I can't speak for the culture as a whole, only the culture at the university and school level. I also come from a very privileged background (no, like actual privilege, like, rich parents sent me to private school privilege) so i don't know what the culture is like outside of the circles of educated young people. Amongst the older generation I know (my parents age) feminism isn't really a thing, despite the fact that when they were growing up, women actually still had shit to fight for (illegalisation of marital rape, access to abortion, more things).
Also, i suppose i never really saw women as the victims they are shown to be because my mother is amazing. She's a successful banker, professional ballbuster and don't take no shit from nobody, and she came from a disadvantaged background and lost her father at 15. My mum is fucking awesome, the definition of a strong independent woman. She is the breadwinner of the house. And guess what, she's not a feminist, and she doesn't label herself as strong and independent. She acts like a man in business, and she gets the results men do. She has all the qualities usually associated with a successful man, and she did well off it. She doesn't spend her money on consumerist, designer bullshit. she does volunteer work, she's a talented painter and has actually sold paintings (not to make money, just to show to herself that she's talented enough to make paintings people want to buy). she reads books, and loves classic novels. She could afford a porsche or whatever but drives a honda. She takes me shopping at primark, and I love it (sorry child slave labourers...)
So i grew up with the impression that women can do whatever they want, because my mum was doing just that, and kicking ass while doing it. so i'm not anti women, i firmly believe women can do whatever they want in their life and there's nothing stopping them. if my mum had a 25+ year long career at one of the biggest banks in the UK, and was a mother at the same time, anyone can do it. And she did that without affirmative action, and the person hiring her actually asked her if she was planning on having kids (she told him to go fuck himself basically, and got the job).
Women are not delicate fucking flowers, they are people and they, like men, can be incredibly intelligent and driven, and when they are, they get results.
feminism needs to stop telling women they face all this discrimination, it lowers their self esteem. It needs to tell women that if they want to do something, they fucking can, and not to let anyone giving them shit stop them. What they're doing now is saying OOOH WOMEN ARE SO DISCRIMINATED AGAINST IN STEM and guess what? Women are going to believe that and be less inclined to go into stem, if they think they're steeped in adversity due to their gender. If you get told more positive messages like 'women are just as good at men as engineering, so go do engineering, you'll have a great career', more women will do it, and they'll get hired too, because employers are desperate for more diversity nowadays.
sorry i just went on a rant but god damn this shit pisses me off.