HOW TO BEA WOMAN NOW

Should you lean in or out, be a girl boss or tradwife, seek freedom or control? Kathryn Madden explores the landscape of feminism, and what it means to be a woman in 2025

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What do you think of the state of feminism today?” It was a question I threw out to 10 prominent Australian women while researching this piece, keen to glean their insights on how the women's movement was progressing and regressing. I wanted to hear their thoughts on tradwives and femcels, on spicy Sabrina Carpenter album covers and dystopian abortion bans, but I received few replies. The silence in my inbox was deafening. Which was surprising, because these were the kinds of women – activists, authors and social commentators – usually eager to share their big opinions. Perhaps, I resolved, it was a reflection of the load women are carrying in 2025, of their 720 unread emails, circus-worthy juggling performances and limited bandwidth to dive into another debate. Had I posed the same question a decade ago, I'm confident I would have been inundated with responses. Back then, feminism was the word on everybody's lips. Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED talk "We Should All Be Feminists" had been watched by millions, its message of inclusion so powerful that every 16-year-old in Sweden was given a copy of her book of the same name. Beyoncé sampled the rousing speech on her track "Flawless" and performed it at the VMAs in front of a giant, lit-up FEMINIST sign. "The next time a man asks me what Beyoncé has done for feminism, I will sit him in a chair and make him watch this performance for 24 hours," was the overriding consensus on Twitter, back before Elon Musk turned the platform into a misogynistic cesspit. Christian Dior would soon name Maria Grazia Chiuri as creative director, the first woman to helm the fashion house, and send slogan T-shirts down the runway declaring "The Future is Female". Corporate capitalism leaned in too, as per Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's directive to women to crack their own glass ceilings, while Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso ushered in #girlboss culture and the millennial-pink-tinted promise of female ambition. Feminis