The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they hear the word “feminism” is the image of angry women who hate men, and believe men are the cause of all of women’s problems and that the world would be better off without them. Most people think that feminism is outdated and that any woman who calls herself a feminist today is just trying to get attention. But feminism isn’t about male bashing or just getting attention. It’s about equality.

The word “feminism” itself was first used in 18th-century France, and was used like “hip” or “savvy” are used today. It was a cool word that meant youth, sexiness and financial independence. People started using it again in the 1970s as an umbrella term for both the radical and liberal women’s movements; by the end of the ‘70s, terms like “women’s libber” were used against women instead of for them.

Why was the word “feminism” all of a sudden used against women? Because people are afraid of change. Feminism is a powerful word. It means that we have to admit that we are treating women unfairly and that we have to change almost all aspects of our society. People fear that women want female supremacy; that they want to exchange places with men. When you add to this guilt about how women have been treated, you have to ask yourself: “What if women could treat men the way men treated women?” It’s a scary thought for a lot of people.

But the goal of feminism is not female supremacy and oppression of men. All women want is to be treated as the equals of men. We want equal pay for equal labor. We want to be recognized for our merit, not our legs; and we don’t want to have to starve ourselves to be noticed. We don’t want to give up our independence or identity when we get married. We want to be able to walk by ourselves at night without being scared of being raped.

For more than 150 years, women have been fighting for equality, and though many people like to think that the battle is over, women are still not equal to men. I’m not going to deny that women’s situation has improved significantly since the women’s movement first started, but we still have a long way to go. There are still plenty of laws that are gender -biased. For instance, Maine is the only state that has passed legislation making wage gaps illegal, and this happened only last week. Until the Equal Rights Amendment is passed, gender-biased laws will remain constitutional.

So what is feminism? It’s simply the belief that women are equal to men, and that at least some changes in society are necessary for women to have the equality they deserve. What these changes should be, and how they should come about, can differ from feminist to feminist.

You may believe that the problem could be solved by merely improving women’s education, or you may even believe that the only way to solve the problem is to have women and men live in separate communities, only meeting to procreate. Regardless of which strategy you think would be the most effective way to achieve equality, the underlying idea is that women have the right and responsibility to realize their own potential.