of Feminism
Feminism has definitely affected the dynamics of men and women. It diminishes the overly domineering role of men and brings with it a more egalitarian society. With Feminism, she finally realizes her intrinsic existence and the rights she possesses. She can play various roles in politics and the workplace on common standing grounds with him and, she is certainly not restricted to living in the household only. Surely, we are far from a perfect egalitarian society and in reality, she still meets with obstacles in the political arena and working world. But at the very least, the world is moving towards that ever since the birth of Feminism.
Perhaps the sheer idea of women voting or having civil rights, attending school or even working alongside men does not cause a commotion amongst us. But tell this to a layman living just a couple of centuries or even decades back (depending on which country you are referring to), and he will laugh at your ignorance and foolishness. Women had to fight for basic political and civil rights. An example would be 19th century America. Women organized themselves into political groups to call for the laws to finally give them basic political and civil rights. A public declaration - The Declaration of Sentiments (1948) conceived by the Women's Rights Convention held in America was even pronounced. All these finally led to the Declaration of the Rights of Woman. Whereby, significant additions to the United States Declaration of Rights were made - "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal…"
As we can see for ourselves, Feminism has indeed achieved a lot in a short span of time. Nevertheless, it can do so much more.
Interestingly, Feminism has not only helped women to switch gender roles, but it has also done the same for the opposite sex. Radical Feminism in its most radical and currently "inconceivable" form preaches "no restrictions to all sexual activities which include taboos such as homosexuality, pre-marital sex, extra-marital sex and bastardy etc."(John Charvet, (1982) Feminism. J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd, Great Britain). It hopes to overthrow a patriarchal society by the reordering of society and opposing all gender roles.
Certainly, too radical are most of the ideas for implementation, not to mention acceptance in many of our societies today. Although we even see some backlash and opposition to it, such as the Men's Rights wing under the Men's Movement (this will be explored in Introduction of Men's Movement), the general trend is the integration of some of its ideas into our society.
So yes, Feminism is a pertinent turning point for this age-old struggle. These waves of feminism certainly add new chapters to our history.