Women have been resigned to the sole roles of mothers and homemakers in Western society for thousands of years. A precedent had been set early on that women were nothing more than just their appearances and capabilities to give birth. Women have fought for centuries for the simple rights that their male counterparts took for granted.
Because of this, Feminism is still just as important for modern-day women as it was for past women.
Violence against women is not uncommon in our country. Many women have stories about the unsafety of walking alone at night or having to keep their drinks covered at events. Often, the reason for these fears is the threat of rape or sexual assault.
According to the Nation Domestic Violence Hotline’s statistics, nearly one in five women have been raped in their lifetime.
Yet in other countries, it can be much worse for women and girls.
The United Nations article “Child and forced marriage, including in humanitarian settings,” “Worldwide, more than 650 million women alive today were married as children. Every year, at least 12 million girls are married before they reach the age of 18. This is 28 girls every minute.”
Little girls are being forced to marry before they are even 18 years old. This traps these girls into a life that they do not want. While many little girls in the United States question which doll they want for their birthday, girls in other countries may be having to decide the name of their soon-to-be child.
Women’s rights are still an issue in America, though. According to the National Women’s History Alliance’s website, it took until 2016 for the Survivors’ Bill of Rights to be amended into the federal criminal code.
They stated, “The Survivors’ Bill of Rights Act amends the federal criminal code to establish statutory rights for sexual assault survivors, including the right to not be prevented from receiving a forensic medical examination and not be charged for an examination, have a sexual assault evidence collection kit preserved, be notified prior to destruction of a rape kit, and be informed of these rights and policies.”

Rape and sexual assault are some of the most violent and selfish acts that can be committed and are most often done to women all over the world. Even if a woman’s body is used nonconsensually, she cannot receive proper healthcare if she becomes pregnant.
Due to the overturning of Roe V. Wade, many women do not even have access to abortion because of their state’s legislation. Even in states where they claim that women who have been victims of rape or incest can still receive abortions, this will be a very low percentage of women who can.
The Central MN Sexual Assault Center stated on its website, “Factoring in unreported rapes, only about 6% of rapists ever serve a day in jail.”
This leaves a large percentage of women who will never receive justice, and many of them will be impregnated.
Some doctors will be afraid of giving a rape victim an abortion because if a judge determines that the woman had not been assaulted, they can be charged with a felony for providing healthcare.
Even some life-saving procedures can be denied for a woman by doctors due to the threat of prison time.
The article “Amber Thurman First Named ‘Preventable’ Abortion Death Since Ban,” written by Khaleda Rahman, stated that 28-year-old Amber Nicole Thurman passed away in August of 2022 during an emergency surgery to remove fetal tissue from her body after she took an abortion pill.
The hospital waited 17 hours since Thurman arrived because even just the removal of the fetal tissue is a felony charge in Georgia. Georgia’s maternal mortality review committee concluded that there was a good chance that Thurman could have survived if she received treatment sooner.
It is 2024 and in America, a woman can be denied life-saving procedures.
Feminism is still relevant today. Unfortunately, society does not view women as equal to men, and this means that feminism is essential for the rights of women and girls all around the world. The fight is not over. Women and men need to stand up and protest, fight not just for their mothers or wives but for the future generations of girls who will grow up in this society.