Feminism

Feminism
• Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that
aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and
social equality of the sexes.

• Feminism holds the position that societies prioritize the male point of
view and that women are treated unjustly in these societies.

• Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and

improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities
and outcomes for women.
 Feminism
• Originating in late 18th-century Europe, feminist movements have campaigned
and continue to campaign for women's rights, including the right to vote, run for
public office, work, earn equal pay, own property, receive education, enter
contracts, have equal rights within marriage, and maternity leave.

• Changes in female dress standards and acceptable physical activities for females
have also been part of feminist movements.

• Many scholars consider feminist campaigns to be a main force behind major

historical societal changes for women's rights, particularly in the West. Important
feminist theorists of the 20th century include Betty Friedan, Julia Kristeva, Judith
Butler, Elaine Showalter, Carol Gilligan, and Adrienne Rich.
 History of Feminism
• Mary Wollstonecraft is seen by many as a founder of feminism due to her
1792 book titled A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in which she argues
that class and private property are the basis of discrimination against
women, and that women as much as men needed equal rights.

• Charles Fourier, a utopian socialist and French philosopher, is credited with

having coined the word "féminisme" in 1837.

• The words "féminisme" ("feminism") and "féministe" ("feminist") first

appeared in France and the Netherlands in 1872, Great Britain in the 1890s,
and the United States in 1910.
 History of Feminism
• The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first appearance in English in
this meaning back to 1895.

• Most western feminist historians contend that all movements working

to obtain women's rights should be considered feminist movements,
even when they did not (or do not) apply the term to themselves.

• Other historians assert that the term should be limited to the modern
feminist movement and its descendants. Those historians use the label
"protofeminist" to describe earlier movements.
 Waves of Feminism
• The history of the modern western feminist movement is divided into
multiple "waves". The first comprised women's suffrage movements of the
19th and early-20th centuries, promoting women's right to vote.

• The second wave, the women's liberation movement, began in the 1960s and
campaigned for legal and social equality for women.

• In or around 1992, a third wave was identified, characterized by a focus on

individuality and diversity. Additionally, some have argued for the existence of
a fourth wave, starting around 2012, which has used social media to combat
harassment, violence against women, etc.
 First-wave Feminism
• First-wave feminism was a period of activity during the 19th and early-20th
centuries. In the UK and US, it focused on the promotion of equal contract,
marriage, parenting, and property rights for women.

• Women's suffrage (the right to vote and stand for parliamentary office) began
in Britain's Australasian colonies at the close of the 19th century, with the self-
governing colonies of New Zealand granting women the right to vote in 1893.

• South Australia followed suit with the Constitutional Amendment (Adult

Suffrage) Act 1894 in 1894. This was followed by Australia granting female
suffrage in 1902.
 First-wave Feminism
• In the US, notable leaders of this movement included Lucretia Mott,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, who each campaigned
for the abolition of slavery before championing women's right to vote.

• These women were influenced by the Quaker theology of spiritual

equality, which asserts that men and women are equal under God.

• In the US, 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 in all states.
 Second-wave Feminism
• By the mid-20th century, women still lacked significant rights. In
France, women obtained the right to vote only with the Provisional
Government of the French Republic of 21 April 1944.

• In Switzerland, women gained the right to vote in federal elections in

1971.

• Feminists continued to campaign for the reform of family laws which

gave husbands control over their wives.
 Second-wave Feminism
• Second-wave feminists see women's cultural and political inequalities as
inextricably linked and encourage women to understand aspects of their
personal lives as deeply politicized and as reflecting sexist power structures.

• The feminist activist and author Carol Hanisch coined the slogan "The
Personal is Political", which became synonymous with the second wave.

• In 1963, Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique helped voice the
discontent that American women felt. The book is widely credited with
sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States. Within
ten years, women made up over half the First World workforce.
 Third-wave Feminism
• Due to the institutional victories of second-wave feminism, women
enjoyed more rights and power going into the 1990s.

• They were able to think about other aspects of their identity,

welcoming individuality and rebellion.

• Third-wave feminism also sought to challenge or avoid what it

deemed the second wave's essentialist definitions of femininity,
which, third-wave feminists argued, overemphasized the experiences
of upper middle-class white women.
 Third-wave Feminism
• Third-wave feminists often focused on "micro-politics" and challenged the
second wave's paradigm as to what was, or was not, good for women, and
tended to use a post-structuralist interpretation of gender and sexuality.

• Third-wave feminism also contained internal debates between difference

feminists, who believe that there are important psychological differences
between the sexes.

• And those who believe that there are no inherent psychological differences
between the sexes and contend that gender roles are due to social
conditioning.
 Fourth-wave Feminism
• Fourth-wave feminism is a proposed extension of third-wave
feminism which corresponds to a resurgence in interest in feminism
beginning around 2012 and associated with the use of social media.

• According to feminist scholar Prudence Chamberlain, the focus of the

fourth wave is justice for women and opposition to harassment and
violence against women.

• Its essence, she writes, is "incredulity that certain attitudes can still
exist".
 Feminist Theory
• Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical or philosophical
fields.

• It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and

men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and feminist politics in a variety
of fields, such as anthropology and sociology, communication, media studies,
psychoanalysis, political theory, home economics, literature, education, and
philosophy.

• Feminist theory often focuses on analyzing gender inequality. Themes often

explored in feminist theory include discrimination, objectification, oppression,
patriarchy, stereotyping, art history and contemporary art, and aesthetics.
 Language
• In this debate, women writers have addressed the issues of
masculinized writing through male gendered language that may not
serve to accommodate the literary understanding of women's lives.

• Feminist theorists attempt to reclaim and redefine women through a

deeper thinking of language.

• Some feminist theorists have suggested using neutral terminology

when naming jobs (for example, police officer versus policeman or
mail carrier versus mailman).
 Psychology
• Feminist psychology is a form of psychology centered on societal
structures and gender.

• Feminist psychology critiques the fact that historically psychological

research has been done from a male perspective with the view that
males are the norm.

• Feminist psychology is oriented on the values and principles of

feminism. It incorporates gender and the ways women are affected by
issues resulting from it.
 Psychology
• One major psychological theory, relational-cultural theory, is based on
the work of Jean Baker Miller, whose book Toward a New Psychology
of Women proposes that "growth-fostering relationships are a central
human necessity and that disconnections are the source of
psychological problems".

• The theory is based on clinical observations and sought to prove that

"there was nothing wrong with women, but rather with the way
modern culture viewed them“.
 Psychology
• Psychoanalytic feminism and feminist psychoanalysis are based on Freud
and his psychoanalytic theories, but they also supply an important critique
of it.

• Psychoanalytical feminists believe that gender inequality comes from early

childhood experiences, which lead men to believe themselves to be
masculine, and women to believe themselves feminine.

• It is further maintained that gender leads to a social system that is

dominated by males, which in turn influences the individual psycho-sexual
development.
 Feminist Literary Criticism
• Feminist literary criticism is literary criticism informed by feminist
theories or politics.

• Its history has been varied, from classic works of female authors such as
George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, and Margaret Fuller to recent theoretical
work in women's studies and gender studies by "third-wave" authors.

• Since the arrival of more complex conceptions of gender and

subjectivity, feminist literary criticism has taken a variety of new routes
such as deconstruction of existing power relations.
 Feminist Premises
• Women are oppressed by patriarchy economically, politically, socially, and
psychologically; patriarchal ideology is the primary means by which they
are kept so.

• In every domain where patriarchy reigns, woman is other: she is objectified

and marginalized, defined only by her difference from male norms and
values, defined by what she (allegedly) lacks and that men (allegedly) have.

• All of Western (Anglo-European) civilization is deeply rooted in patriarchal

ideology.
 Feminist Premises
• While biology determines our sex (male or female), culture
determines our gender (masculine or feminine).

• That is, for most English-speaking feminists, the word gender refers
not to our anatomy but to our behavior as socially programmed men
and women.

• In fact, all the traits we associate with masculine and feminine

behavior are learned, not inborn.
 Feminist Premises
• All feminist activity, including feminist theory and literary criticism,
has as its ultimate goal to change the world by promoting women’s
equality.

• Thus, all feminist activity can be seen as a form of activism.

• Gender issues play a part in every aspect of human production and

experience, including the production and experience of literature,
whether we are consciously aware of these issues or not.
 Questions Feminist Critics Ask About
Literary Texts
• What does the work reveal about the operations (economically,
politically, socially, or psychologically) of patriarchy? How are women
portrayed?

• How do these portrayals relate to the gender issues of the period in

which the novel was written or is set?

• In other words, does the work reinforce or undermine patriarchal

ideology?
 Questions Feminist Critics Ask About
Literary Texts
• What does the work suggest about the ways in which race, class,
and/or other cultural factors intersect with gender in producing
women’s experience?

• How is the work “gendered”? That is, how does it seem to define
femininity and masculinity?

• Does the characters’ behavior always conform to their assigned

genders?
 Questions Feminist Critics Ask About
Literary Texts
• What does the work imply about the possibilities of sisterhood as a
mode of resisting patriarchy and/or about the ways in which women’s
situations in the world—economic, political, social, or psychological—
might be improved?

• What does the history of the work’s reception by the public and by
the critics tell us about the operations of patriarchy?

• Has the literary work been ignored or neglected in the past?

 Questions Feminist Critics Ask About
Literary Texts
• What does the work suggest about women’s creativity?

• What might an examination of the author’s style contribute to the

ongoing efforts to delineate a specifically feminine form of writing?

• What role does the work play in terms of women’s literary history and
literary tradition?