Feminism, according to Google definitions, means the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. It’s important to note that at the root of feminism is the struggle for equality.

Throughout history, women have been overlooked, mistreated, and deprived of the rights they were entitled too. Slowly and not without a good fight, supporters of feminism have worked hard to create more equality between the sexes.

As is the case with groups who have faced discrimination, society tries to tiptoe around the stigma of the past transgressions by treating the injured party differently than others. More often than not, our society tries to right past wrongs by seeking equality in terms of fairness.

In the past, the common belief was that a woman’s duty was to make her husband happy. Controversially, in the modern day we unconsciously support the idea that married men are ruled by their wives, and that women have a stronger presence in the household.

This perception of the marital relationship is shown in sitcom television shows such as “My Boys” where the supporting character Andy is portrayed as a powerless husband who is constantly constrained by his wife’s wishes.

Characters like Andy’s are prevalent in our media, but you’d almost never see a sitcom show where a woman was as submissive to her husband. Screenwriters and directors understand that it isn’t fair or politically correct show submissive female characters in a light-hearted sitcom because it mimics the oppression females experienced in the past.

Instead, they create female characters differently than male by writing more women into powerful roles. Our modern media is known to overcompensate for the sigmas of sexism. Independent and powerful women are wonderful role models and their presence in the modern media demonstrates just how far the feminist movement has come, however when these strong women are constantly juxtaposed against submissive males it changes the perspective of society; we begin to believe that these unbalanced relationship dynamics are the norm.

Female supremacy is also emphasized because while our societal views toward the sexes are changeing, there are still many facets of society where women remain unequal. The media overcompensates for the lack of physical, quantitative equality between the sexes by subconsciously teaching that women are self-sufficient and commanding, and male empowerment is comparatively insignificant and should be disregarded.

You wouldn’t argue that women can not a perform corporate job to the level that a male could because it would be a sexist and as a public we’ve decided this fact to be untrue. Yet despite the belief that female ability in the workforce is equal to male, many women are still receiving lower wages comparatively with men for the same job.

In addition, women, who make up around 50% of the population are vastly underrepresented in government. In the 2013 congress, women only hold 97 seats, only 18.1 % of the 535 seats available.

It seems as if there is a separation in the advancement of women in the minds society and the physical advancement of women in business and government. Our view of women has become inflated by the media’s quest to portray the sexes “fairly,” but the truly important aspects of life are unaffected by societies views.

What we as a society need is less talk and more action. We need less belief and more quantitative equality. Less days celebrating female self sufficiency and more organizations working for equal levels of representation in government and business. We may believe with all of our hearts that females are every bit as capable as males, but until actions are taken to equalize our businesses and our government, we’ll continue to overcompensate psychologically.