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Report on Women's Rights & Feminism
Smart girls decide for themselves™.
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From equality to women to the right to be independent, our SmartGirls know what feminism is all about. Our survey is proof of this, as our respondents told us what they thought of equality, house husbands, and the success of women. To learn more about feminism or to become actively involved, check out : http://www.now.org/issues/global/ or http://www.ifeminists.com/homepage/.
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Most of our respondents were between the ages of 11 and 14.
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| Age |
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About 95% of those who answered the survey were female.
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| Gender |
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count | percent |
gender
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| female |
628 | 95.3 |
| male |
22 | 3.34 |
| other |
9 | 1.37 |
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| Birth Order |
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We heard from people from a whopping 27 countries. That's a lot of countries! Most of our respondents were from the United States and the UK, while we did have a few from Cyprus, Batavia, Afganistan and Zimbabwe.
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| Home town |
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A majority of you said that you would listen if a girl or woman expressed her strong opinions about women's rights, and many said that you would be inspired. Only 22 of you said that you would be annoyed by this.
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Statistics show that many of you think that a girl with strong opinions on the women's rights issue is strong, a feminist, inspiring and should be respected.
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| Girls with strong opinions |
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Less than half of our respondents told us that they were feminists while more than half told us that they weren't sure.
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| Feminist |
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We asked our respondents to tell us what they thought that feminism meant. A majority thought that feminism is standing up for women's rights, and the equality for both sexes. Other answers included:
- Being feminine
- Being proud to be female
- Women are better than men
- Asserting girl power
- Standing up for women
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| Importance |
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count | percent |
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important
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| yes |
419 | 67.69 |
| no |
65 | 10.5 |
| not_sure |
135 | 21.81 |
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Most of you thought that there was a neutral view of feminism, although there were more of you who thought that feminism was looked at in a negative light than in the positive.
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| View of feminism |
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Women are faced with a kaleidescope of important issues, but you helped us narrow it down by telling us what you thought. Violence and economic issues topped your choices. Other issues included:
- reproduction
- power
- athletics
- and education
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| Issues |
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| Last name |
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We gave our respondents a chance to tell us why they thought that a woman should be allowed to keep her last name. Here's what they said:
- It's her decision; I would probably take my husband's last name because it would be a symbol of our union, but if you don't see it that way you should be able to keep your own last name.
- Women have the right to keep their last name regardless of the norms of society.
- Why do the men always get their last name? That's not fair to women all over the globe. When I get married, I'm not taking anyone's last name. I am who I am and I'm proud of it!
- At the end of the day its her choice but I think that we should stick with tradition and keep it the way it has always been. Of course some women may keep their own surname for job purposes.
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Most of you thought that they could be...
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| Can men be feminists? |
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The SmartGirls who answered our survey told us why:
- If your a boy and you think women can have the same rights as men, then I think you're a feminist.
- If they support the cause, then I'm not going to refuse good help based on gender. That would make me (and any feminist opposed to men feminists) a hypocrite.
- Well if they stand up for women and voice their opinions on matters that involve women, then this shows males are able to be feminists to.
- They can, but I don't think there are any hard-core male feminists.
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A head-turning 436 of you thought that women had achieved equality in education, though the statistics for the other areas not quite as high.
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| Equality |
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92 percent of you thought that it was!
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| House husband |
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count | percent |
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househusband
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| yes |
575 | 92.3 |
| no |
48 | 7.7 |
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Most of you thought that there would be a woman for president in the next 8-12 years. We hope that there will be one soon too!
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| Next president |
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600 of you thought that a woman could be successful without a man, while 19 of you thought that they couldn't.
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You justified your answer above with some of these reasons:
- Women are capable of being happy and fulfilled without men. Many sucessful women have neither husbands nor boyfriends. There is nothing a man possesses that a women requires in order to be sucessful in the work place or at home.
- Life does not revolve around men (or shouldn't). A woman with her own mind who follows her own goals can be successful. What do guys have to do with it? It all depends on your definition of "successful". If successful means that you have a big strong man by your side and kids and grandkids, then maybe she isn't. But reproduction isn't everything.
- A woman needs a strong person to take care of them.
- If she's strong, she can be successful regardless of any man's support!!! Families, and friends are there!!
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Most of you thought that women don't make as much money as men.
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| Salary |
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We encourage SmartGirls to think about the survey issues and apply them to their everyday life. We gave our respondents the opportunity to do this in the scenario below. Here are the ways that some of our respondents told us they would handle the situation.
Scenario: A new girl starts at your school. She has a shaved head. Everyone is teasing her that she looks like a boy. She tries to explain that her hairstyle is just a choice just like any other hairstyle. What do you do?
- I accept her for who she is, and I might shave my head, too, just to show everyone that it's not a bad thing, and 'cause I think that it would make people stop teasing her.
- Hahaha, that is pretty funny. I would say, sorry honey, but although you may think that you are only exercising your rights, you can't deny the existence of a social scale determining what is acceptable and what is not. A shaved head falls into the not acceptable category, and by making the choice to shave her head, she also makes the choice to invite ridicule upon herself.
- Rock on! Dare to challenge social bounds. I'm all for you. So what if the shallow minded drones in the school want to make fun of you. Let them wallow in their own close-mindedness. In the end you'll be the stronger and happier individual.
- Stick up for her individuality. I respect her for her braveness.
- Laugh at all the other kids in my school because they are very boring people, and they have no lives. I think on the right girl, a shaved head can be very cute. It depends on the person (some boys look very silly with no hair). I realize, though, that this is not really about hair. If she were nice, I would want to be her friend. If she was a jerk, I wouldn't. The hair is just a detail.
- I do nothing. I’m not going to taunt nor tease her. Choosing to shave her head was her choice and since it was out of the norm, she should be able to accept that she's being different than everyone else.
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Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts
with us!
Please remember that all web-based polls
are not scientific because the pollsters cannot randomly select the
respondents to participate in the surveys.
All our surveys are anonymous; check out our privacy
policy. All data copyright 1996-2000.
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