First of all I have to give a nod to swinglow28 for his excellent description of feminism, and thanks to Bbucko for putting feminism in the context of other liberations movements.
...Many assume that because women have the right to vote, hold office and other fundamental rights (mainly only in the "Western, industrialized" world) that their is nothing left to fight for...
^^^
Thanks to burncollector for explaining why this isn't true.
I studied feminist theory in college and grad school. I wasn't a Women's Studies major or minor, and I don't claim to be an expert, but I took a couple of classes, and I did a lot of research into eco-feminism while working on my Master's thesis.
I believe in the equality of women, but these days most people do (or at least they think that they do). Our society is no longer debating whether women should be able to vote, or go to college, or have careers. Sure, there are still a few people left who believe that women should stay at home and be wives and mothers, and that men should be the breadwinners and the head of the family, but they are a dying breed. (I hope.) But there's still a long way to go, as burncollector explained better than I ever could.
As far as I can tell, feminism is no longer focused on obtaining equal rights, or equal pay. While I won't go as far to say that those battles are over, the goal of feminism seems to create far deeper and subtler changes in our society, and in the human race itself--ours ways of thinking, of being in the world, of relating to each other, how we related to the planet and nature itself.
Women are still disrepected and objectified by men. It's so pervasive in our society it's often hard to see. Women themselves often don't notice it, because they've grown up with it their whole lives and have been socialized to certain roles and behaviors. One could argue that women's interests in things such as clothes, shoes, make-up, and fashion, etc. are not natural to them, but are instead learned (beginning at a frightenly early age) as ways to please men. In a much more general sense, women have learned that their role, their purpose, is to please men, to be appealing to men, to be supportive of men.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Women are oppressed in thousands of subtle ways.
Giving women equal opportunities for an education and a career does not the fundamental, underlying dynamic of our society. Women exist for men, not for themselves.
Feminists contend that our culture is not healthy. It's competetive, aggressive, and plagued by violence. It's not ecologically sound or sustainable. People are overworked, lonely, dissatisfied, depressed, emotionally stunted, and spiritually empty. This is a world created by men. Offering women "equality" in this world is not true equality at all.
For women to have equality, our civilization must be deconstructed and rebuilt.
Feminism is working towards transforming society into something more caring, nurturing, supportive, non-violent, and non-destructive. They are working towards a world in which people recognize their interdependence, cooperation replaces competition, and technology and economics are sustainable, having little or no impact on the environment.
As a gay man who felt more than a little oppressed by straight men--by all the jocks and bullies and frat boys, by all the cops and priests and politicians, by all the "good old boys" and so on, feminist theory appealed to me. It resonated with me. I embraced it.
But my attempts to participate in feminist discourse were more than a little unsuccessful. It wasn't that my thoughts and ideas were rejected by feminist women. I never got that far. I wasn't welcome in the discussion. The feminist women I encountered didn't want me there. This puzzled me. I tried to present myself as a friend and ally. "We never asked you to be," they said. The harder I tried, the uglier things got, the more I seemed to offend them. I was essentially told that men had too much power for too long, that my belief that men should be allowed participate, to be heard, even to ask questions was rooted in my patriarchal ways of thinking, that men had been talking too long and that we needed to give up our "unearned cultural privileges" and sit down, shut up, and listen. Or better yet, just go away and give women their space.
I find that if you question this premise, feminist women typically say, "you just don't get it." I am not sure that they are right, but I'm not sure that they are wrong, either. As a gay man, I know an awful lot of straight people who "just don't get it," so I can't discount the possibility that my socialization as male both prevents me from knowing what women know, and from understanding things from their perspective.
I still believe in feminist ideals. I'm all for transforming our society into something better, healthier, and more sustainable. But I worry that feminism is held back by a sort of victim mentality (while recognizing that women have been victimized), and that they go too far in painting men as evil oppressors (while recognizing that women have been oppressed by men).
I once called myself a feminist, but I hesitate to do so anymore. I remain sympathetic to feminism, but I'm also frustrated by it.
