Let's review some of the things that Feminism has achieved since 1920, [View all]

[Squinch]

notwithstanding the fact that there are many who say Feminists are ineffectual because we are not honing our "fly catching" abilities.

Other than the Civil Rights Movement, no other social movement has ever had such an impact on social institutions that were previously thought to be the "natural order."

This is NOT to suggest that we don't still have a very long way to go, but it does suggest that those calling for a "redefinition" of feminism are either ignorant of the achievements of feminists, or would like to stop the achievements of feminism by halting their activities.

So here we go. Before 1920:

.women couldn't vote (till 1920)
.husbands could rape their wives with impunity (till effing 1993!)
.husbands could beat their wives with impunity (the VAWA was enacted in 1994)
.woman had no access to safe and effective birth control
.women were not allowed to legally use birth control (till 1965)
.women's education was substandard and designed to make them economically and intellectually impotent (title IX enacted 1972)
.women who did work were paid at a level that was understood to be "insufficient for a man to survive." But it was OK to pay women that wage, even though women were often supporting a household alone on this substantially lowered wage. (Corning glass v Brennan was in 1974, Ledbetter passed in 2009. These and other achievements have brought us up to 77 cents on the dollar that men earn. As I say, we still have a long way to go.)
.women were routinely shut out of the vast majority of jobs, and had no access to economic security without a husband
.women who divorced, despite the fact that they had no access to self sustaining work, were entitled only to the settlements that their husbands chose to give them.
.women who divorced were routinely ostracized socially
.women had no access to credit (till 1974)
.women who did make it into the workforce were routinely subject to debilitating forms and amounts of sexual harassment (civil rights act of 1991 expanded right to sue and collect punitive damages.)
.women were fired from their jobs if they got pregnant (happened in my experience through the 1980's, though it was illegal by then)
.in many states women were prohibited from serving on a jury (till 1975!)
.women did not have the right to establish a separate domicile from her husband (till the 1970's)
.within marriage the husband had control of the community property, including property the wife brought to the marriage (in some states this persisted till the 1970's)

Again, there are miles to go before there is anything like true equality, but I'd say that Feminists have been pretty effective in changing a situation that has been in place and considered unchangeable pretty much since recorded history began. And they have done it in two generations. Though this is painfully slow for those of us who experience life as women, it is historically quite a quick turnaround for such entrenched institutions.

All this says to me we are doing just fine, screeds and all, and the approval of those who say differently is not really necessary to our continued success.

I am sure I have missed a ton of the achievements of Feminists. Feel free to add them.