Abby Hildebrand

AMST 198
Free Write
February 8, 2010

Feminism is the belief that women and men should be treated with equal respect, rights,
and protection under the law. Feminists act to support the goals of equality between the
sexes, both on the small scale of everyday interactions and on the larger scale of
legislation, for example. There are different branches of feminism but to me, it is mainly
the idea that women should be treated as human beings, in the same way that men are
treated. Both women and men can be feminists; yet, many people would argue that it
benefits women more to be invested in feminism.

Voting rights, the Equal Pay Act, as well as the sexual liberation movement, have all
been catalyzed by feminism. Title IX has also been an important change affecting
education and athletics. However much progress has occurred, there seems to be a cycle
of gains and losses, and justifications for inequality seem to repeat for different aspects of
society. The idea that women would become infertile if they rode a bicycle was
commonplace a century ago, yet now this idea seems ridiculous, in the same way that
people in the 1980s claimed that a career can make a woman barren—it now seems
ridiculous (or at least to most people it should), but recent articles have been published
which reiterate the idea that women’s unhappiness is rooted in their liberation, and that
the true reason for women’s unhappiness is trying to do it all. (see
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/opinion/26douthat.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=unhappy
%20woman&st=cse)

Most of what I know about feminism I learned through school, sports, and my family.
Most recently, I took Athletics and Gender and Sociology of Gender last semester, both
of which touched upon feminism and differences between men and women in various
aspects of society. Sports have been very central to my understanding of feminism
because I’ve always seen them as an equalizer. Our generation has been lucky enough to
grow up in a time where we had female athletes as role models and could participate in
sports without many of the terrible consequences that past generations faced. While
inequalities in athletics remains a problem, and many girls do face criticism for playing
more typically male dominated sports (e.g. baseball), sports are a way that women can
show that they have the skills, independence, and strength to be considered equal to men.
My mother and grandmother have always been working and independent, and instilled
those values in me. My great grandmother on my mom’s side went to college and worked
before she was married, and my grandmother has always encouraged me to do the same.