That feminism has become distorted in recent years doesn't mean there wasn't a real need for the feminism that brought us the vote and a more equal role in society.
Feminism of yesteryear is to feminism today as ML King was to Jessie Jackson. The first were pioneers, who tamed new ground. The latter are hangers on... fighting on for their own glory even though the battle that needed fighting has long ago been won.
When my parents got divorced when I was about 14 (nearly 40 years ago), my mother had a very difficult time getting credit on her own, even a department store credit card... I guess that all the credit they had had when married had been in his name.
Today men and women may take everything for granted, but it hasn't really been that long that women's identity wasn't separate at all from their husbands' identity, and I'm talking about more than just women giving up their names when married. Married women also, in the not-too-distant past, had a hard time owning property in their own names.