Feminism on a rise in the UK

Source:Reuters Published: 2019/11/19 18:13:43

The F-word is back as most young UK women identify as feminists


The majority of young women in England and Wales now identify as feminists, according to a study on Tuesday, with researchers attributing a rise in the past year to the #MeToo movement and the failure to stop discrimination at work.

A McDonald's worker sporting a sticker marches toward the company's headquarters with other activists to protest sexual harassment at the fast-food chain's restaurants on Tuesday in Chicago, Illinois. Similar actions took place around the country and were touted as the first-ever nationwide "strike" against sexual harassment in the fast food industry. Photo: VCG


A survey of more than 4,000 women by feminist organization Young Women's Trust found the percentage of women aged 18 to 30 calling themselves feminists rose to 57 percent from 50 percent a year ago.

Among women aged 18 to 24 the survey found 67 percent associated themselves with the term feminist, up 12 percent from when the question was first posed in an annual women's poll last year.

A similar poll by the women's rights group the Fawcett Foundation in 2016 found 19 percent of women aged 18 to 24 called themselves feminists while a 2018 YouGov poll found that 27 percent of women in the UK said "yes" when asked if they were a feminist.

"It's fantastic to see so many young women reclaiming a word for so long falsely branded as toxic and now using it to assert their fight for equal rights," Young Women's Trust Chief Executive Sophie Walker said in a statement.

The survey, conducted by market research company Populus Data Solution, found that one in 10 young women took part in a demonstration or protest in the past year.

About 74 percent said women still face discrimination in the workplace, up from 71 percent last year, with one in four worried about being fired for reporting sexual harassment.



Posted in: EUROPE

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