Words by Abby Taylor
For women, the fight for equality is never an abstract issue—it is a deeply personal, often painful, battle. When we talk about women’s rights, we are talking about interrupted lives, denied freedoms, and delayed dreams. Whether it is in the streets of Fallowfield, where women fear for their safety, or in Kabul, where the Taliban has stolen the most basic rights from millions of women, the reality is clear. The struggle for women’s rights is far from over. If anything, it is intensifying.
Across the world, women are watching as the hard-won rights of previous generations are slowly being chipped away. In the U.S., the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022 was a gut punch to the rights of millions of women, especially those from marginalised communities. Suddenly, the right to make decisions about their own bodies was no longer guaranteed in half of the country. For many, the promise of reproductive freedom was a distant memory.
But it is not just America. Women in Afghanistan have had their very identities erased by the Taliban, unable to work, walk freely in public without a male guardian, or study, leaving 1.1 million girls with no access to education. Imagine the heartbreak of a young girl in Kabul who will never get to experience the joy of learning in school, simply because of her gender.
Back in the UK, where significant strides in women’s rights have been made, recent shifts in rhetoric and rising concerns about the erosion of reproductive rights and safety have revealed that progress is fragile and must not be taken for granted. Alongside this, there has been an alarming rise in violence against women, particularly in areas like Fallowfield in Manchester, which saw a 25% increase in reported sexual assaults and violent crimes in the past year alone.
Women are increasingly fearful for their safety, with sexual and violent crimes becoming more prevalent. Despite urgent calls from communities and students for action, the response from authorities has been slow, leaving women to navigate a world where their basic safety feels constantly at risk. For those living in these conditions, it’s not just a statistic or headline — it’s a daily reality and a persistent fear that something could go wrong at any moment.
What makes this moment so devastating is that it’s part of a larger, global trend. Right-wing ideologies are on the rise, feeding into a cultural climate that tells women they’ve fought hard enough, and that they should be satisfied with the rights they’ve gained. Figures like Andrew Tate, with their regressive views on masculinity, have amassed large followings, spreading dangerous rhetoric that undermines women’s autonomy and places the progress of feminism under attack.
On social media, these views are amplified, creating an environment where feminism is framed as divisive and unnecessary. It’s a narrative that’s alienating, pushing many away from the cause — often those who might have stood beside us. But we can’t afford to be silent. The current backlash isn’t just a battle over ideologies — it’s a battle for the safety, dignity, and future of women everywhere. Women today are still fighting for the right to exist freely and safely, whether it’s in the streets of Manchester or the classrooms of Kabul. The backlash against feminism may try to silence us, but it’s also a stark reminder of just how necessary the movement still is. The fight for women’s rights hasn’t been won — it’s ongoing, and it’s more urgent than ever.
That urgency is echoed in the work of global feminist movements. Groups like Women’s March and Equality Now continue to push for legal reforms, fighting for reproductive rights and better protections against violence. Legal battles like the ones in the wake of Roe v. Wade are far from over, and they serve as a reminder of just how fragile our freedoms can be. In the UK, organisations like Abortion Rights are standing guard to protect women’s access to essential healthcare. Meanwhile, movements like the 4B movement from South Korea, born out of the #MeToo movement, are challenging harmful cultural standards that objectify and limit women. The 4B movement—focused on Blame, Body, Beauty, and Behaviour—has resonated worldwide, reminding us that we are not alone in this fight, and that solidarity is our strength.
What we’re facing today is not a “post-feminist” world. It’s a world in which the rights of women are continually under threat. In the U.S., the erosion of reproductive rights continues to affect millions of women, particularly those from low-income and marginalised communities. In Afghanistan, the rights of women have been stripped away entirely, with the Taliban enforcing a system of extreme oppression. In the UK, women are being forced to reckon with rising violence and the real possibility of losing hard-earned reproductive freedoms. And that isn’t even the start of it. Women around the world are grappling with a multitude of intersecting issues, from the crushing impact of period poverty, to gender-based violence in conflict zones, to systemic inequality and the ongoing fight for equal pay, reminding us that the struggle for women’s rights is far from over.
The message that “feminism is no longer necessary” is not just misleading — it’s dangerous. It overlooks the fact that women’s rights are still being fought for, and that women are still being silenced, threatened, and oppressed. The progress of past generations is under constant attack, and it’s up to us to safeguard that progress. Feminism today isn’t just about protecting the rights we’ve fought for – it’s about ensuring that the fight for equality moves forward, not backwards.
We’ve seen that in the U.S., where the 2024 election has the potential to reshape the future for women. A potential Trump victory could mean a return to a political climate that undermines women’s rights, further restricting reproductive freedoms, rolling back protections against domestic violence, and silencing women’s voices in critical decisions. The reality is that, for women, this election is not about partisan politics — it’s about safeguarding our basic rights, our ability to choose, and our safety in a world that already too often fails to protect us. As we head into 2024, the fight for women’s rights will be just as much about the policies on the ballot as it is about the very real consequences for our lives.
Now, more than ever, we must raise our voices. We must stand firm, not just for our own rights, but for the rights of every woman, everywhere. The world is watching, and so are the generations that will come after us. At the end of the day, the fight for women’s rights isn’t just a political issue — it’s a deeply personal one. It’s not about laws or statistics; it’s about the lives of real women. It’s about the young girl in Kabul who dreams of going to school, the woman in Fallowfield who fears walking home at night, and the woman in the U.S. who faces an uncertain future for her reproductive rights.
These aren’t abstract concepts or distant battles — they are the lived experiences of women everywhere, each facing their own struggles for autonomy, dignity, and freedom. For women, this fight has always been personal, because it’s about our bodies, our choices, and our safety. It’s a fight we cannot afford to lose. The struggle continues, not just for the next generation, but for every woman, everywhere, right now.
