Are you a feminist? The not-so-feminist feminist.

Until this week, I would not have described myself as a feminist. I joke that I'm a stereotypical woman because I can't park, cook dinner, and clean the house. I enjoy the traditional protocol of dating and find chivalry extremely romantic. Nevertheless I am at University. I was able to study sciences and maths at school  until I was 18, and now study history. Moreover, I can vote, and I can wear trousers. By denying that I am a feminist, surely I am disregarding those women before me that put their lives at risk to enable me with the means to get an education? Surely I would be insulting my mum who made was able to go extremely far in a multinational company?

Suddenly it has just dawned on me that feminism is not about refusing to shave your armpits. I am skeptical of feminist histories because in some histories there are extremely limited accounts of women because their traditional gender roles restricted them from having any real influence in say, medieval political history. Moreover in many historical cultures women play a significant part in the workforce and surely feminist histories would fail to acknowledge the importance of men in these cultures? I don't know.
I now realize though as I am approaching graduation, that feminism is important to me. I want to be able to succeed in a career without needing to worry that I will hit a glass -roof and be unable to fly higher, just because of my gender. There are iconic women before us that demonstrated that gender shouldn't be a hindrance - look it Joan of Arc, Isabella Bird and Margaret Thatcher. However, we learn all too frequently that these women succeeded because of their ability to appear masculine, which is extremely worrying.

Yes, I am extremely ambitious, and I know that with the right work, I can reach my goals - if my gender doesn't prevent me. I say that I won't let my gender hinder me, but I still don't walk by myself after 10 o'clock at night by myself, I lock my car when I drive at night and I struggle at uni when men disregard what I say because I am a girl, so therefore my opinion doesn't count.

Feminism is a shady word. Many influential 'role models' such as Beyonce won't say they are feminists because they don't want to be blackened with such a label. I can see why, it's only just dawning on me that if I want to support my gender I don't actually have to suddenly change my image.

We are entrenched in a society embedded with traditional values that are struggling to adapt in such an evolving society. Our society is changing faster that it has ever changed before - I'm only 20 and I can remember when my family first got the internet.

Don't let the label feminism stop you from pursuing who you want to be. Let feminism help you to succeed in your career and not fear the walk home from the bus stop at night. I will keep you updates as I learn more about it!
All these images are from https://www.facebook.com/YorkNeedsFeminism?fref=ts