IS FEMINISM THE SAME AS BEING EQUAL?
The word feminism has been misinterpreted several times. There are also misandrists camouflaging themselves as feminists. So the questions are, is feminism the same as being equal? and what does feminism mean? I will explain in this article.
WHAT DOES FEMINISM MEAN ?
Feminism is advocating for the disproportion of women’s rights. This means there should be equality in the rights given to women. However, equality does not mean sameness and equal. Equality and equal are two different words with different meanings. Equality is about fighting for “human rights”, which boils down to women’s rights in feminism. Although sometimes, the word equality is taken out of context. Therefore I will define what it means.
EQUALITY DOES NOT EQUAL SAMENESS
Equality in feminism means the equal right to live, choose, and access resources given to women, to fulfil their human potential. To understand better, look at equality this way. There are different backgrounds, gender, race, values and beliefs. Such as, male and female, Christian and Muslim, and black and white. etc. But does it makes us the same? No, it does not. This is where diversity comes into play. However, irrespective of these differences, everyone should enjoy equality. With this understanding of equality, you can see that it does not equal sameness. It also believed that feminism should be about equity and not equality. This is a misconception and for this reason, I will explain what equity means.
THE DIFEERENCE BETWEEN EQUITY AND EQUALITY
Equity means fairness, and fairness is about balancing the number of resources provided based on individual needs. It is ensuring that a group of people are not getting more of what they already have at the expense of others. Equality in feminism is the comparison of the resources provided between the male and the female gender whereas equity is the balance of the number of resources provided either between the same or the opposite gender. I am a feminist and I don’t feel the need to be the same as a man. As a queen who owns her crown and her power, I will never compete with a king who owns his crown too. We are both unique in our different ways.
Reference
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315222981-11-19/coaching-diversity-ho-law
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