‘Feminism’ is Word of the Year

A UMD Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Professor Shares Her Thoughts About Feminism

DULUTH, Minn. – The Merriam-Webster Dictionary word of the year is “Feminism.”

Merriam-Webster said it was the most looked up word in their online dictionary this year and got seventy percent more searches than last year.

The word’s popularity spiked after the Women’s March in Washington in January and “feminism” remained the most searched word through the fall as the #MeToo movement took off.

Merriam-Webster defines “feminism” as “The theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes” and as the “organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests.”

According to UMD Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Associate Professor Njoki Kamau, feminism started as a movement to bring equality between the sexes but since the 1980s, it has meant abolishing classes and fighting for equality between all people and groups.

“For me, the current feminism is a movement which is anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-classist, anti-homophobic, anti-oppression,” said Kamau. “By that I mean it’s not only equality of men and women. It is fighting for justice.”

She says that while progress has been made to make society more equal, there is still a long way to go and that we have to keep fighting for equal pay and opportunities.

She says people have to look at the world in a critical way to find problems in society.

Another Merriam-Webster top word for 2017 is “complicit.”