How has feminism helped you?

As a male, I would say that feminism has made women a whole lot more interesting than in my parents’ generation.

By encouraging women to think for themselves and not be tied to the home full time, it has allowed many women to get closer to reaching their potential.

Three of my supervisors are women. Two are terrific. I actually interviewed and was involved with the hiring process with one of them and I was grateful that she took the job as my boss because I didn’t want to do it.

I was able to pursue a higher education in a technical field and am now a software engineer. I have always loved learning, this mind wasn’t built to stay at home.

Its opened up my mind to a lot of gender issues, I would be otherwise unaware of. Such as the gender pay wage gap.

@Mariah fuck yeah sister!

I made the mistake of identifying myself as a feminist and got called a “hate group member” which is why I asked the question. These responses are making me feel better, especially the ones from the men here. Thanks guys.

When I started working I was making only $65 dollars a week.

I can vote in elections.
I have been able to access education.
I have a job that would not been accessible to me not so many years ago.
We have access to child care.
There are more women (not enough) in government.
In theory I cannot be discriminated against because I’m a woman (in theory!)
We still have a long way to go.

I have the freedom to be a stay at home dad oneday.

Feminism gave new attention to the LGBT-rights movement. I can get married, because feminism drew attention to inequality.

Without feminism I wouldn’t be here on Fluther saying what’s in my mind, or wouldn’t exist in the first place.

I have zero problems with the feminists of days gone by because it’s done a lot of good but this third wave shit… time to hang up the idea that it’s still a movement or even feminism. To some it’s a sacred cow but not me. There is no central leadership and no real stated goals that are universal and well understood, it’s whatever anyone proclaiming they are a feminist want it to be. That’s how the small percentage of angry people fuck everything up for the rest of you who just want a better life for yourself and others.

Come to think of it, I benefitted considerably, starting with the fact that some spectacular women had no reservations about asking me out.

You guys fucking rock.

I can pursue any job or any education that interests me. I can vote. I can divorce my husband if I feel like it. I’m protected by laws. I’m not considered the property of my husband.

My mom was stuck in a abusive relationship. It ended badly.

My sister was stuck in a abusive relationship. She told her husband to fuck off and moved her three kids and is now in Grad school.

I would also like to add that one night in Elk Grove CA shit went down. My dad was a mechanical engineer for Kingsford (think BBQ) and made buckets of cash.

Dad is drunk and freaked out. Like every other night. Put a chisel through the tv and hit my mom and sister a few times. Cops were called and when they came they said that maybe dad wouldn’t be so pissed if the house was cleaner. And then they left.

That would be around 1985.

It’s opened so many doors, I have a female chauffeur

That would be chauffeuse then.

Lady driver is taking a risk, but i’m prepared for that largely because she has great tits & legs

I’m not sure it helped me that much. I have worked all my life, mostly in male-dominated jobs, looked after family members financially and also at times landed up with most of the housework. I think it was a male plot to get us to do everything and not feel guilty. ;)

It has helped me in that it has reinforced my understanding that “isms” of all sort serve only to divide and hamper progress for humanity as a whole.

^^yessir!

@SecondHandStoke I don’t know about “only.” Seems like they’ve done some good too, like, I don’t know, given women the right to vote.

We can’t (overtly) be paid less than a man doing the same job. In reality, this can still happen.
In many places, I can have an abortion if I need to.
Made it possible for women to sit on juries.
Lobbied for birth control to be available for women.
Protested against rape culture and victim blaming.

^^ I should have been more clear.

I was speaking if feminism today.

Apologies.

So you do not believe that women as a whole face any kind of discrimination or danger beyond what men face, today, @SecondHandStoke? Feminism has done its job and should just go away now?

@Mariah what was it like for you as a girl in an engineering program? I went to a polytechnic school with a male-to-female ratio of about 55:45, but even there, there weren’t a lot of girls in the engineering schools. And the one or two engineers I tried dating kind of treated me like an alien.

Honestly I faced a LOT more sexism in high school. The ratio overall at my college was about 65–35 and in my program specifically it was about 85–15. I was treated mostly as an equal though I found that “geek culture” was very strong and I was not necessarily invited into it right off the bat. I felt disadvantaged in computer science as nobody had thought to introduce me to it before college, whereas many of the men had been programming since they were children. I went on a lot of dates, some of which were incredibly awkward. I was only single for a few weeks of my college career. I had a load of excellent guy friends and a few great women friends. The school paid to send me to the Grace Hopper convention for women in computer science one year. I got huge scholarships and it was easy to get interviews – impossible to say how much of this was merit and how much was affirmative action – I was a very good student.

I should have said the female to male ratio was 55:45, not the other way around. We had more girls than boys!

Oh lovely!