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February 5, 2022
The gist:
Donna Dasko, Senator, former pollster and co-founder of Equal Voice, an NGO that advocates for more women in elected politics, polls for today’s percentage of feminists.
The gist:
In Donns Dsko’s Opinion piece, she claims that feminism is indeed in the mainstream from her October 2021 polling that carried out with the Environics Institute in Canada:
- 57 per cent of the women polled identified themselves as feminists, as did 40 per cent of the men.
- Based on my polling more than two decades ago, the number of women identifying as feminists has increased in every age group, especially women aged 18 to 24.
- In 2001, 36 per cent of young women considered themselves to be a feminist; that number has doubled to 70 per cent in my most recent poll.
- A total of 60 per cent of racialized [sic] women identified as feminists, as did a majority of women in every region of the country.
- Among men, 47 per cent of those aged 25 to 34 were self-described feminists.
Although these numbers are from north of the border…she has some ideas on what is driving the change, and what we can loook to here in the U.S.
- Gender-equality values have been embedded in our laws and constitution for decades, and in my estimation have clearly permeated our culture as well.
- Note the many companies using the theme of female empowerment to sell consumer products (Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign springs to mind)…Still, these developments rarely challenge the status quo.
The most likely driving force behind feminism today is:
- the continuing strength of an organized and intersectional women’s movement that continues to bring uncomfortable and necessary issues to the forefront of our cultural conversations.
- Feminism is also increasingly being adopted by Western governments wanting to take a more activist approach to gender equality. Sweden adopted a feminist foreign policy in 2014, followed by France, Luxembourg and Mexico.
Connect with the Opinion piece here.
