What Does The Word 'Feminist' Actually Mean And What Is Its Origin ?

A feminist is a person of either sex who supports the rights of women. The term is from Betty Friedan's late-1950s "The Feminine Mystique," which became a rallying point for younger activists, notably Gloria Steinem and Susan Sontag.

Early feminists questioned the traditional role for women as wife, mother, and homemaker. Women were encouraged to develop their own careers outside the home, demand that their male partners share child-rearing and household duties, and maintain separate finances.

Feminists sought an end to job and pay discrimination based on gender; to be able to step down off the "pedestal" of being idealized, helpless creatures; and to be thought of as intellectual equals instead of as sex symbols.Feminists sought to prove that women can exist separately from men, and that marriage is not the ideal state of existence. Feminists also proved that raising children did not necessarily have to involve a male partner.

A huge, oft-overlooked boost for women's equality and independence was the ability to control one's reproduction via birth control. Freedom from constant childbearing is a radical concept with profound social implications. We tend to forget how very recent that idea is in the western world.Feminism also involved the gay-rights movements of the 1960s and '70s. Lesbians demanded equal treatment under the law and an end to social stigmatization.