In December, Merriam Webster Dictionary named 2017’s word of the year: feminism. Webster defined it as both “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes” and “organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests.”

This word, has become very popular since the start of 2017 during the Women’s March on Washington, the day after President Trump’s inauguration. Many Parker students, parents and faculty attended marches all around the country to express their thoughts on the striking views of the newly inaugurated president.

The word gained further popularity recently during the “Me Too” movement, where men and women started speaking out about their experiences with sexual abuse and harassment, with their outlet being social media.

“Feminism is a really important part of society, probably the most important,” freshman Mikael Watkins said. “Whether they like it or not, absolutely everyone has a feminist side, and the sooner we get everyone to start expressing it, the sooner the world will be a better place, so I think that it’s great that the word of the year is ‘feminism’ because that means everyone is taking a step closer to expressing their femininity.”

Also, referencing the dictionary definition of the word “feminism,” Watkins said, “To me it’s an identity, it’s an emotion, it’s a state of mind, and a personality, way more than what the definition says.”

Freshman Emily Simon sees some issues with the definition as well. “It does not capture the emotion that comes with that word and the actions that it brings,” Simon said. “It’s a definition but it’s become way more than that. I also think that it is awesome that that is the word of the year.”

Freshman Rosey Limmer agrees. “I just feel like it doesn’t exactly match how society views feminism,” Limmer said. “I feel like it’s become more of a movement than just a word.”

In 2017 the word was the most looked up, with 70% more searches than the previous year.

A study done by yougov.com in February of 2016 concluded that 19% of men consider themselves feminists, and 61% percent do not, and the stats from women were not that different. 32% of women call themselves feminists, and 45% do not.

A study done at The University or Miami (UM) on gender distribution in Fall 2017 found that 51% of undergraduates at UM are women and 49% are men, and 53% of all UM graduate students are women and 47% men. But specific schools like Nursing & Health Studies, Communication, and Engineering had a bigger divide. In the Health & Nursing School 81% of graduates are women and 19% are men, and in the Communication School 74% are women and 26% are men. The only School with a bigger percentage of men that graduate than women was the Engineering school, where 71% of graduates are men and 29% women.

Social media has been an outlet for spreading feminist messages in response to issues prompted by these kinds of gender divides. In late 2017 and early 2018 the “Time’s Up” and “Why We Wear Black” movements started, bringing attention to the sexual harassment that has recently been brought to light. A lot of this harassment has happened in Hollywood, which is why it is especially notable that the majority of the people attending the Golden Globes on January 7 were wearing all black and “Time’s Up” pins. Select actors and actresses were accompanied by known activists too.

MSNBC analyzed the amount of feminist conversation before and after two events, the first being Beyoncé’s “FEMINIST” VMA performance. The number of conversations before was 369,087 and the number after 422,039, an increase of over 52 thousand tweets. The second one was Emma Watson’s #HeForShe speech. The number of conversations on twitter before the speech was 349,266, and with a differential of over 281,000 tweets, the number after was 630,300.