Allahabad Bible Seminary

Feminist Theology - BTW14

Submitted to: Rev. Pervez Sethna
Submitted by: V. Ivin Paul (BD4E) Date:12/09/2021
Topic - Need of women's movement, Women's movement in 19th and 20th Century, Necessity and
the struggle of the women, and the rights/freedom that they were seeking.

1. The need for the women's movement:

The need for the women of the world to come together for their rights and liberation
because the fracture between women and men is cornerstone to so much of the world's pain and
trauma. Girls and women still suffer disproportionately from gender-based violence,
discrimination, and lack of access to basic human rights. And boys and men still suffer
immeasurably from sexism and cultural definitions of masculinity, which often shut them off from
the feminine parts of themselves and force them to live within a narrow band of human experience.
And we still need a women's movement because the movement's vision of change goes
well beyond the notion of creating gender equality. It is about figuring out how we can take care
of everybody and of the earth that sustains all life. Making this kind of deep and lasting change is
no small order. It requires massive systems change, including reengineering of our economies,
politics, and religious institutions. And, it requires a steely commitment by individuals to "be the
change," and reengineer our own personal habits, motivations, and way of living together on our
precious planet.
This vision is often dismissed as naïve and not possible, because it is asserted that the
current "us versus them" paradigm is pre-ordained by nature or God or both. Yet new science
reveals that cooperation is a thriving natural survival mechanism and most religions and spiritual
doctrines are based on a unity principle.
In every corner of the world, women are creating new pathways of human progress,
building bridges across intractable political conflicts and healing some of the deepest fractures in
the human spirit. Women like Edit Schlaffer, founder of Women without Borders, who is working
with mothers impacted by extremist violence to create new pathways for human security and
Chung Hyun Kyung, a theologian who is helping create Jo Gak Bo (Quilt), a peace movement
between North and South Korean women.
 One of the great strengths of the women's movement has been its central chord of optimism
that the world can be different, that change can happen, and that women can and will take
responsibility for bringing that change into being. Instead of debating whether there is still a need
for a women's movement, we should be asking ourselves what role we can all play in healing the
deep fractures that exist between us to help realize the enduring promise of an "all of us" world.
2. Women's movement in 19th and 20th Century:
In 1851, the first suffrage society was founded in Britain. A following generation of women’s
activists founded the Women’s Social and Political Union and set out to engage in dramatic,
militant action. They were led by Christabel Pankhurst, and they were known as the “suffragettes”.
The British suffragettes scuffled with the police in 1905; two militants even smashed the windows
on the house of Britain’s prime minister. In 1912, the suffragettes organized a spectacular
nationwide campaign of window breaking.
They also chained themselves to fences, set fire to mailboxes to call attention to their cause, and
even bombed the house of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Once in prison, suffragettes engaged
in hunger strikes which gained further publicity, and eventually sympathy.
Most dramatically and tragically, in 1913, a young activist named Emily Davison came to
the famous Epsom Derby horse race. She timed her action exactly and stepped in front of the horse
that was owned by none other than the British king, George V. Davison. She was hit with
tremendous speed by the startled racehorse and thrown to the ground. She died of her injuries
several days later. Her funeral procession through London, with 2,000 women activists, was
testimony to the determination of these activists. In reaction, anti-suffrage movements rose up as
well, both in the United States and in Britain. These protagonists (including both men and women)
were convinced that allowing women’s votes would be a violation of natural order and of social
cohesion, which they saw as necessarily relegating women to an entirely domestic sphere. In 1889,
over a hundred American women signed a so-called Appeal Against Female Suffrage.

3. The rights/freedom that they were seeking:

The main aim of the women’s movement is to accept the women as the equal gender and
eliminate all the discriminations they experience. From domestic violence to the inequality in the
society they were cornered and crushed from all directions, to enjoy the highest attainable standard
of physical and mental health; to be educated; to own property; to vote; and to earn an equal wage.