There are questions that everyone asks themselves � �who am I?� �what are my values?� �who do I admire?� �what do I enjoy?� �what is beauty?� � a feminist takes those and other such questions one step further. She asks: why?

The girl who is expected by parents, friends, and teachers to pursue a career (since it�s only incompetence that would make a woman stay home) and does is not a feminist. She doesn�t know why she herself wants a career. She lets others choose.

The athlete whose dad has been coaching (in an effort to spend equal time with her and her brothers) but who doesn�t derive pleasure or excitement from the sport is not a feminist. She�s merely accepted what others expect of her as what she must do.

My grandma spent all the years her children were in school at home. Cooking, cleaning, driving � her actions showed her devotion to her family. Every kid on the block thought she was the best mother ever. When my mom, aunts and uncle didn�t need her anymore, grandma entered the workforce. She not only overcame the handicap of a late start, she did it with excellence. She�s received awards for selling more houses than any other realtor. She�s acquired numerous properties of her own (almost all good investments). When she switched firms, all her colleagues, some of her customers, and even her rivals showed up to wish her well. My grandpa, spoiled as he was by her years at home, has found nothing to fault. Grandma chose her priorities and acted on them, drawing upon all her energy. She is a feminist.

This energy and choice are what set feminism apart from unconventionality. Feminism is a conscious recognition of women as human beings, capable of altering our circumstances. Unconventionality is one way that feminism can be manifested, but has little significance of its own. Most people would say that this definition is overcomplicated, and much more specific than it has to be. They�d use the common definition, that feminism is the �pursuit of equality between the sexes.� That�s true, but there�s more. The feminist knows that equality is not received, it�s taken. Not harshly, not as a denial of something to someone else, but only taken because action is necessary to truly be equal.

Human beings differ from animals in that we alter our environments. All organisms have adaptations that make them able to survive � claws, quick reflexes, means of storing water, and fur are only a few. Humans have none of these; instead we have logic and the ability to reason our way out of problems. Somehow, in hundreds of years of protective subjugation and forced nonage, women have forgotten that we, too, are human and possess the intellectual characteristics that allowed our species to rise to its position of power in the first place. Feminism seeks to remind women that, as humans, we can make what we want of our environments. We don�t have to wait for permission, we don�t have to acknowledge the arbitrary standards put forth by society, and we most certainly do not need help.

This is not to say that there is no difference between men and women. There are. Whether they�re a result of differences in physical structures in the body or simply social expectations or a combination of the two is hard to prove. But the real claim of feminism is that those differences, however important or unimportant in everyday life, are not relevant in a more global sense. They aren�t relevant in the ability of women to vote � to make decisions that affect our lives and the lives of those we care about. They aren�t relevant to women�s ability to work � not even to the types of careers we�re suited to. They�re not relevant to how much pay a woman deserves. They�re not relevant to how many hours a woman can work. They�re not relevant to a woman�s ability to serve her country � in battle if necessary. They�re not relevant in women�s ability to exercise authority, to exceed perceived limitations, or in our capacity to love our children.