What College Students Really Think About Feminism
By Julie Pennell, Teen Vogue
Art: Wesley Johnson
There’s no doubt about it—college is a defining time in a person’s life. It’s usually when you learn what issues matter to you most, thanks to a hyper-awareness of the world around you via lectures and stimulating conversations with fellow intellects. Perhaps you’ll even start feeling more passionate about things like feminism or politics.
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One online community for college women recently took a look at what girls on campus really cared about. In Her Campus’ Feminism on Campus Survey 2015, over 3,000 female students across the country shared their views on everything from gender equality to women in politics, and the results were eye-opening.
Here are some stats we found pretty note-worthy:
78.3 percent consider themselves a feminist now—26 percent of those didn’t before they got to college.
55.5 percent have received backlash for calling themselves a feminist—73.8 percent of those got it from their male friends.
74.2 percent believe that women should have a right to safe, legal abortion, and 80 percent think free birth control should be a part of health insurance.
82.8 percent don’t feel that feminist opinions are well-represented in politics, but 69.4 percent think there will be a woman President in the next 20 years.
51.5 percent are extremely bothered by the fact that women account for only 5.2 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs, but 70 percent believe that gender equality will happen in their lifetime.
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There’s definitely a lot to learn from this survey, primarily that we’ve still got a long way to go when it comes to gender equality. As Emma Watson famously said in her U.N. speech, “It is time that we all see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals.” And from the looks of these results, perhaps that will happen soon. After all, girls on campus know what needs to change—now it’s just time to do it.
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