It is certain that feminism is a cross-cutting ideology, encompassing the three broad traditions of liberal traditions, socialist feminism and radical feminism, but whether it is today a single doctrine or still simply a sub-set of others can be greatly debated. Feminism can be seen as a single doctrine in that all feminists are concerned to advance the social role of women. Feminists all agree that the advancement of women in society is their main priority, believing that society is characterised by unequal gender power and status, and that gender inequality can be altered or reversed. All feminists believe that in order to advance a woman’s social status, liberation is necessary. Liberation is seen to be achieved through raising women’s consciousness of subjugation.
Essay #2 (Women Who Live Evil Lives by Martha Few and Autobiography of a Slave by Juan Francisco Manzano) In the book Women Who Live Evil Lives by Martha Few, Few makes the argument that despite the vast ethnic and gender discrimination that plagued Santiago de Guatemala during the time of the Spanish inquisition, women especially women of color were able to exercise more cultural authority then historians have previously acknowledged. Her analysis of the perspective of the “mujeres de mal vivir” or “the women who live evil lives” tells us the often overlooked story of women who to use Few’s words, “drew on ideas and practices of religion and the supernatural and reformulated them to assert their authority and power in the local community”(5). She goes on to say that “Women then used this authority and power to overtly challenge gender, racial and colonial hierarchies and intervene in conflicts and problems in daily life”(5). This new found perspective for examination allows us a better understanding of the hierarchical aspects of both the culture at large as well as the slave culture. Within both of the cultures, societal role was often determined by ethnicity as well as gender and Few points out that the perspective of historians has always been shaped by the assumption that this discrimination led to the utter oppression of those in marginalized groups.
In her publication titled “Gender Trouble”, Judith Butler presents her view that gender is a performative role in society, meaning that in order for gender identity to be genuinely expressed and understood, it must be conveyed openly in social spaces. Throughout her book she provides numerous examples of these “social spaces” that would be a necessary ground for women in order to better establish an identity in society. These include political representation, cultural movements, and the economic climate. These social spaces are presented in great depth and explain how they limit a person by identifying with a specific gender. In this paper, I will argue for Butler’s view on how certain gender performance is restricted in these numerous fields, and how Ms. Butler would object to these various situations.
What does it mean to be a woman? Where does it all originate? Prior to the 18th century women had no equality they had to combat social and cultural inequalities .Soon after feminism started to take root and in today’s world women see themselves on par with men. However they still identify themselves by the role they fulfil. If you ask a woman the question “who are you?’ immediately the response would be mother, sister, wife, grandmother or they give their professional title.
Yet we see media encouraging the notion that you must be beautiful not smart to find a significant other. Equally, we see media encouraging that to be attractive to females you must have be masculine, strong, and handsome. Feminism currently works to defeat these standards put upon males and females by society. A beautiful reference Quindlen made to the shifting feminist agenda is that of expectations. As females, we are now able to legally do everything a male can do, yet now we are expected to do it even better.
Through a feminist critique of Othello, it is possible to examine the influences of sexism in the society by inspecting the construction of the patriarchy, the idea that gender is not the same as sex, and lastly, the construction of femininity within the play. Feminism, is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary to be “the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes”, and as A. Balu Vijayaraghavan said, by applying feminist criticism, one could “investigate how Shakespeare’s plays relate to the codes and conventions of the gender system specific to the early modern period”, as well as having an understanding of “how thoroughly Shakespeare shared the gender assumptions of his own time and the ways in which his plays must have disrupted these assumptions”. The
Each approach derives from the fact that feminist social theorists were considered to be mainly concerned with gender equality and preoccupied with ensuring that women’s interests were not marginalised .Feminist theorists have continued to concentrate on the position of women in society and their research is generally based on the notion that women are regarded as under the control and authority of men. Current feminist such as Martineau and Wollstonecraft theorists have widened the scope of their work while still acknowledging these concepts as critical to their core. Historically, feminist theorists have challenged the masculine bias in supposedly objective knowledge, claiming that women were excluded within the social sciences with the result that the focus was on topics and institutions of concern more to men than to women and neglecting issues and concerns relevant to women(Hughes 2013).Both Martineau and Wollstonecraft felt that it was only by embracing the diversity of women’s experiences that knowledge would stop being what they described as ‘partial’. They argued also that social scientific knowledge about women must begin from the context of the gendered experience of the women being studied. Such an approach would encourage research into issues such as the traditional family and the possible
The above quotation illustrates the fundamental point of feminist geography; it is no different from geography as a whole in terms of concepts, only in perspective. Women have remained invisible throughout most of the history of the discipline, and where they have been represented, it has been in subordinate roles, highlighting the world of work as a world for men. Thus geography has supported the notion of separate public and domestic spheres, based on the ideological divide that has limited the access of women to the public field, and obscured our understanding of gender relations as complex relations of power. The following definition is also important since it highlights the importance placed upon gender by feminist geography, instead of women, thus strengthening their arguments that feminism can also be argued from a masculine point of view. “There is also a distinct definition of what feminist geography is, or rather should be: ‘a geography which explicitly takes into account the
The Inevitability of Negative Consequences of the Industrial Revolution The perception of the industrial revolution as a key factor in changing the way of life is a fair statement. It is termed a “revolution” because the changes it produced were great and sudden. This revolution first appeared in Britain in the 1700s, fostering attitudes toward capitalism and modern industry everywhere. New traditions replaced old traditions, machinery replaced people, and people moved to urban cities from rural areas; simply, the way of life had been changed forever. The industrial revolution introduced mass production and greater markets.
Sex, Gender and Gender roles redefined In her book The Second Sex, Simone De Beauvoir states, “One is not born, but, rather becomes a woman”. This statement highlights the difference between sex and gender. While sex is a biological term, gender is a social and cultural construct. An individual is born into the categories of male or female but it is the very task of ‘accomplishing gender’ that determines the social identity of the person. Women are under a constant pressure to adhere to roles that are specific to their gender and so are men.