Women Want What Is Fair

Women Want What is Fair

Women have made a lot of progress within today’s society and have come very far in their fight against gender inequality, but many women fail to realise that there is still a problem. In the book, “What Women Want”, author Deborah L. Rhode argues throughout that women still fare far worse than men when it comes to issues of social-status, financial well-being, and physical safety. Rhode claims that it is hard to resolve these issues because not only do men fail to realise that there is still a serious problem, but even women are complacent with what has been accomplished so far. Therefor, many women make little to no effort towards developing solutions for the barriers to equal opportunity. Throughout each chapter of her novel, Rhode attempts to explain why this is the case for many reasons starting off with why so many women are reluctant to join the women’s movement despite the fact that they could be helping fight against the many challenges that women face today concerning sexual violence, reproductive rights and the disproportionate burdens that women carry in the home to name a few. Although what women want is only what is fair, they must be able to properly represent themselves and identify their issues in order to receive any real attention so that the necessary changes can be made.

Rhode found that women fail to identify as feminists even though most Americans agree with their basic principles, but their opinions of the movement are skewed because of how society has demonized feminism. “‘“Feminism” has become a term of opprobrium to the modern young woman. For the word suggests either the old school of fighting feminists who wore flat heels and had very little feminine charm, or the current species who antagonize men with their constant clamor about maiden names, equal rights, [and] women’s place in the world….’”

(qtd. in Rhode 10) Neither of which women would like to be associated with. Regardless of whether they agree with the views of feminists or not; many women just do not want to be labeled as feminists. “Women have two problems with the label. The first is that people don’t know what it means… The second is that people do know what it means.” (qtd. in Rhode 10) Meaning that people either do not understand that feminists are simply fighting for gender equality or that they believe they do know what feminists are fighting for but their ideas have been perverted by society so their understanding is most likely that feminism’s only purpose is to put men down in order to bring women up. Rhode appeals to logos through providing statistics from a survey of registered voters who support feminist goals but for the most part do not identify as feminists. “In a survey of registered voters, a majority thought that women are not treated equally in the workplace (63 percent) in politics, (63 percent), in the armed forces (55 percent),