I've also noticed that something that has been failed to mention is that there are different types of feminism. A common misconception that is held is the all feminist fall into a single category and are all women with extremist views when in actual fact there is a diverse multitude of feminists.
1) Black feminism is a school of thought which argues that sexism, class oppression, gender identity and racism are inextricably bound together. The way these concepts relate to each other is called intersectionality. The term intersectionality theory was first coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989.
they also argue that the sexism experienced by women in 3rd world countries are worse than there are in 1st world countries. they argue this is because of practices such as female genital mutilation in parts of Africa and Asia as well as restricting laws such as women not being able to drive in parts of Asia.
2) radical feminist is a perspective within feminist that calls for a reordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts. they seek to abolish patriarchy by challenging existing social norms and institutions, rather than through a purely political process.
these are the feminist you are most likely are talking about. they do not tend to be concerned with issues such as the pay gap or maternity leave but are interested in social norms and how women are treated on a daily basis. in the past they have argued about the changing of the English language and words such as 'history' to 'herstory', one of the biggest radical speakers Ann Oakley has often advised all women to engage in homosexual relationships and to ship men and women to separate countries.
however, this is one strand of feminism, and though their views can be argued as extreme and in some cases stupid, they should not be confused as the forefront of feminism neither should their views be believed to be held by all feminists.
3) there are also liberal feminist who agree that women have come a long way so far but argue that there are still things that need to be sorted out. whilst some people may argue that women are equal to men in the western world some of the comments that have been made on this thread show differently.
A common misconception held by people is that the gender a person is born into has any sort of correlation with their sex.
According to the World Health Organization, "Sex refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women. Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women."
this is evident from the amount of people who believe that they were born into the wrong body i.e. transgender as well as the amount of people who identify as androgynous.
therefore until people can look at another person and see not see their gender but judge them on nothing but their merits, we will always need feminism.
the social issues that liberal feminist are concerned with include
* sexual harassment
* unequal job opportunities/ pay
* the belief that women should be more likely to get custody reinforcing the belief that its a women job to look after kids
* differential treatment within school that lead to self fulfillment
* the belief that doing something 'like a girl' is an insult
* women being insulted for the clothing is its 'too scantly' whereas men can walk around shirtless in the summer
and so much more
4) finally, there are Marxist feminist who hold the belief that upper class men are to blame for the patriarchy that exist within society. they have oftehn argued that they raise future worker (i.e. kids) without payment therefore providing free labour. they also argue that by given men sexual pleasure they are restoring them to their full capacity to go back to work and work harder than they would have had they not had their sexual desires met, again without payment. and they argue that men should be stripped of their financial power in order to make society equal.
All in all, there are a variety of different feminists who stand for a variety of different things. i have yet to cover all the feminist that they are but as you can see they are not all fighting for the same things and some of the things they are asking for are quiet reasonable.