After reading “Feminist Politics Where We Stand” Bell describes feminism as “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression”. I agree with Bell’s definition of feminism because she explains that the goal of Feminism is to end gender based oppression and discrimination. Feminism is a cultural movement that challenges sexism and empowers gender equality. My definition of feminism is similar to Bell’s meaning because I believe that everyone should be treated fairly regardless of your skin and gender. Both sexes should be treated fairly regardless of their gender and in order to change this we must fight for equality. Feminism should be more supported by people because it promotes equality for everyone. 

I first heard about the word feminism in school when learning about women in history trying to end sexism. In history class the topic of feminism was in 1848 property rights and rights for women to vote. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were both activist leaders of the women’s right movement in the United States. Their goal was to achieve voting rights for women as a congressional amendment to the constitution. 

What influenced women’s right movement was socialism, abolitionism, and enlightenment. Women were denied legal rights to vote, keep wages, have custody of their child, and own property. Men were looked upon while women were looked down as lacking mental capacity, being weak, and should only be a servant to their husbands. During the Industrial Revolution women were taken advantage of because they were paid one third half of a man’s salary when completing the same job. This reflects on what’s happening today; many women are still receiving lower pay than men. Women lives were unfairly constricted which led women to fight for their rights to live and work as equals. Both of these women gathered people from all over the world to help fight for equal rights and challenge gender-based oppression. 

In “Sex and Gender 101” by Kyl Myers taught me a lot about gender and sex. From reading the article I learned that gender could be broken down into three categories: “gender assignment, gender identity, and gender expression”. Before reading this article I believed that gender was just a characteristic of women and male but reading the text gave me a better understanding of gender. It went more in depth with how a person “gender expression can change over time”. People can identify as whatever they want to and choose their own adventures.