Feminism Unfinished

military, an ongoing problem that gained more political attention after women were allowed to serve in
combat positions. More women also filled seats on the Supreme Court. When Clarence Thomas joined the
Court in 1991, he sat next to only one woman, Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman justice, who was
appointed in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan. By 2012, Thomas was still on the Court, but now he sat
next to three women justices, all appointed by Democratic presidents: Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg (in
1993), Sonia Sotomayor (in 2009), and Elena Kagan (in 2010).
President Barack Obama—the nation’s first African American president—was reelected in 2012, and
this was also a sign of victory for those fighting for progressive social change. Obama’s first act as
president was to sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009, which expanded workers’ rights to sue for
pay discrimination based on gender. His egalitarian partnership with his wife, First Lady Michelle
Obama, the feminist values he absorbed from his single-parent mother, Ann Dunham, and, most
importantly, his strong political support for women’s and LGBT rights all suggested that he was the
nation’s first feminist president—as Ms. magazine famously depicted on its Winter 2009 cover, which
featured Obama wearing a THIS IS WHAT A FEMINIST LOOKS LIKE T-shirt.
This snapshot of the 2012 elections suggests both the successes and the ongoing challenges for
feminism in the twenty-first century. Women hold more positions of power than ever before, yet when it
comes to elected office they still are woefully underrepresented given that they account for half of the
population. Conservative women, such as 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, are
cheered for their public proclamations against feminism, while outspoken feminists, like former
presidential candidate and secretary of state Hillary Clinton, are virulently attacked in hateful and
misogynistic terms. Seemingly even President Obama’s feminist rhetoric and policies are more palatable
to the general public because he is a man—and a man whose wife, Michelle, now prefers the title “mom
in chief” to her previous one of “Barack’s boss.” All this suggests that feminism when espoused by a
powerful woman is still deeply threatening.
At the grassroots level, feminist activists in the United States continue to fight for gender equality and
social justice, particularly in areas where there has been no progress or where things have gotten worse,
such as ensuring reproductive rights and access to abortion services, ending violence against women,
challenging racism and white supremacy, and addressing the widening economic inequalities that
characterize twenty-first-century life in the United States. Feminists are using the new technologies of the
Internet age to bring together progressive activists and to respond in real time to threats against women’s
rights. Feminism is becoming more global, as activists around the world share knowledge, organizing
strategies, and political support in ways previously unimagined. Yet even as feminism becomes more
democratic and diverse—more accessible to all and more representative of all—its gains are still most
strongly felt by those at the top. It is not surprising that many of the feminist activists featured in this
chapter—including Rebecca Walker, Ai-Jan Poo, and Sandra Fluke—went to elite, Ivy League schools
and benefited from the open doors and expanded opportunities that such an education makes possible.