What is feminism?

By Kavya Nanda

Feminism is quite a sensitive topic to talk about in today’s world. Basically, feminism is the belief that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men in the society. It’s about respecting diverse women’s experience, identities, knowledge and strength, striving to empower them to realise their full rights. But in this realisation process, the term feminism is misunderstood in some places as gender superiority than gender equality.

Feminism was introduced to minimise gender disparity in many parts of the society, which means providing equality to both women and men.

The idea of feminism has often been  criticised by many in society including women themselves. Still, in a country like India with diverse culture, it took people a lot of time to accept and understand the need and significance of feminism.

Feminism is about understanding the concept of individuality which is sometimes misused by many. Where legal and political equality is clearly defined and measurable, social equality is murky and complicated.

And hence, it’s imperative now to confront as well as encourage transformation to the age-old belief system, irrational assumptions, thereby convincing people to accept social equality.

Hence, educating people about such sensitive issues is itself an important issue and making them aware of their rights is necessary. It is very important for society to learn the real meaning of feminism and start treating women and men equally in all spheres of life. As feminism is defined, ‘It is about gender equality, not gender superiority’.