Ask a Gen Z student what feminism means, and you’d most likely get an answer involving TikTok videos. Ask someone a few generations older, and the answer might sound very different; something about breaking glass ceilings, workplace equality, and decades of organised activism.
Neither side is wrong. They’re just talking about feminism from completely different worlds.
Old vs New Definitions
For many older generations, feminism was something hard-won, tied to tangible success. It meant legal changes, political organising, and pushing for opportunities that simply didn’t exist before. It looked like policy debates and fighting to enter professions that were male-dominated.
Gen Z, on the other hand, inherited a world where many of those barriers have already been challenged, at least on paper. So the conversation moved somewhere else. Instead of focusing only on access, younger people often talk about culture: how women are treated at work, expectations in relationships, and even beauty standards online.
In other words, feminism today often shows up less often in politics and more in everyday observations.
Spend five minutes online and you’ll see what that looks like. A viral post about emotional labour. A reel about the “hot girl walk”. A discussion about why women are expected to be confident but not intimidating, ambitious but not “too much”. These conversations might feel slightly (or very) trivial to some, but they’re usually about the small social rules people navigate every day.
To older observers, though, this version of feminism can seem confusing or occasionally fragmented. Compared to the clear goals of earlier movements, internet discourse sometimes looks like an endless debate about tone, language, and whether something is empowering or problematic.
And to be fair, often it does get a little intense.
A sign of the times
But generational misunderstandings often come down to perspective. Earlier waves of feminism focused on opening doors that had been firmly shut. Gen Z is growing up in a world where many of those doors are open, but people are now questioning what happens inside the doors.
These aren’t specifically bigger battles, just some different ones.
It also helps to remember that every generation tends to reshape social movements in its own image. What once looked like radical activism eventually becomes common sense, and new conversations take its place. The methods and tools change too. Where earlier movements relied on institutions and political organising, younger people are more likely to process social issues through culture, media, and online spaces.
This could sometimes lead to messy debates and sometimes, just viral memes.
But either way, it reflects something real: a generation trying to make sense of the world it inherited.
Two sides of the same coin
So when people argue about what feminism “really” means, they might actually be talking past each other. One side remembers the battles it took to get here. The other is figuring out what equality should look like next.
Both perspectives are part of the same story, even if they occasionally disagree in the comments section.
by Rhea Jain
