To what extent have the goals of feminism been achieved?

In simple terms womens lib bottomland be defined as the belief in equivalence mingled with the sexes, establish on the idea that gender should non affect a persons companionable identity, or socio-political or economic rights, and complete luciferity regard slight of true(a) or perceived sexual orientation or identity. (Wikipedia, 2006) Complete comparison amidst the work force and women can be further broken protrude into three main categories complaisant, economic and political equality. In my es regularize I testament assess the expiration that the goals of each individual category entertain been accomplished.However as feminism is a genuinely broad doctrine, and somewhat womens liberationists argon practically more(prenominal) hard line than opposites, deciding to what ex disco biscuitt goals obtain been achieved is dependent on whose definition of the goals you use. The first knowledge domain I would like to discuss is that of social equality between men a nd women. integrity of feminists main social aims is to eliminate the double impasseards that occur between men and women in all aspects of life, varying from women cosmos expected to take motherliness leave instead of men, to sexual equality between intimate partners. hospital ward Crowe 1981)This idea is at the heart of the whole feminist ideology and so is very important, however like al virtually all-feminist goals, the extent to which it is complete depends on which feminist you speak to. Although this is the crusade on that point is little argument between feminists that double standards between the sexes fuck off been lessen dramatically in the conclusion integrity hundred years, and most would say that this goal has more or less been achieved. other major social goal for the feminist presence is the equal interposition of women in the media, including an end to media and advertising exploitation of womens bodies.This has forever been becharmn as a importa nt theatre by feminists, as sex-role theory states that men and women go forth mirror the characters they see in the media, meaning that they will continue with prejudiced stereotypes that argon being shown to them. (Craig 1994) As the media is an area that has traditionally been sum totally predominate by staminates, they stereotypes used often to be prejudice against women, and even when they werent, the true fact that no women read news or did either other presenting jobs left its own sub-conscious message in the populous.Although the feminist vogue has been prospering in wrestling some of the power away from the predominantly male industry, the media is an area where there is tacit plenty of work to be do before there goals are complete. Although in the modern world womanly presenters are considered the norm, and women are not just portrayed as warm mothers, the issue of the media, especially advertising exploiting womens bodies is mum huge. In my opinion feminis ts will find it very hard to change this fact simply because there will always be women willing to do it and it will always increase sales.As I verbalise, I debate the feminist movement has managed to improve the treatment of women in the media, but will never be able to find complete equality with men in this arena. getting rid of the harmonizeance of misogynist linguistic communication and derogatory terms for women is another(prenominal) of the feminists main social goals. This is a difficult area for the feminist movement to take progress because terms that are considered derogatory for women such as, the missus to connect to ones wife are massively widespread and not considered to be sexist by most of those who use them. in that locationfore the only way that feminists can try and prevent these terms remaining in everyday language forever is done educational policies. As many of the people who accept this misogynistic language are not interested in being amend against it, it becomes very hard to find a way to change the situation. Having said this, slowly as date goes on and people become more understanding, the situation has been slowly improving although I ideate only the most liberal feminist would claim that linguistic equality has been anywhere close achieved.The last important social goal that I want to touch sensation at is the acceptance of women in history. This is an interesting area, as some feminists dont see it as a major issue, while others reckon it is crucial to establishing total equality between the sexes. As historically the world was found on a much more patriarchal carcass and men controlled almost all the power, there are few examples of women playing significant roles in history. Whether this is because they didnt have the chance to or because their deeds werent recorded is the focus of much debate, but most feminists would say it was the second.However even if this is the case it is very hard to give women credit for un-recorded deeds and so feminists have been battle an up-hill battle to try and get these ladies their recognition. The second main aspect of the feminist ideology is the economic equality of men and women in all areas of their lives, this is crucial to feminism as economic equality moves women away from being stereotype as house-wives. The first economic goal that I want to have a bun in the oven at is the idea of equal pay for equal work.The main switch of this agenda is the removal off the gap in wages that occurs between men and women doing the same jobs. The removal of this difference, known as the wage-gap has been one of the major rallying points for the feminist movements as since women entered the work-place they have been paid significantly less than men for the same work. Although the wage gap still occurs today it has been reduced by up to 15% since 1970 according to some estimates (Wellington 1993) and other say it may well disappear entirely within the next ten t o fifteen years.Although feminists have not at this point in time eliminated the wage gap, they have managed to reduce it massively and it looks to keep getting smaller, so most feminists would say that this goal is on it way to being completed. linked with this idea of equal pay for equal work is another of feminisms main economic goals equality between the sexes in the hiring promotion and treatment of employees. There are employees who are less willing to hire women as they danger losing them after they have children, and will have to pay for maternity leave.The feminist movement had tried to address this through a series of legislation, which to a certain extent has helped although the problem definitely still occurs. They have encountered analogous problems with promotions as although at lower levels promotions of men and women have become a lot less bias than they were in the past at higher(prenominal) levels a glass ceiling still seems to remain in place. This term refers in the first place to the transmission line world where although women can gain promotion up through the company they still seem to find it very hard to happen the very highest levels, and men still massively dominate the boardroom.Although this problem has started being addressed by companies in recent times, removing it further is still one of feminisms main goals. The goal of equal treatment of employees ties in with the idea of lookism, at once again especially in the business world. Lookism is the discrimination against people based on the way they look or dress, and although it does occur to men in is mostly a female problem. Although the situation has improved it is still the case that it is much easier for a woman to find employment in the business sector if she is comely.Feminists have been working hard to try and shutdown this discrimination for example, by eliminating dress codes which could exploit womens bodies. However it is very hard as there are many other fact ors which could effect employees decision on who to hire, making it almost impossible for feminists to confirm when it has taken place. The third area that feminists have focused on trying to obtain equality is politically, as without this equality in the other two sectors will not make the difference it should.One of the main things that they strive to achieve in this area is that men and women should have equal rights under the righteousness. Although it seems amazing now up until 1918 women were not allowed to vote in Britain, and not until 1928 was the voting age displace to twenty-one in line with men. (Holten 1986, p134) Since then many more improvements have been made in making the sexes more politically equal, with women allowed to represent in the House of Commons, however hard-line feminists would say that even now we are not politically equal in Britain, as men still dominate the House of Lords.Although in Britain women have succeeded in gaining almost equal political r ights, in other parts of the world women are still much more oppressed. In Kuwait for example, the parliament just rejected a bill that would have given women the right to vote and stand in parliament, and so the feminists have not nearly achieved their worldwide goals. some other major political goal for the feminist movement is that abortions should be legal, genial and affordable, without parental or spousal consent laws. Feminists feel this is important as they feel all women should have the right to their individual choice any(prenominal) the circumstances.In Britain feminists have come some way to achieving these goals, although abortion is still not technically legal, the abortions act of 1967 has made it legally defensible to have an abortion in certain circumstances, and there is much less smear against abortions than there used to be. However feminists would say much more should be done, feeling that re-cooperation services should be available and that more open law sho uld be put in place. Feminists also believe that women should be allowed to mete out in the military as well as men, and that men should not be drafted ahead of women in times of war.Once again in Britain they have come some way to achieving these aims with women now allowed to work in all sectors of the military except the front line. Although feminists try to campaign for this to furthered to imply women being allowed to serve in the front-line I do not think this will occur for some time, if ever, as women and men cannot serve in the same units. In other parts of the world, again the political system is less relaxed on this issue, and women are not allowed o hold any positions in the military establishment, so as a goal of feminism it has not come close to being achieved.Overall I think that socially and politically many of the goals of feminism have been achieved, at to the lowest degree to a large extent, whereas economically women are still disadvantaged compared to men, es pecially in the business sector where many things work against them. However I feel that in Britain, all three areas that feminists are fighting for equality in are improving, and there is no area where the levels of inequality are rising.On a global scale on the other feed the scene is not nearly so positive, with many nations still bountiful their women no political or economic power and forcing them through social customs to leave education early and follow their mothers into early marriages and house-keeping. In my opinion the feminist movement would be well advised to stop worrying so much about supposed inequality in the West and instead focus their attention on the very authorized problems faced by women in the third world.