How do you gain confidence in your own feminist views?

[Olina]

My only way to help is by sharing a part of my personal experience. I feel that in order to be able to express my own views and oppose other views, I have to read numerous relevant sources such as books, articles and follow feminist pages. I also strongly believe that practice makes perfect.

What I realised while I was talking with people, is that the majority of them argue against feminism without even knowing what feminism is. What I usually do is listing some types of feminism, in order to ensure them that I do really know what I am talking about and in order to help them get the general idea.

The argument that they usually use is that women are inferior to men because they are not as good as men in certain domains. I also heard that women are not better than men in anything. As you already know this is not true. Some of the information I use are that women get better grades than men in general (there is an article about this on Telegraph but there are other sources as well) and I also refer to what Aristoteles said, that women could be better politicians than men. I might refer to some successful women politicians as well.

The other argument that they usually use is that we do not need feminism in today's society, because women finally got the position they deserved. I believe that women are not free from all the capitalist stereotypes yet. In some societies, women are constrained to stay with their baby at home and they will be judged for not doing so. I am not saying that mothers should not spend time with their babies but if the couple agrees, for their own reasons, that the father of the baby could stay with it at home and its mother could continue working, I see no reason for not doing so. Furthermore, in some societies (i.e. some counties of Africa) the female genital mutilation is exercised.

I also emphasise on the fact that "(f)eminism isn't about making women stronger. Women are already strong enough. It's about changing the way the world perceives that strength." as G.D. Anderson suggests.

I hope that my personal experience helped you.

[Jessica]

Even though I don't identify as a feminist, I find confidence in mu own views by realizing that most people are just as nervous and worried about being heard as I am. And each express it differently- loudly, quietly, with humor, with facts, and so many other variations.

[Aglaea]

Jessica wrote: "Even though I don't identify as a feminist, I find confidence in mu own views by realizing that most people are just as nervous and worried about being heard as I am. And each express it differently- loudly, quietly, with humor, with facts, and so many other variations."

Well said, Jessica. This reminds me of my tendency to feel my heart start racing whenever I find a hand up in the air, waiting to address a whole group on whatever topic. Can't stand it, having all eyes on me, but the topic matters more than my feeling uncomfortable for a moment. It's getting better over the years, though.

I think the greatest confidence boost is feeling we're simply who we are, whatever it may be, and nobody can change us, but we have a right to exist just like that.