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Originally posted on the website of Includovate. See the original post here

My name is Manon and I work as a Communications Associate at Includovate. Born in the Netherlands, I have lived in Latin America throughout my twenties and am currently living in Southern Spain. I finished a Bachelor’s degree in International Business Communications in the Netherlands, and have a European Master Degree in Intercultural Communications.

I started traveling by myself at quite a young age; in my early twenties, when I traveled around Latin America with a backpack and caught buses. It’s when I learned that there are things that are simply more dangerous for women, than for men. Some places are unwise to travel in without company; in some places, women need to wear a fake wedding ring, and have photos of their ‘children’ and ‘husband’, ready to show.

However, it was not until I started working and was sent to conduct fieldwork, that I came across situations in which my professional capacity was not taken seriously. Being a blonde girl in her mid-twenties, workshop participants would make public jokes that they wanted to be in the ´focus group with the cute girl´ or ´that I would have to forgive them if they couldn’t entirely focus on the questions I asked during the interviews´. And although these are innocent jokes, meant to break the ice, not once were the same jokes made in the direction of my male colleagues, and that made me realise that I have to fight just a little harder to earn the respect.

Fighting hard to take the same working approach as my male colleagues, took me some years to understand, and accept. However, the female approach in fieldwork also meant that being a younger woman created a bond of trust, especially with other women. Women trust me, more than they would trust my male colleagues and that provides a better result from interviews.

And this, in the end, is the main point: feminism is not about making us the same. We are not the same, biologically. However, our biological differences do not mean that one deserves ´less´, or that the other one automatically deserves ´the power´.

As stated by Barbara Ehrenreich: “Of all the nasty outcomes predicted for women’s liberation … none was more alarming than the suggestion that women would eventually become just like men.” And I couldn’t agree with this more.

Am I a feminist? I don’t even know what feminism means any more nowadays. Sure, as a travel photographer, active on social media, when I ask the question ‘would you have posted this same revealing photo if this were a man’ has made many (men) call me a ‘feminist’. Though if you ask me, I would say I am an equalist. I believe that we all deserve the same rights, no matter the biological sex, no matter the skin colour, no matter the sexual orientation, religion, or background. Because in the end, we are all human, we all deserve to be treated with respect. And no, luckily we are not all the same. So let’s use that same diversity for our good fight.