By Madison Buffardi
Op-Ed Editor

People often assume that a feminist’s primary agenda is to convince schools to have lackadaisical dress codes and to hate men. The truth is, the goals of feminism reach far beyond something so small as a high school dress code. Though, allowing women to dress as they please and still be respected is important, there are other, greater things to be fought for. The act of denouncing feminism or claiming to “not need it” is blatantly ignoring horrible injustices happening to women daily. To denounce feminism is to choose to not support basic civil rights of all people.

In places like India, China, Pakistan and other similar locations “honor killings” are common – which is the act of murdering a woman to maintain the honor of one’s family. According to a Pakistani women’s rights group, more than 1,000 women die each year as a result of honor killings.

Though it does occur throughout the world another issue concerning women which is centered in South Asia are acid attacks. An acid attack, also called vitriolage, is when acid is thrown on a person in order to disfigure, torture, or kill them. These attacks happen to primarily women when it is felt they’re causing dishonor.

Female genital mutilation is another huge issue which exemplifies the separation between genders and highlights the mistreatment of women. Genital mutilation includes procedures that intentionally injury or alter a females genitalia for non-medical reasons. Genital mutilation effects women primarily between infancy and the age of 15, more than 125 million women alive today have been mutilated.

So, it’s simple to denounce feminism for women who are comfortable and safe in their day-to-day life. It’s easy to say that they “don’t need feminism” when they aren’t facing being mutilated or killed as a result of exercising your basic rights as a human being.

But, just because these things aren’t so prevalent in America, doesn’t mean we don’t need feminism in America – because unfortunately ignoring injustices doesn’t help anything. In America though, it’s important to remember that women aren’t being accurately represented.

Keep in mind that there are 318.9 million people in the United States, 157 million of those people being women. In the House of Representatives there are currently 362 men and 76 women and in the Senate, there are 17 women and 83 men. So, for a nation that is nearly half men and half women, our house and senate is over 80 percent male. Anyone who took a high school statistics class knows that 20 percent of a whole isn’t equal representation. Not to mention the 239 years we’ve gone without a female president.

Yes, women can vote. But due to ongoing underlying sexism in America women have yet to achieve equal representation in our government. Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, whether you believe birth control should be covered in health care or not, the voice that is speaking in government toward issues that concern primarily women is overwhelmingly male.

A statistic that is commonly discredited is that women make 77 cents to every dollar men make. The argument goes on to say that the 23-cent gender pay gap is simply the difference between the average earnings of all men and women working full-time. It does not account for differences in occupations, positions, education, job tenure, or hours worked per week.

That argument actually proves that there is a gap in pay based on gender. So it may be true that men and women can work the same job and make the same amount. The point is though, that women are less likely to be hired into certain fields or are wildly misrepresented in fields as a direct result of sexism in the work place. The idea that some jobs are more suited for men is sexist.

Another point often brought up by those that are against feminism is citing the fact that the statistic claiming that one in every five women will be sexually assaulted during their college career is “false”. This is true, if you’re saying that the statistic is under-reporting.

The statistic is based on a study done by the Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice in 2007. It was an anonymous online survey conducted at only two universities. It is correct to say that using only 2 universities will not create an accurate representation of assault victims, but saying that is over estimating victims is nothing but detrimental.

Given the sheer nature of the crime and its effects, victims will commonly not report being assaulted or raped, not to mention, some victims don’t even know that what has happened to them is considered assault. If the one in five women statistic is what bothers you, there are other statistics to consider.

According to RAINN – Rape, abusive and Incest National Network – 68 percent of sexual assault is not reported to police and 98 percent of rapists will never spend a day in jail. Approximately two thirds of sexually assaults are committed by someone known to the victim, which only makes reporting it, or even talking about it harder for the victim.

There is no benefit in claiming that the statistic is over-reporting the numbers. It’s detrimental, insensitive, and offensive to victims. It must be asked, what is the goal of such a claim? Is saying that the statistic is exaggerating the numbers a call to stop trying to prevent sexual assault? And even if the statistic was over reporting, which it isn’t, wouldn’t one in every 300 women still be one too many victims being raped? Claiming the statistic is false only amplifies the ignorance and desensitization toward sexual assault, and undoubtedly adds to the problem.

While one of the top goals of feminism is to empower women, it does not mean feminists view all women as weak and oppressed. Feminists are not aiming to make women stronger – women are already strong.
The goal is to encourage women to keep being strong until they make up half our government, until they can feel safe walking the streets at night, until they can report a crime to police and see justice, until they can see equal amounts of men and women in all jobs, and until people who want equality between genders aren’t seen as a bunch of promiscuous women who just want to #FreeTheNipple.

Being against equality for all people is nonsensical. It’s important to understand that someone can be a feminist and be a housewife, or want to dress conservatively, or be a man, or a number of other things. Victims of sexual assault are facing unimaginable hardships, and if we cannot at least empathize, we must not diminish their cases to a statistic. Victims should know their suffering is valid and real – regardless of if they’re one in every five or one in every 5,000.

The crucial point of this is that things are happening beyond minuscule unfairnesses of the privileged world we’re exposed to, and they should be acknowledged. It cannot be denied that women of the world are not treated equally to men, and many are being tortured or killed as a result of that.