Personal beliefs about the feminism movement.

I'm reaching a stage in my life where gender reification and equal rights are beginning to impact me directly and I am forced to reevaluate how I fit to the movement, what I support, and how my future is going to be impacted due to gender stratification.

Preceding me women have paved the way for other females to fearlessly enter the workforce, and have instilled in my generation the notion that it is ok to fight for equality and rights. Even more so, I wonder how women feel about women who do not take advantage of those rights. My mother left a marginal job after my sister and I were born to take care of us. She re-entered the workforce with a crippled career, but felt that the sacrifice was worth it. No one really questioned her, she wasn't on the fast track to super success, and society generally accepted that the benefits outweighed the costs.

My sister is a different story. She is most definitely too smart and talented to be a member of my gene pool. She is currently a senior at Duke University with a 3.9 QCA on a pre-med track. She is also engaged to be married in May and is not planning on entering medical school, something she's been working toward since junior high. Her only reason for making this decision is that she'd rather not put her family on hold for the sake of her career. She has already encountered a lot of backlash.

That's my main problem with the "feminist movement." Now when men stay home they're glorified as breaking stereotypes, but when women do it we're told that we're succumbing to them. Personally, I think I would do the same thing my sister did if I were in the same situation. Family is extremely important to me and I hold it in higher esteem than my career (even though I'm spending lots of money and 4 years at a university to help me out with a career). When I voice that opinion girls see me as unfortunately traditional, a victim of society's expectations. I am definitely not a fan of that. I see equality is an asset, not so women would be forced to pursue a career, but so they could have that choice.

Learn more about this author, A. South.
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