HISTORY AND THEORY OF FEMINISM The term feminism can be used to describe a political, cultural or economic movement aimed at establishing equal rights and legal protection for women. Feminism involves political and sociological theories and philosophies concerned with issues of gender difference, as well as a movement that advocates gender equality for women and campaigns for women's rights and interests. Although the terms "feminism" and "feminist" did not gain widespread use until the 1970s, they were already being used in the public parlance much earlier; for instance, Katherine Hepburn speaks of the "feminist movement" in the 1942 film Woman of the Year. According to Maggie Humm and Rebecca Walker, the history of feminism can be divided into three waves. The first feminist wave was in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the second was in the 1960s and 1970s, and the third extends from the 1990s to the present.
The Phenomenology of the American Woman: Past and Present Howard L. Bethany Liberty University HSER 509, B05 Multicultural Issues in Human Services July 10, 2011 Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explore and to educate others on how sex and the female gender role have perpetrated oppression on the American woman. This paper crosses racial and ethnicity lines as it relates the true phenomenology of women through the conception and the growing pains of a young nation. An examination of Scriptural passages unfolds so that one can establish knowledge of how their ancestors translated the verses pertaining to women. It will also provide the reader a chance to analyze their perception of the Scriptures as they scrutinize their worldview on the woman’s place in society. Most of all it dramatizes the oppression that has continued throughout the history of the woman.
Ginia Bellafante spoke in Time Magazine, “if the women’s movement were still useful, it would have something useful to say; it’s dead because it has won” (Bellafante) Progress since the 60’s and 70’s is visible, but statistics verify that women have a long way to go. Domestic violence is a persistent problem; women still fight to maintain reproductive rights, and earn only seventy-five percent of the salary that men receive to perform the same work. Many claim that there is no longer any reason for feminism, despite all this information. Is feminism dead in today’s society? One of the main reasons feminism has lost supporters is that business have worked to over-power the image that represents feminists.
With the rise of feminism, a new voice came who spoke for women’s liberation from the common “housewife” role, to an individual being of sexuality and free choice. Betty Friedan, the author of “The Feminine Mystique,” pushed for women to explore their sexuality and become more than just a household decoration. She believed women were bound to social norms which prevented them from exploring their full sexuality. She stated women lived in a society where “instead of fulfilling the promise of infinite orgasmic bliss, sex in the America of the feminine mystique is becoming a strangely joyless national compulsion, if not a contemptuous mockery.” (Friedan, 1963) As an encouraging voice for sexuality and independence, Friedan pushed the limits and helped spark women’s participation in the sexual
Victoria Mullins Women’s History II Tues/Thurs, 9:00AM The fight for rights as an American woman has been a very long, uphill battle. When it comes to the laws and how they are created, there have been many different perspectives. This was especially true during the Women’s Movement of the early 1900’s. How one views the issues at hand influences what they believe needs to be changed within the laws themselves. American feminists found themselves divided on the issues of “equality” under the law.
IAH 201: U.S. & The World (D) The Women’s Rights Movement Starting In the early 1800s women began to question their general role in society and how it is unjust and unfair. Interestingly the educated radicals and working class women in early 1800s were still concerned with the roles and rights of women, they did not classify suffrage as being the prominent issue. The idea of women’s suffrage did not become the primary goal of the Women’s rights movement until around the 1850s, and then remained the primary goal up until 1920 when women finally achieved the right to vote. Further, there were many significant male and female figuresthat played crucial roles in the Women’s rights movements that eventually led to, but didn’t stop at, the achievement of women’s right to vote in 1920. It was in the early 1800s when women began to question various issues such as their roles in society and their rights as a woman, or their lack of rights and unjust inequality in comparison to males.
Anderson points out that despite continuing occupational sex segregation, a lack of appropriate child care, and the lingering negative attitudes regarding female employment, women persisted in gaining employment and opening doors for themselves and later generations. The necessities of wartime America undermined a somewhat sex segregated labor market and the ideas that perpetuated it. Lacking national uniformity, local municipal government and attitudes greatly influenced the breath of change. Such themes arose was mobilization where employed several rationales in convincing women to pursue employment among them patriotism, the prestige of war workers, and “a stress on women’s capacities for nontraditional work.” For women themselves, several factors encouraged them to find work. While patriotism remained one, others such as economic necessity, escape from the home, desire for social independence, and preventing loneliness or anxiety provide a few examples.
Women over time have been the subject of judgment, critic, and ridicule, having women’s bodies parts portrayed as objects and being objectified through advertisements creates the fight for equality for women that Jean Kilbourne has devoted most of her life trying to achieve. Kilbourne a feminist herself preaches the issue of objectification of women through her writings of Killing Us Softly. Killing us softly reflects the issue at hand by raising the awareness of objectification of women through certain advertisements. Advertisements Kilbourne refers to in her essay are the ones that don’t portray women in the correct way or show the proper equality women have in present day. Women being inferior to males, having their mouths covered, or being mistreated within an add is something that should be stopped or at least being acknowledged that it is a negative message toward women.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton fought for women to have legal rights, have better jobs, and higher education, even though many men shunned her. First off, many women fought against the laws that discriminated against them. In 1848, Stanton met with four other women for a social meeting. They decided to form a convention and get together to “discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women (Brown).” This convention was called The Seneca Falls Convention. The women campaigned for full female equality.
Trace the rise of women’s studies. Explain what is referred to as androcentrism and the feminist perspective. How has mainstream feminism broadened the discussion of oppression to include race, class and disability? What does Lorber mean in the quote “gender is so pervasive that in our society we assume it is bred into our genes” (157)? The emergence of women’s studies, both socially and academically, is very closely linked to the increased awareness in the past regarding the status of women and their stifled and secondary position in relation to their male counterparts.