6 Game-Changing Feminists On How The Movement Has Impacted Their Lives

"Feminism for me began in my grandma Shellie's kitchen in Dallas, Texas.

She, nor my aunts, described their conversations about the ways gender and race and class impacted their everyday as 'feminism' but those conversations were pivotal to how I saw the world and myself in it.

It was in my women's studies class as an undergrad where I was first introduced to Barbara Smith, bell hooks and Audre Lorde, whose words and works have emboldened me to live my life according to my own definitions and dreams.

Feminism pushed me to take the deeply personal and always political quest to be liberated in my body as a young trans woman writer of color in spite of systems built without care for my own survival."

"I think in the beginning feminism was a personal awakening.

While first-wave feminism focused on things like voting and property rights, modern feminism was sparked in large part by Betty Freidan’s groundbreaking book, The Feminine Mystique, which shook a lot of women out of their slumber. And then came the game-changers -- like Gloria Steinem’s eye-opening chronicle of going under cover as a Playboy Bunny, and showing the pain of those young women; while other women wrote articles and books about the second-class status they felt in both their homes and at work. All of this unleashed women across the country to begin revealing to their friends and neighbors their feelings of deep dissatisfaction.

Once women realized that this malaise was not personal to them, but in fact widespread, the movement was born. We knew then that we had to change the culture and the laws that had defined women as less than equal to men. Women on the Supreme Court. Women in Congress. Women as CEOs of major companies. Women in television news, more women than men graduating from college -- none of this would have been possible without the women’s movement.

And most important, young girls today are raised with the expectation that they are undeniably entitled to all of the freedoms enjoyed by men -- that gender equality is not a privilege, but a right. We always talk about leaving the world a better place for our children. The feminist movement has done that."

"Feminism changed my life by giving a name to the thoughts and feelings I'd already had.

It educated me on different perspectives, and made me feel okay for not fitting into the ideal that society projects onto girls and women."

"Feminism has helped me better express and stand up for myself and others.

I think many of today's feminists are working to be more intersectional and acknowledge that there are people from all walks of life who need feminism. I think a big part of that is due to social media and the ability for people to share their stories and expose more people to feminism."

"When I was growing up, I started to notice some subtle (and not so subtle) differences in how girls were treated in society.

Me and my friends were crushed by the weight of body image pressures, being judged left and right for our sexuality, shamed for having a period, and being sent the message that were meant to be homemakers and wives, not leaders and innovators. I knew it was wrong, but I felt powerless to speak up.

When feminism came into the picture, I felt validated in my observations and it encouraged me to use my voice to speak up. By speaking up, I fell into my career as a YouTuber and have been able to work with thousands of other young women across the globe.

Feminism is truly at the center of my journey through life."

"I didn’t grow up embracing the term 'feminist.'

I was fortunate to grow up in a household that never even thought to place restrictions on what I could achieve because I was a girl. I did know growing up that I wanted to work for social justice and equality around the world.
What I found as I made my way into the world of professional advocacy was that even among progressives, there were still often two sets of rules for women and men and that reality too often went unspoken.

I came to the feminist movement realizing that we as a progressive movement, as a country, and as a world will never achieve what we need to achieve unless women are empowered to make our own life decisions.

My embrace of feminism has allowed me to to reach goals that I didn’t think possible. The feminist way of thinking, and the community that supports feminism, pushes me and others to think of new heights. It’s allowed me to re-imagine the future because it reminds me of all that is left to achieve."