Feminism

Recently i got involved in an online discussion regarding feminism and humanism. In declaring myself to be a feminist, i wrote that:

[To me, 'feminism'] means things like "Women have a right to control their own bodies" (i.e. i'm pro-choice), "Women are not chattels" (i.e. should not be treated as though we're property to be used at our owner's whim) and "Women should not be overlooked for a particular job because of stereotypes about what women are or are not supposed to do, rather than what the specific female applicant in question is actually able to do".

To which someone responded with:

Since I presume you have the same opinion about the rights of men, I do not see why such positions are more "feminist" than "humanist".

i then wrote a few comments about the problems with humanism, and why i think feminism as a strand of thought - related to, but distinct from, humanism - is thus necessary.

What follows is the result of editing those comments together (primarily for flow):

( Discussion on humanism and feminism )