The Next Wave of Feminism: Women in Positions of Power

 What do you imagine the next wave of feminism will look like?

    I think that this prompt can be answered in a plethora of different ways as feminism seems to constantly be evolving and changing. In addition, there is still an abundance of issues regarding gender inequality that vary in emphasis with feminists all around the world. One could argue that the problems that feminists protested against, even from earlier waves of feminism, are still not addressed and resolved now which in turn, could very likely become the focus of the next wave of feminism. 

    As I imagine it, I believe that women in the workplace will become a very important focus of the next wave of feminism. While this has definitely been an issue that has been raised in past waves of feminism, I think this issue is once again being brought to light in modern times. The discussion of women in the workplace was especially emphasized around World War I and II, where men were being drafted into the military and thus women had to fill men's everyday workplace roles. Nevertheless, after men came back from war, many women returned to their positions as housewives and caretakers. To my knowledge, there was some backlash and protest to allow more women into the workforce. However, it wasn't until quite a while later with the rise of less traditional views and gender roles that women really infiltrated the workplace. Going back to the different waves of feminism, I think that the next wave of feminism will differ than previous ones because it will have more of a focus on women in higher positions, areas like STEM, and of power, as opposed to simply breaking past those classic societal gender roles and getting women to pursue careers. 

    I place emphasis on fighting for women in positions of power in the next wave of feminism because it is a well-known fact that there is a significantly less number of women in high-up positions as opposed to men. In addition, women often earn less than their male counterparts, regardless of their actual talent or results. Lastly, as was brought up in class discussion today after taking the implicit bias test, society has influenced us to associate STEM fields with men and humanities with women, often pushing out young girls from exploring these subjects and creating a bottleneck which results in largely men taking over these STEM fields. Even now though, we see many organizations and a push to place women in more positions of power and in "male-dominated' fields. I think that this push will continue to grow, especially with the possibility of new female presidential candidates in the 2024 election, inspiring many more young girls and feminists to push for women in positions of power.