Do You Consider Yourself a Feminist? Why or Why Not?

This past week I had several different students come to my classes to conduct surveys for their psychology final. I decided to conduct a survey of my own. I handed out a sheet of paper to 10 random boys and 10 random girls in my dorm. The paper contained the questions: Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why or why not?

To say I was surprised with my results is the understatement of the year.

According to the Huffington Post, 1 out of 5 Americans call themselves feminists. Why is this number so low? In this same survey, 92% of those polled believe in equality of the sexes. But that is the exact definition of feminism. So why do so few people claim it?

In my poll, 1 out of 10 boys identified as feminist. I was surprised that only 5 out of 10 girls identified as feminist. 

The explanations were my favorite part of this survey.

 

“I’m not a feminist because I’m not a female” was the typical response I got from guys in varying terms. News flash: FEMINISM BENEFITS MALES TOO.  The Good Men Project identifies five ways feminism helps men. 

In addition to these reasons, equal rights of the sexes benefits the entire economy. Think about it this way. Both girls and boys go to college, stay up long hours, and study hard for a degree. Both girls and boys have the same job opportunity after graduation, but boys get paid more. If equal pay was a real thing, the economy would thrive. If women were making more money, then they would spend more money. Feminism is the missing link in a capitalist society.  

The one response by a girl that stood out to me the most was “I’m not a feminist because it doesn’t apply to me. I am not being oppressed.” I’m glad that she doesn’t feel oppressed, but many other people do. If only 5 out of 10 girls want to stand up to the double standards in our society, how can we expect boys to the same? Gender equality is everybody’s problem; male and female.