Feminism is a political movement that advocates for the equal rights and autonomy of women and girls. This movement started over 150 years ago. Back then, women started resisting being subordinated to men in all aspects of life and letting men make decisions on their behalf. For example, women did not have the right to vote or to study. The husband was allowed to hit his wife if he was dissatisfied with her. Women were also not allowed to go to work if their husbands did not allow it. Without a husband, however, women could hardly survive at all. Such a life was not envisaged for them in the society back then, unless they chose to be nuns. On top of that, women were barely protected again sexual assault. Women and girls were second-class people; their opinions counted much less than men’s opinions and they were treated as if they were worth less.
The women’s feminist movement was able to change many things. Nowadays, in our society, it is hard to believe that women once needed to fight for the right to vote or to accept a job. Yet there is still much inequality. It is just not as easy to see it as in the past: At first glance, women have the same rights as men, and it is said that they can achieve anything if they want to and if they make the effort to do it.
But:
Girls today are subject to more rules than boys - directly or indirectly. For example, that they should be pretty and slim, but shouldn’t wear short skirts. Girls often receive less pocket money than boys and have to help much more with the household chores. All of this can make girls’ lives quite difficult. On average, women also have better results at school and university, but earn a lower salary than their male coworkers doing the same work. Everywhere where important decisions are made concerning everybody – fox example, in politics or in the top levels of companies - there are far fewer women than men. Even today, women and girls still have to listen to sexist remarks or jokes. They are degraded, sexually harassed or even experience violent acts from men. For all these reasons, it is evident that there are still many improvements that need to be made, and that is why Feminism is still important today.
The organization run by www.fem-onlineberatung.de is called “Feminist Girls’ Work” (from German „Feministische Mädchenarbeit e. V.“) because we, as a feminist institution (feminist is the adjective to Feminism), clearly oppose to these inequalities and want to support you in this.