I don't really understand how someone with your life experience can not be a feminist. You literally say that your mother defied expectations and raised you and your sister to do the same. You've had to work hard to get the same opportunities that are handed to men. That's not fair.

Feminism is the belief that men and women are equal. That people are capable and should have the same opportunities regardless of sex. How can you say "I did all this, despite being a woman" without recognizing that feminism wants to remove the very barriers you describe? I don't want my future daughter to say "I did it all, despite being a woman," I want her to say, "I did it all."

Women don't have the same rights as men, even in the West. The USA and parts of Europe are literally eroding women's rights as we speak. Bodily autonomy, the fundamental right to choose what to do with our bodies, is under attack because patriarchists are determined to put women back in the kitchen and deprive them of rights. Until the 1970s, I'm sure you know, women couldn't have credit cards or a bank account without their husband's signature. How "free" is that? Or doing the same work, for less pay?

When I read your comment about how "free" women are, and how they just need to work harder, I think about the École Polytechnique massacre of 1989. It's not always well known outside of Canada, so let me tell you about it: in one of the only major mass shootings in Canada, fourteen women were murdered; another ten women and four men were injured. The shooter claimed that he was "fighting feminism", specifically targeting women to shoot throughout the university. His victims were studying engineering. They were working hard in a field typically dominated by men. Did they just not "work hard enough"? Were they entitled? This kind of attack happens all the time in the US, even now. Violence against women is a huge, huge problem. Malala was shot in the head for going to school as a girl.

See, I hear about these things and see women being raped and murdered and beaten and forced to have unwanted babies and being discriminated against and I think, 'this shouldn't happen.' I don't think 'these women don't have the drive and lack the courage and competence to do what they want to do.' I think, 'these women don't have the opportunity to try.'