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Feminism

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Feminism is an ideology focusing on equality of the sexes.^[1] Feminism comprises a number of social, cultural and political movements, theories and moral philosophies concerned with gender inequalities and discrimination against women. Some feminists, like Judith Butler, have argued that gendered and sexed identities, such as "man" and "woman", are social constructs.^[1]

According to some, the history of feminism consists of three waves.^[2][2] The first wave in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the second in the 1960s and 1970s and the third from the 1990s to the present.^[2] Feminist Theory developed from the feminist movement.^[2][2] It takes a number of forms in a variety of disciplines such as feminist geography, feminist history and feminist literary criticism. Feminism has changed aspects of Western society. Feminist political activists have been concerned with issues such as a woman's right of contract and property, a woman's right to bodily integrity and autonomy (especially on matters such as reproductive rights, including the right to abortion, access to contraception and quality prenatal care); for protection from domestic violence; against sexual harassment and rape;^[3][4] for workplace rights, including maternity leave and equal pay; and against other forms of discrimination.^[5][5][5] Throughout most of its history, most leaders of feminist social and political movements, and feminist theorists, have been middle-class white women, predominantly in Britain, France and the US. At least since Sojourner Truth's 1851 speech to US Feminists, however, women of other races have proposed alternative feminisms. This trend accelerated in the 1960s with the Civil Rights movement in the United States and the collapse of European colonialism in Africa and Southeast Asia.Since that time, women in former European colonies and the Third World have proposed alternative "post-colonial" and "Third World" feminisms as well.^[5] Some Third World feminists or Postcolonial feminists, such as Chandra Talpade Mohanty, are critical of western feminism for being ethnocentric.^[5] Black feminists, such as Angela Davis and Alice Walker, share this view.^[5]''

Since the 1980s, standpoint feminists have argued that the feminist movement should address global issues (such as rape, incest, and prostitution) and culturally specific issues (such as female genital mutilation in some parts of Africa and the Middle East and "glass ceiling" practices that impede women's advancement in developed economies) in order to understand how gender inequality interacts with racism, homophobia, lesbophobia, colonialism, and classism in a "matrix of domination."^[6][7]

History of feminism

Main article: History of feminism

Feminists have divided feminism's history into three 'waves.' The first-wave refers to the feminism movement of the nineteenth through early twentieth centuries, which dealt mainly with the Suffrage movement. The second-wave (1960s-1980s) dealt with the inequality of laws, as well as cultural inequalities. The third-wave of Feminism (1990s-present), is seen as both a continuation and a response to the perceived failures of the second-wave.^[2]

First-wave feminism

Main article: First-wave feminism

First-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century in the United Kingdom and the United States. Originally it focused on equal rights of contract and property and opposition to chattel marriage and ownership of married women (and their children) by husbands. Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women is considered the seminal essay of feminism. By the end of the nineteenth century, activism focused primarily on gaining political power - the right of women's suffrage, though feminists like Voltairine de Cleyre and Margaret Sanger were still active in campaigning for women's sexual and reproductive and economic rights at this time. The term, "first-wave," was coined retrospectively after the term second-wave feminism began to be used to describe a newer feminist movement that focused as much on fighting social and cultural inequalities as further political inequalities.^[9]

In Britain the Suffragettes campaigned for the women's vote. In 1918 the Representation of the People Act 1918 was passed granting the vote to women over the age of 30 who owned houses. In 1928 this was extended to all women over eighteen.^[10] In the United States leaders of this movement include Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who each campaigned for the abolition of slavery prior to championing women's right to vote. Other important leaders include Lucy Stone, Olympia Brown, and Helen Pitts. American first-wave feminism involved a wide range of women, some belonging to conservative Christian groups (such as Frances Willard and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union), others resembling the diversity and radicalism of much of second-wave feminism (such as Matilda Joslyn Gage and the National Woman Suffrage Association). In the United States first-wave feminism is considered to have ended with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1919), granting women the right to vote.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Second-wave feminism

Main article: Second-wave feminism

Second-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity beginning in the early 1960s & lasting through the late 1980s and, as Imelda Whelehan suggests, it was a continuation of the earlier phase of feminism that involved the suffragettes in the UK and USA.^[15] Second-wave Feminism has existed continuously since then, and continues to coexist with what is termed third-wave Feminism. The second-wave feminism saw cultural and political inequalities as inextricably linked. The movement encouraged women to understand aspects of their own personal lives as deeply politicized, and reflective of a sexist structure of power. If first-wave feminism focused upon absolute rights such as suffrage, second-wave feminism was largely concerned with other issues of equality, such as the end to discrimination.^[9]

Carol Hanisch with her essay The Personal is Political coined a slogan that became synonymous with the second-wave.^[3]

The Feminine Mystique

Main article: The Feminine Mystique

The Feminine Mystique was written in 1963 by Betty Friedan. It criticized the idea that women could only find fulfillment through childbearing and homemaking. According to Friedan's obituary in the The New York Times The Feminine Mystique “ignited the contemporary women's movement in 1963 and as a result permanently transformed the social fabric of the United States and countries around the world” and “is widely regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.”^[16] In the book Friedan hypothesizes that women are victims of a false belief system that requires them to find identity and meaning in their lives through their husbands and children. Such a system causes women to completely lose their identity in that of their family. Friedan specifically locates this system among post-World War II middle-class suburban communities. At the same time, America's post-war economic boom had led to the development of new technologies that were supposed to make household work less difficult, but that often had the result of making women's work less meaningful and valuable. It also critiqued Freud's theory of penis envy and was a factor in freeing women from being strictly confined to the role of a housewife during the Post-War economic expansion.^[17]

Third-wave feminism

Main article: Third-wave feminism

The Third-wave of feminism began in the early 1990s. The movement arose as a response to perceived failures of the second-wave. It was also a response to the backlash against initiatives and movements created by the second-wave. Third-wave feminism seeks to challenge or avoid what it deems the second-wave's "essentialist" definitions of femininity, which (according to them) over-emphasized the experiences of upper middle class white women. A post-structuralist interpretation of gender and sexuality is central to much of the third-wave's ideology. Third-wave feminists often focus on "micropolitics," and challenged the second-wave's paradigm as to what is, or is not, good for females.^{[9][18][19][20]}

In 1991, Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas, a man nominated to the Supreme Court, of sexual harassment. Thomas denied the accusations and after extensive debate, the US Senate voted 52-48 in favor of Thomas.^[19][22][23] In response to this case, Rebecca Walker published an article entitled "Becoming the Third Wave" in which she stated, "I am not a post-feminism feminist. I am the third-wave."^[2]

The third-wave has its origins in the mid 1980s. Feminist leaders rooted in the second-wave like Gloria Anzaldua, bell hooks, Chela Sandoval, Cherrie Moraga, Audre Lorde, Maxine Hong Kingston, and many other black feminists, called for a new subjectivity in feminist voice. They sought to negotiate prominent space within feminist thought for consideration of race related subjectivities.^[19][22][23]

Contemporary feminism

Contemporary feminism is made up of a number of different philosophical strands. These movements sometimes disagree about current issues and how to confront them. One side of the spectrum includes a number of radical feminists, such as Mary Daly, who argue that society would benefit if there were dramatically fewer men.^[25] On the other hand, figures such as Christina Hoff Sommers and Camille Paglia identify themselves as feminist but accuse the movement of anti-male prejudice. ^{[26] [27]} Some feminists, like Katha Pollitt (see her book Reasonable Creatures) or Nadine Strossen, consider feminism to hold simply that "women are people." Views that separate the sexes rather than unite them are considered by these writers to be sexist rather than feminist.^[28][29] There are also debates between difference feminists such as Carol Gilligan, who believe that there are important differences between the sexes (which may or may not be inherent, but which cannot be ignored), and those who believe that there are no essential differences between the sexes, and that the societal roles are due to conditioning.^[30] Individualist feminists such as Wendy McElroy are concerned with equality of rights, and criticize sexist/classist forms of feminism as "gender feminism."

French feminism

Main article: Feminism in France

Simone de Beauvoir

Main article: Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir was a French author and philosopher. She wrote novels, monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues, essays, biographies, and an autobiography. She is now best known for her metaphysical novels, including She Came to Stay and The Mandarins, and for her 1949 treatise The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism. Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex was published in French in 1949. It sets out a feminist existentialism which prescribes a moral revolution. As an existentialist, de Beauvoir accepts the precept that existence precedes essence; hence "one is not born a woman, but becomes one". Her analysis focuses on the concept of The Other. It is the (social) construction of Woman as the quintessential Other that Beauvoir identifies as fundamental to women's oppression.^[31] She argues that women have historically been considered deviant, abnormal. She submits that even Mary Wollstonecraft considered men to be the ideal toward which women should aspire. Beauvoir says that this attitude has limited women's success by maintaining the perception that they are a deviation from the normal, and are outsiders attempting to emulate "normality". For feminism to move forward, this assumption must be set aside.^[31]

1970s - present

French feminists approach feminism with a the concept of écriture féminine (which translates as female, or feminine, writing).^[31] Helene Cixous argues that writing and philosophy are 'phallocentric' and along with other French feminists such as Luce Irigaray emphasize "writing from the body" as a subversive exercise.^[31] Another theorist working in France (but originally from Bulgaria) is Julia Kristeva, her work on the semiotic and abjection has influenced feminist criticism. However, as Elizabeth Wright points out, "none of these French feminists align themselves with the feminist movement as it appeared in the Anglophone world."^[31][32]

Feminist theory

Main article: Feminist theory

Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, or philosophical, fields. It encompasses work in a variety of disciplines, including approaches to women's roles and lived experiences; feminist politics in anthropology and sociology, economics, women's; gender studies; feminist literary criticism; and philosophy^[33]. Feminist theory aims to understand gender inequality and focuses on gender politics, power relations and sexuality. While providing a critique of social relations, much of feminist theory also focuses on analyzing gender inequalities and the promotion of women's rights, interests, and issues. Themes explored in feminism include discrimination, stereotyping, objectification (especially sexual objectification), oppression, and patriarchy.^{[2] [2]}

Elaine Showalter describes the development of Feminist theory as having a number of phases. The first she calls "feminist critique" - where the feminist reader examines the ideologies behind literary phenomena. The second Showalter calls "Gynocritics" - where the "woman is producer of textual meaning" including "the psychodynamics of female creativity; linguistics and the problem of a female language; the trajectory of the individual or collective female literary career [and] literary history". The last phase she calls "gender theory" - where the "ideological inscription and the literary effects of the sex/gender system" are explored."^[36] This model has been criticized by Toril Moi who sees it as an essentialist and deterministic model for female subjectivity. She also criticized it for not taking account of the situation for women outside the west.^[37]

Feminism's many forms

Several subtypes of feminist ideology have developed over the years, some of the major subtypes are listed as follows.

Liberal feminism

Main article: Liberal feminism

Liberal feminism asserts the equality of men and women through political and legal reform. It is an individualistic form of feminism and theory, which focuses on women’s ability to show and maintain their equality through their own actions and choices. Liberal feminism looks at the personal interactions of men and women as the starting ground from which to transform society into a more gender-equitable place. According to liberal feminists, all women are capable of asserting their ability to achieve equality, therefore it is possible for change to happen without altering the structure of society. Issues important to liberal feminists include reproductive and abortion rights, sexual harassment, voting, education, "equal pay for equal work," affordable childcare, affordable health care, and bringing to light the frequency of sexual and domestic violence against women.^[38]

People of interest

• Betty Friedan
• Gloria Steinem
• Rebecca Walker
• Naomi Wolf

Radical feminism

Main article: Radical feminism

Radical feminism sees the capitalist sexist hierarchy as the defining feature of women’s oppression. Radical feminists believe that women can free themselves only when have done away with what they consider an inherently oppressive and dominating system. Radical feminists feel that the male-based authority and power structure are responsible for oppression and inequality, and that as long as the system and its values are in place, society will not be able to reform in any significant way. Radical feminism sees capitalism as a barrier to ending oppression. Most radical feminists see no alternatives other than the total uprooting and reconstruction of society in order to achieve their goals.^[39]

Separatist feminism is one form of radical feminism, it does not support heterosexual relationships due to its belief that the sexual disparities between men and women are unresolvable. Separatist feminists generally do not feel that men can make positive contributions to the feminist movement and that even well-intentioned men replicate the dynamics of patriarchy.^[40] Author Marilyn Frye describes separatist feminism as "separation of various sorts or modes from men and from institutions, relationships, roles and activities that are male-defined, male-dominated, and operating for the benefit of males and the maintenance of male privilege — this separation being initiated or maintained, at will, by women."^[41]

Both the self-proclaimed sex-positive and the so-called sex-negative forms of present-day feminism can trace their roots to early radical feminism. Ellen Willis's 1981 essay, "Lust Horizons: Is the Women's Movement Pro-Sex?" is the origin of the term, "pro-sex feminism". In it, she argues against feminism making alliances with the political right in opposition to pornography and prostitution, as occurred, for example, during the Meese Commission hearings in the United States. Willis argued for a feminism that embraces sexual freedom, including men's sexual freedom, rather than condemn pornography, consensual BDSM, and in some cases sexual intercourse and fellatio. ^[42]

Another strand of radical feminism is Anarcha-feminism (also called anarchist feminism or anarcho-feminism). It combines anarchist and feminist ideas and views patriarchy as a manifestation of hierarchy. Anarcha-feminists believe that the struggle against patriarchy is an essential part of class struggle, and the anarchist struggle against the State and capitalism.^[43] Anarcha-feminists like Susan Brown see the anarchist struggle as a necessary component of feminist struggle, in Brown's words "anarchism is a political philosophy that opposes all relationships of power, it is inherently feminist". ^[44] Individualist forms of anarchist feminism have most adherents in the United States, while in Europe there has been more emphasis on collectivism.^[45]

People of interest

• Charlotte Bunch
• Susan Brownmiller
• Mary Daly
• Andrea Dworkin
• Melissa Farley
• Shulamith Firestone
• Catherine Mackinnon
• Adrienne Rich

Individualist feminism

Individualist feminists define Individualist feminism in opposition to political or gender feminism.^[46][26] Some individualist feminists trace the movement's roots to the classical liberal tradition.^[47] It is closely linked to the libertarian ideas of individuality and personal responsibility of both women and men. Some other feminists believe that it reinforces patriarchal systems because it does not view the rights or political interests of men and women as being in conflict nor does it rest upon class/gender analysis.^[48] Individualist feminists attempt to change legal systems in order to eliminate class privileges, including gender privileges and to ensure that individuals have an equal right, an equal claim under law to their own persons and property. Individualist feminism encourages women to take full responsibility over their own lives. It also opposes any government interference into the choices adults make with their own bodies.^[49][50]

Black feminism

Main articles: Black feminism and Womanism

Black feminism argues that sexism and racism are inextricable from one another^[51]. Forms of feminism that strive to overcome sexism and class oppression but ignore race can discriminate against many people, including women, through racial bias. Black feminists argue that the liberation of black women entails freedom for all people, since it would require the end of racism, sexism, and class oppression.^[52] One of the theories that evolved out of this movement was Alice Walker's Womanism. It emerged after the early feminist movements that were led specifically by white women who advocated social changes such as woman’s suffrage. These movements were largely a white middle-class movements and ignored oppression based on racism and classism. Alice Walker and other Womanists pointed out that black women experienced a different and more intense kind of oppression from that of white women. ^[5]

Angela Davis was one of the first people who formed an argument centered on intersection of race, gender and class in her book, "Women, Race, and Class."^[54] Kimberle Crenshaw, prominent feminist law theorist, gave the idea a name while discussing Identity Politics in her essay, 'Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics and Violence Against Women of Color.'

People of interest

• Alice Walker
• Angela Davis
• Barbara Smith
• Hattie Gossett
• Patricia Hill Collins

Socialist and Marxist feminisms

Main articles: Socialist feminism and Marxist feminism

Socialist feminism connects the oppression of women to Marxist ideas about exploitation, oppression and labor. Socialist feminists see women as being held down as a result of their unequal standing in both the workplace and the domestic sphere.^[55] Prostitution, domestic work, childcare, and marriage are all seen as ways in which women are exploited by a patriarchal system which devalues women and the substantial work that they do. Socialist feminists focus their energies on broad change that affects society as a whole, and not just on an individual basis. They see the need to work alongside not just men, but all other groups, as they see the oppression of women as a part of a larger pattern that affects everyone involved in the capitalist system.^[56]

Marx felt that when class oppression was overcome, gender oppression would vanish as well. According to socialist feminists, this view of gender oppression as a sub-class of class oppression is naive and much of the work of socialist feminists has gone towards separating gender phenomena from class phenomena.^[57] Some contributors to socialist feminism have criticized these traditional marxist ideas for being largely silent on gender oppression except to subsume it underneath broader class oppression.^[58] Other socialist feminists, notably two long-lived American organizations Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party, point to the classic Marxist writings of Frederick Engels ^[59] and August Bebel^[60] as a powerful explanation of the link between gender oppression and class exploitation.

People of interest

• Michelè Barrett
• Friedrich Engels
• Clara Fraser
• Emma Goldman
• Sheila Rowbotham

Post-structural feminism and postmodern feminism

Post-structural feminism, also referred to as French feminism, use the insights of various epistemological movements, including psychoanalysis, linguistics, political theory (Marxist and neo-Marxist theory), race theory, literary theory, and other intellectual currents for feminist concerns.^[61] Many post-structural feminists maintain that difference is one of the most powerful tools that females possess in their struggle with patriarchal domination, and that to equate feminist movement only with equality is to deny women a plethora of options as equality is still defined against within masculine or patriarchal perspective.^[61][62] Postmodern Feminism is an approach to feminist theory that incorporates postmodern and post-structuralist theory. The largest departure from other branches of feminism, is the argument that sex as well as gender is constructed through language.^[63] The most notable proponent of this argument is Judith Butler, in her 1990 book, Gender Trouble, which draws on, and criticizes the work of Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan. Butler criticizes the distinction drawn by previous feminisms between (biological) sex and (socially constructed) gender. She says that this does not allow for a sufficient criticism of essentialism. For Butler "women" and "woman" are fraught categories, complicated by class, ethnicity, sexuality, and other facets of identity. She suggests that gender is performative. This argument leads to the conclusion that there is no single cause for women's subordination, and no single approach towards dealing with the issue.^[1] In A Cyborg Manifesto Donna Haraway criticizes traditional notions of feminism, particularly its emphasis on identity, rather than affinity. She uses the metaphor of a cyborg in order to construct a postmodern feminism that moves beyond dualisms and moves beyond the limitations of traditional gender, feminism, and politics.^[65] Haraway's cyborg is an attempt to break away from Oedipal narratives and Christian origins doctrines like Genesis. In the Cyborg Manifesto, she writes: "The cyborg does not dream of community on the model of the organic family, this time without the oedipal project. The cyborg would not recognize the Garden of Eden; it is not made of mud and cannot dream of returning to dust."^[65]

Other postmodern feminist works emphasizes stereotypical female roles, only to portray them as parodies of the original beliefs. The history of feminism is not important in this section, but only what is going to be done about it. In fact, the history is dismissed and used to depict better how ridiculous the past beliefs were. Modern feminist theory has been extensively criticized as being predominantly, though not exclusively, associated with western middle class academia. Mainstream feminism has been criticized as being too narrowly focused, and inattentive to related issues of race and class.^[66]

People of interest

• Judith Butler
• Helene Cixous
• Mary Joe Frug
• Donna Haraway
• Luce Irigaray
• Julia Kristeva
• Monique Wittig

Postcolonial feminism and third-world feminism

Main article: Postcolonial feminism

Postcolonial feminism emerged from the gendered history of colonialism. Colonial powers often imposed Western norms on colonized regions. In the 1940s and 1950s, after the formation of the United Nations, former colonies were monitored by the West for what was considered "social progress". The status of women in the developing world has been monitored by organizations such as the United Nations, as a result traditional practices and roles taken up by women -- sometimes seen as distasteful by Western standards -- could be considered a form of rebellion against colonial oppression.^[67] Postcolonial feminists today struggle to fight gender oppression within their own cultural models of society rather than through those imposed by the Western colonizers.^[68]

Postcolonial feminists argue that oppressions relating to the colonial experience, particularly racial, class, and ethnic oppressions, have marginalized women in postcolonial societies. They challenge the assumption that gender oppression is the primary force of patriarchy. Postcolonial feminists object to portrayals of women of non-Western societies as passive and voiceless victims, as opposed to the portrayal of Western women as modern, educated and empowered.^[69]

Postcolonial feminism is critical of Western forms of feminism, notably radical feminism and liberal feminism and their universalization of female experience. Postcolonial feminists argue that cultures impacted by colonialism are often vastly different and should be treated as such. Colonial oppression may result in glorification of pre-colonial culture, which, in cultures with traditions of stratification of power along lines of gender, could mean the acceptance of, or refusal to deal with, inherent issues of gender inequality.^[70] Postcolonial feminists can be described as feminists who have reacted against both universalizing tendencies in Western feminist thought and a lack of attention to gender issues in mainstream postcolonial thought.^[71]

The feminist movement called third-world feminism has been described as a group of feminist theories developed by feminists who acquired their views and took part in feminist politics in so-called third world countries^[5]. Although women from the third world have been engaged in the feminist movement, Chandra Talpade Mohanty criticizes Western feminism on the grounds that it is ethnocentric and does not take into account the unique experiences of women from third world countries or the existence of feminisms indigenous to third world countries. According to her, women in the third world feel that western feminism bases its understanding of women on "internal racism, classism and homophobia"^[5]. This discourse is strongly related to African feminism and postcolonial feminism. Its development is also associated with concepts such as black feminism, womanism^[22][74][75], "Africana womanism"^[76], "motherism"^[77], "Stiwanism"^[78], "negofeminism"^[79], chicana feminism and "femalism".

People of interest

• Gayatri Spivak
• Chandra Talpade Mohanty
• Trinh T. Minh-ha
• Uma Narayan
• Chandra Talpade Mohanty
• Taslima Nasrin

Ecofeminism

Main article: Ecofeminism

Ecofeminism links ecology with feminism. Ecofeminists see the domination of women as stemming from the same ideologies that bring about the domination of the environment. Patriarchal systems, where men own and control the land, are seen as responsible for the oppression of women and destruction of the natural environment. Since the men in power control the land, they are able to exploit it for their own profit and success. In this same situation, women are exploited by men in power for their own profit, success, and pleasure. Women and the environment are both exploited as passive pawns in the race to domination. Those people in power are able to take advantage of them distinctly because they are seen as passive and rather helpless. Ecofeminism connects the exploitation and domination of women with that of the environment. As a way of repairing social and ecological injustices, ecofeminists feel that women must work towards creating a healthy environment and ending the destruction of the lands that most women rely on to provide for their families.^[80]

Ecofeminism argues that there is a connection between women and nature that comes from their shared history of oppression by a patriarchal western society. Vandana Shiva explains how women's special connection to the environment through their daily interactions with it have been ignored. She says that "women in subsistence economies, producing and reproducing wealth in partnership with nature, have been experts in their own right of holistic and ecological knowledge of nature’s processes. But these alternative modes of knowing, which are oriented to the social benefits and sustenance needs are not recognized by the [capitalist] reductionist paradigm, because it fails to perceive the interconnectedness of nature, or the connection of women’s lives, work and knowledge with the creation of wealth.”^[81] Ecofeminists also criticize Western lifestyle choices, such as consuming food that has traveled thousands of miles and playing sports (such as golf and bobsledding) which inherently require ecological destruction.

Feminist and social ecologist Janet Biehl has criticized ecofeminism for focusing too much on a mystical connection between women and nature, and not enough on the actual conditions of women.^[82]

People of interest

• Vandana Shiva
• Wangari Maathai
• Karen J. Warren
• Gerda Lerner
• Val Plumwood

Post-feminism

Main article: Post-feminism

Post-feminism comprises a wide range of theories, some of which argue that feminism is no longer relevant to today's society.^[83] One of the earliest uses of the term was in Susan Bolotin's 1982 article "Voices of the Post-Feminist Generation," published in New York Times Magazine. This article was based on a number of interviews with women who largely agreed with the goals of feminism, but did not identify as feminists.^[84] The post-feminist texts which emerged in the 1980s and '90s often portrayed second-wave feminism as a monolithic entity, thereby allowing the author to criticize these generalizations.^[85]

Elizabeth Wright says that Postfeminism considers the issue of postmodern dispersed and unstable subjectivity in relation to feminist ideas. Postfeminism is continuously in process, taking a critical approach to previous feminist discourses. Wright says that this critical approach includes a challenge to second-wave ideas.^[31] Wright points out that there is a negative meaning to the term "post-feminism" which "indicates that feminism can now be dispensed with."^[31] Sarah Gamble argues that feminists such as Naomi Wolf, Katie Roiphe and Natasha Walter are labelled as 'anti-feminists' whereas they define themselves as feminists who have shifted from second-wave ideas towards an "individualistic liberal agenda".^[87]

Gamble points out that post-feminists like Rene Denfeld are criticized as "pawns of a conservative 'backlash' against feminism.^[87] Denefeld has distanced herself from feminists who see pornography and heterosexuality as oppressive. She also criticized what she sees as the second-wave's "reckless" use of the term patriarchy.^[88]

People of interest

• Camille Paglia
• Katie Roiphe
• Natasha Walter
• Naomi Wolf

Issues in defining feminism

One of the difficulties in defining and circumscribing a complex and heterogeneous concept such as feminism^[89][90] is the extent to which women have rejected the term from a variety of semantic and political standpoints. Many women engaged in activities intimately grounded in feminism have not considered themselves feminists. Likewise, it is assumed that only women can be feminists. However, feminism is not grounded in the basis of one's gender, but in rejecting and refuting sexist oppression politically, socially, privately, linguistically, and otherwise. (Though there are people - both men and women - who claim feminism itself can be biased in its approach to gender relations.) Redefining feminism in this way illustrates and reflects today's reality of both men and women openly supporting feminism and also openly adhering to sexist ideals.^[91] From a political vantage, the term "feminism" has been rejected both because of fears of labeling, and because of its innate ability to attract broad misogyny.^[92] Historically Virginia Woolf was one of the more prominent women to reject the term^[93] early in its history in 1938, although it would be easy to overstate Woolf's position,^[94] considering that she is regarded as an icon of feminism.^[95] However Betty Friedan would revisit this concern in 1981 in The Second Stage. Nevertheless, defining ideas does not necessarily imply tagging the individual. Ann Taylor,^[96] for instance, offers the following definition of a feminist, after Karen Offen:^[97] Any person who recognizes "the validity of women's own interpretation of their lived experiences and needs," protests against the institutionalized injustice perpetrated by men as a group against women as a group, and advocates the elimination of that injustice by challenging the various structures of authority or power that legitimate male prerogatives in a given society. Another way of expressing this concept is that a primary goal is to correct androcentric bias.^[98] Other attempts at defining feminism have been made by the United Nations.^[99] However, one of feminism's unique characteristics, strengths and weaknesses is its persistent defiance of being constrained by definition. Charlotte Witt observes that this reflects the "contested nature of the "us" of contemporary feminism ... and is a part of, on-going debates within feminism over its identity and self-image ... in the final analysis, the result of debate within feminist philosophy over what feminism is, and what its theoretical commitments should be, and what its core values are."^[100] This is the subject of one of the more lively debates in feminism, that which Nannerl Keohane has called the "perpetual oscillation between essentialism and nominalism (constructionism) in feminist theory."^[101] Briefly, "to essentialise is to reduce a complex idea or object to simplistic characteristics, thereby denying diversity, multiple meanings and alternative interpretations" in the words of Joan Marler, an opponent of essentialism in feminism.^[102]

In recent times some women and men have distanced from the term "femin"ism in favor of more inclusive terminology such as "equal rights activist/advocate", "equalist" or similar non-gendered phrasings.^[103][104]

Feminism and society

Main article: Feminist movement

The feminist movement has effected change in Western society, including women's suffrage; the right to initiate divorce proceedings and "no fault" divorce; and the right of women to make individual decisions regarding pregnancy (including access to contraceptives and abortion).^[5][5]

Civil rights

Feminism has effected many changes in Western society, including women's suffrage, broad employment for women at more equitable wages, the right to initiate divorce proceedings and the introduction of "no fault" divorce, the right to obtain contraception and safe abortions, and access to university education. According to studies by the United Nations, when both paid employment and unpaid household tasks are accounted for, on average women work more than men. In rural areas of selected developing countries women performed an average of 20% more work than men, or an additional 102 minutes per day. In the OECD countries surveyed, on average women performed 5% more work than men, or 20 minutes per day.^[107] At the UN's Pan Pacific Southeast Asia Women's Association twenty first International Conference in 2001 it was stated that "in the world as a whole, women comprise 51 percent of the population, do 66 percent of the work, receive 10 percent of the income and own less than one percent of the property."^[108]

Language

Main article: Gender-neutral language in English

Gender-neutral language is a description of language usages which are aimed at minimizing assumptions regarding the biological sex of human referents. The advocacy of gender-neutral language reflects, at least, two different agenda: one aims to clarify the inclusion of both sexes or genders (gender-inclusive language); the other proposes that gender, as a category, is rarely worth marking in language (gender-neutral language). Gender-neutral language is sometimes described as non-sexist language by advocates, and politically-correct language by opponents.^[109]

Heterosexual relationships

The increased entry of women into the workplace beginning in the twentieth and century has effected gender roles and division of labor within households. The sociologist, Arlie Russell Hochschild, presents evidence in her books, The Second Shift and The Time Bind, that in two-career couples, men and women on the average spend about equal amounts of time working, but women still spend more time on housework.^[110][111]

Feminist criticisms of men's contributions to child care and domestic labor in the Western middle class are typically centered around the idea that it is unfair for women to be expected to perform more than half of a household's domestic work and child care when both members of the relationship also work outside the home. Several studies provide statistical evidence that higher or lower financial income of married men, does not influence them in terms of attending to the household duties as much their wives.^[112][113]

In Dubious Conceptions, Kristin Luker discusses the effect of feminism on teenage women's choices to bear a child, both in and out of wedlock. She says that as childbearing out of wedlock has become more socially acceptable; young women, especially poor young women, while not bearing children at a higher rate than in the 1950s, now see less reason to get married before having a child. Her explanation for this is that economic prospects for poor men are slim, hence poor women have a low chance of finding a husband who will be able to provide reliable financial support.^[114]

Religion

Main article: Feminist theology

Feminist theology is a movement that reconsiders the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of their religion from a feminist perspective. Some of the goals of feminist theology include increasing the role of women among the clergy and religious authorities, reinterpreting male-dominated imagery and language about God, determining women's place in relation to career and motherhood, and studying images of women in the religion's sacred texts.^[115]

See also:  and

Christian feminism

Main article: Christian feminism

Christian feminism is a branch of feminist theology which seeks to interpret and understand Christianity in the scope of the equality of women and men morally, socially, and in leadership. Because this equality has been historically ignored, Christian feminists believe their contributions are necessary for a complete understanding of Christianity. While there is no standard set of beliefs among Christian feminists, most agree that God does not discriminate on the basis of biologically-determined characteristics such as gender. Their major issues are the ordination of women, male dominance in Christian marriage, and claims of moral deficiency and inferiority of abilities of women compared to men. They also are concerned with issues such as the balance of parenting between mothers and fathers and the overall treatment of women in the church. ^[116][117]

Jewish feminism

Main article: Jewish feminism

Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to improve the religious, legal, and social status of women within Judaism and to open up new opportunities for religious experience and leadership for Jewish women. Feminist movements, with varying approaches and successes, have opened up within all major branches of Judaism. In its modern form, the movement can be traced to the early 1970s in the United States. According to Judith Plaskow, who has focused on feminism in Reform Judaism, the main issues for early Jewish feminists in these movements were the exclusion from the all-male prayer group or minyan, the exemption from positive time-bound mitzvot, and women's inability to function as witnesses and to initiate divorce.^[118]

People of interest

• Rachel Adler
• Nina Hartley
• Tova Hartman
• Susan Sontag
• Yona Wallach

Islamic feminism

Main article: Islamic feminism

Islamic feminism is a form of feminism concerned with the role of women in Islam. It aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Islamic feminists advocate women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework. Although rooted in Islam, the movement's pioneers have also utilized secular and Western feminist discourses and recognize the role of Islamic feminism as part of an integrated global feminist movement^[119]. Advocates of the movement seek to highlight the deeply rooted teachings of equality in the Quran and encourage a questioning of the patriarchal interpretation of Islamic teaching through the Quran (holy book), hadith (sayings of Muhammed) and sharia (law) towards the creation of a more equal and just society.^[120]

People of interest

• Fadela Amara
• Asma Barlas
• Samira Bellil
• Mukhtaran Bibi
• Zilla Huma Usman
• Amina Wadud

Scientific research into feminist issues

Some natural and social scientists have considered feminist ideas and feminist forms of scholarship using scientific methods.

One core scientific controversy involves the issue of the social construction vs the biological formation of gender or sex associated identities. Modern feminist science is based on the view that most if not all differences between the sexes are based on socially constructed gender identities rather than on biological sex differences. For example, Anne Fausto-Sterling's book Myths of Gender explores the assumptions embodied in scientific research that purports to support a biologically essentialist view of gender.^[121] However, in The Female Brain, Louann Brizendine argues that brain differences between the sexes are a biological reality with significant implications for sex-specific functional differences.^[122] Steven Rhoads' book Taking Sex Differences Seriously illustrates sex-dependent differences across a wide scope.^[123]

Carol Tavris, in The Mismeasure of Woman (the title is a play on Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man), uses psychology, sociology, and analysis in a critique of theories that use biological reductionism to explain differences between men and women. She argues rather than using evidence of innate gender difference there is an over-changing hypothesis to justify inequality and perpetuate stereotypes.^[124]

Evelyn Fox Keller has argued that the rhetoric of science reflects a masculine perspective, and questions the idea of scientific objectivity. Primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy notes the prevalence of masculine-coined stereotypes and theories, such as the non-sexual female, despite ;the accumulation of abundant openly available evidence contradicting it".^[125]

Sarah Kember - drawing from numerous areas such as evolutionary biology, sociobiology, artificial intelligence, and cybernetics in development with a new evolutionism - discusses the biologization of technology. She notes how feminists and sociologists have become suspect of evolutionary psychology, particularly inasmuch as sociobiology is subjected to complexity in order to strengthen sexual difference as immutable through pre-existing cultural value judgments about human nature and natural selection. Where feminist theory is criticized for its "false beliefs about human nature," Kember then argues in conclusion that "feminism is in the interesting position of needing to do more biology and evolutionary theory in order not to simply oppose their renewed hegemony, but in order to understand the conditions that make this possible, and to have a say in the construction of new ideas and artefacts." ^[126]

Other concepts

Pro-feminism

Main article: Pro-feminism

Pro-feminism is support of feminism without implying that the supporter is a member of the feminist movement. The term is most often used in reference to men who are actively supportive of feminism and of efforts to bring about gender equality The activities of pro-feminist men's groups include anti-violence work with boys and young men in schools, offering sexual harassment workshops in workplaces, running community education campaigns, and counseling male perpetrators of violence. Pro-feminist men also are involved in men's health, activism against pornography including anti-pornography legislation, men's studies, the development of gender equity curricula in schools, and many other areas. This work is sometimes in collaboration with feminists and women's services, such as domestic violence and rape crisis centers. Some activists of both genders will not refer to men as "feminists" at all, and will refer to all pro-feminist men as "pro-feminists".^[127][128]

Anti-feminism

Main article: Anti-feminism

Opposition to feminism comes in many forms, either criticizing feminist ideology and practice or arguing that it be restrained. Antifeminism is often equated with male chauvinism.

Feminists such as Camille Paglia, Christina Hoff Sommers, Jean Bethke Elshtain and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese have been labeled "antifeminists" by other feminists ^{[129] [130]}. Patai and Koerge argue that in this way the term "antifeminist" is used to silence academic debate about feminism.^[131] Paul Nathanson and Katherine K. Young's books Spreading Misandry and Legalizing Misandry explore what they argue is feminist-inspired misandry.^[132]. Christina Hoff-Sommers argues feminist misandry leads directly to misogyny by what she calls "establishment feminists" against (the majority of) women who love men in Who Stole Feminism: How Women Have Betrayed Women.

"Marriage rights" advocates criticize feminists like Shelia Cronan who take the view that marriage constitutes slavery for women, and that freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage.^[133]

Notable feminists

• See List of feminists
• See

References

See also

• Equal pay for women
• Equal Rights Amendment
• European Feminist Forum
• Feminist history in the United States
• Feminist history in the United Kingdom
• Feminist history in Poland
• Feminist history in Latin America
• Feminist therapy
• Hate speech
• Teaching for social justice
• Lesbian feminism
• New feminism
• Social criticism
• Women's cinema
• Women's Environment & Development Organization
• Women's music
• Sex/gender distinction

Masculist movements

• Men's Rights
• Masculism

Derogatory neologisms

• Feminazi

External links

• Association for Women in Psychology
• Center for the Advancement of Women
• Committee for Asian Women
• European Feminist Forum
• FemINist INitiative of Canada
• NOW - National Organization for Women in the United States.
• Women living under Muslim laws
• Muslim Women Rebel In France
• Feminists for Free Expression
• The Feminist eZine - 1001 Feminist Links.
• Women's Forum Australia
• Radical Women
• Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
• Older Women's League - The Voice of Midlife and Older Women (OWL)
• ROKS - Swedish women's organization
• Feminism & Nonviolence Studies
• Susan Brownmiller.com: Where Feminism Lives
• FemBio - Notable Women International
• RADAR
• Female Anti-Feminism for Fame and Profit, by Jennifer Pozner
• Riffat Hasan on Religious conservatism: Feminist theology as a means of combating injustice towards women in Muslim communities/culture
• Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution from the Jewish Women's Archive
• Islam from Patriarch

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