By:
Chuks Njoku

The fight for women on the basis of gender inequality is a global phenomenon. The last two centuries have witnessed three waves of feminism. The first wave during the 19th Century was deeply rooted to social reform among sexes; especially in prostitution and sexual morality. Feminists like Josephine Butler, Harriet Martream, etc campaigned against women's alienation on the right to take up relevant political and religious positions, including the right to own properties.

Subsequently, it tilted into a revolutionary trend. This trend abhorred the patriarchal system; which was labelled capitalistic and exploitative. It shouldered the fight against unequal exploitation of women's labour, gender jobs and equality between men and women.

The social system of the human race by default traditionally placed side by side jobs for the two genders. The social system exists to make us believe that men are doctors and women, nurses; men are Engineers, while women are teachers; men are pilots while women are air hostess. At schools, job intakes of teachers are predominantly females. Also girls are aligned to take up courses that are feminine like literature, Home Economics, and clerical studies while their male counterparts take up masculine courses like Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, etc.

However, In the same direction, differences in jobs and qualification shows that women have done greatly in Military, medicine, politics, sports, journalism/media, music and a few in Engineering. In the words of Late President John Kennedy in 1961, "it is in the national interest to promote the economy, security and national defence through the most efficient and effective utilization of the skills of all persons." The implication is that the human race regardless of gender is relevant. Any gender could be invested into the society, hence through adequate training and development. Logically, a woman can fit into any job when trained adequately.

In 2005, in the second wave, Ariel Levy was more direct; diverting from the established movement. She argued that when women sexually objectify themselves and other women, this is not a significance of the success of feminism, but feminism downfall. The idea tilted into gender empowerment making room for women to engage in jobs.

This wave led to a new move, where the media played a major role in the campaign for women. With this, ideas got separated and dichotomized. Two factions of feminism erupted; while one adored the men, the other hated the men passionately. While some believed that women asking for equal right with men lacked fantasy and over ambitious, the other opposed it.

The media daily consumes reactions from both intra villain clash. Some are in love with the men, collaborating with the patriarchy; others adopts cases of rape, murder, assaults to further their case against limitations by men. The contemporary trend is now women against women. The fundamental belief of feminism got misconstrued. By overbearing the issue or fundamental idea of feminism, women became opposed to their personalities. What or who are we fighting against? *Men or the Oppressive System.*
Life itself is challenging and interesting. It requires both gender to serve as an aid to the disadvantaged one. They exist to complement each other. Interests and actions of women must not be seen "feminist" because they don't care about men, but should be considered so far as a contribution to the normalcy of the social system.

Every woman must embrace the true feminism. It is not a war against men or against fellow women. It's about development of the potentials in a woman by herself to enable her fit into the social system where the other gender too thrives. In the light of enlightenment, Feminism is a trend appealing for potential advancement among women and worth proofs.

In conclusion, feminism is not an enemy to men, women, traditional society that earlier existed. The enemy is AVERAGE which keeps limiting the WOMAN in you.

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