Feminism

By: Khairunnisa, Naz, Maria, Spozmai and Momal

• It is a political and power movement as
well as a literary approach.
• Feminism comprises a number of social,
cultural and political movements, theories
and moral philosophies concerned with
gender inequalities and equal rights for
women.
• In the simplest terms, feminism is the
theory that women and men should be
equal politically, economically, and
socially.

• The terms "feminism" or "feminist" first appeared in France
and The Netherlands in 1872 (as les féministes), Great
Britain in the 1890s, and the United States in 1910.
• The Oxford English Dictionary lists "feminist" 1894 and
"feminism“ in 1895.
• The UK Daily News first introduced "feminist" to the English
language, importing it from France and branding it as
dangerous.

• Some thinkers have sought to locate the roots of
feminism in ancient Greece with Sappho (d. c. 570
BCE), or the medieval world with Hildegard of Bingen
(d. 1179) or Christine de Pizan (d. 1434).
• Simone de Beauvoir wrote "the first time we see a
woman take up her pen in defense of her sex" was
Christine de Pizan who wrote Epitre au Dieu d'Amour
(Epistle to the God of Love).

• Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and Modesta di Pozzo di Forzi
worked in the 16th century.
• Marie Le Jars de Gournay, Anne Bradstreet and Francois
Poullain de la Barre wrote during the 17th.
• Certainly Olympes de Gouge (d. 1791), Mary
Wollstonecraft (d. 1797) and Jane Austen (d. 1817) are
foremothers of the modern women's movement.

• The history of the modern western feminist
movements is divided into three "waves".
Each is described as dealing with different
aspects of the same feminist issues.
• 1st wave in 19th and early 20th centuries
mainly concerned with women's right to
vote.
• 2nd wave in1960s- 1980s which
campaigned for legal and social rights for
women.
• 3rd wave in 1980s- 2000 related to
campaign for representation Of Women at
all levels of government

• First-wave feminism refers to a period of
feminist activity during the 19th and early
20th century in the United Kingdom, Canada,
the Netherlands and the United States.
• It focused on de jure (officially mandated)
inequalities, primarily on gaining women's
suffrage (the right to vote).
• First wave feminists worked not only for
suffrage, or the right to vote, but also for the
right to an education, the right to work, the
right to work safely, the right to the money
they earned when they worked, the right to
a divorce, the right to their children and the
right to themselves and their own bodies.

Women’s suffrage march, New
York, May 1913

• The First Women’s Convention is held in Seneca Falls in
New York in 1848.
• The Society for Promoting The Employment of Women
was founded by Barbara Leigh Smith in 1859.
• Dozens, if not hundreds of organizations of this nature
were made to advocate for education, property rights,
working rights, voting rights, etc.
• 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 twenty-one.

• With colleges in England opening to women in the
1840s and 1850s and with women like Elizabeth
Blackwell being one of the first women in the US to
graduate in medicine, rights in education were being
gained.
• By the 1920s women were being given not only the right
to vote, but the right to run for office.
• The latter part of first wave feminism included Margaret
Sanger’s efforts towards family planning and abortion
advocacy.
• The first wave of feminism was the longest, and it is the
most taken for granted

• Second-wave feminism is a period of feminist activity first
began in the early 1960s in the United States, and
eventually spread throughout the Western world and
beyond.
• In the United States the movement lasted through the early
1980s.
• It later became a worldwide movement that was strong in
Europe and parts of Asia, such as Turkey and Israel, where
it began in the 1980s, and it began at other times in other
countries.

The second wave had more to do with:
• The rights of woman in the workplace
• Equal pay for equal work
• Fair employment opportunities for married women
• Reproductive rights
• The role of women in the home
• Other legal inequalities for other women in married
relationships
• Improved sexual freedom

• The Second Sex is a book in1949 by the
French existentialist Simone de Beauvoir.
• One of her best-known books, it deals with
the treatment of women throughout history.
• It is often regarded as a major work of
feminist philosophy and the starting point
of second-wave feminism.

• Beauvoir's book is an exposition of "the
pervasiveness and intensity and
mysteriousness of the history of women's
oppression".
• In1960, Beauvoir wrote that The Second
Sex was an attempt to explain "why a
woman's situation, still, even today,
prevents her from exploring the world's
basic problems.

• In 1963, Betty Friedan's exposé The Feminine
Mystique became the voice for the discontent
and disorientation women felt in being
shunted into homemaking positions after their
college graduations.

• The phrase "Women’s Liberation" was first used in the
United States in 1964 ,although the term Women’s
Liberation appeared in the magazine Ramparts, to refer to
the whole women’s movement.
• One of the most vocal critics of the women's liberation
movement has been the African American feminist and
intellectual Gloria Jean argues that this movement glossed
over race and class and thus failed to address "the issues
that divided women."
• She highlighted the lack of minority voices in the women's
movement in her book Feminist theory from margin to
center (1984)

• Third wave is generally marked as beginning in the early
1990s and continuing to the present.
• This movement is usually perceived as a reaction to or
continuation of second wave feminism.
• The movement arose partially as a response to the
perceived failures of and backlash against initiatives and
movements created by second-wave feminism during the
1960s, 1970s, and 1980s

• This wave of feminism partially destabilized constructs
from second-wave feminism.
• It attempts to expand the topic of feminism to include a
diverse group of women with a diverse set of identities.
• Rebecca Walker coined the term to highlight the third
wave's focus on queer and non-white women.
• Third-wave ideology focuses on a more post-
structuralist interpretation of gender and sexuality

• This was a movement based on issues like rape, patriarchy,
sexuality, women empowerment, and other feminist issues.
• Third-wave feminism also contains internal debates
between difference feminists such as the psychologist Carol
Gilligan (who believes that there are important differences
between the sexes) and those who believe that there are no
inherent differences between the sexes and contend that
gender roles are due to social conditioning.

• http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Feminism
• http://www.historytoday.com/martin-pugh/womens-
movement
• http://www.mheducation.co.uk/openup/chapters/0335204
155.pdf
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_feminism
• https://www.citelighter.com/political-science/womens-
studies/knowledgecards/1st-wave-feminism

• http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Feminism
• https://beingfeministblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/first-
wave-feminism-the-movement-that-is-taken-for-granted/
• http://womenshistory.about.com/od/simonedebeauvoir/a/
simone-de-beauvoir-second-wave.htm

Please note that “post feminism” and “third wave
feminism” believe exactly opposite things. Third wave feminism
does not argue, as post feminism do, that the time has come to
be done with feminism
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• However, by definition feminism strives for gender equality,
whereas post feminism must in some way move past or
”overdo" the absolute need for gender equality – something
which neither theorists' definition does.
• This term was first used in the 1980s to describe a
backlash against second-wave feminism.
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It sometimes seen as anti feminism but it is
not…
Post feminism gives the impression that
equally has been achieved and that
feminists can now focus on something else
entirely

• It further believes that women could use their sexuality for
empowerment and assume traditional roles( motherhood)
whilst .
• Post feminism has had a huge impact on gender politics in
the last 30 years.
• It is not necessary only Women are feminists, men can also
be…
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• Post feminists believe that men, in turn have had to
change as women's role in society has changed (the
new man). The patriarchal system has broken down.

• The media has constantly reflected the changing place of
women in society .
• Susan Faludi in her book Backlash argues that many of
these problems are illusory, constructed by media without
reliable evidence.

• French feminism refer to a branch of feminist thought from a
group of feminists in France from the 1970s to the 1990s.
• French feminism, compared to Anglophone feminism, is
distinguished by an approach which is more philosophical and
literary.
• Its being less concerned with political doctrine and generally
focused on theories of “the body”.

In French feminism we see the influence of
French feminist theorists such as Helene
Cixous, Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray , who
believe that language reinforces and
reproduces stereotypes about woman.
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French feminist protested to rid the word “
mademoiselle” ( French language
equivalent of miss) from the French
language,
For example, while an unmarried woman
might be called a spinster, an unmarried
man might be called….what….?

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French feminists are influenced by literary
movements such as post-structuralism and
postmodernism, as well as early experimental
writers such as Woolf.
What is important here is that these feminists
resisted the idea that women were (and are)
inherently different to men.

• They reject the notion that there is an essential or
natural difference between the sexes, and instead
point to the ways in which culture (patriarchal
culture) continues to segregate men and women
and produces tired ideologies about women which
casts them as inferior to men.
Author of Jesus Feminist
and Out of Sorts: Making
Peace with an Evolving
Faith.
Writer and blogger.
Sometimes preacher.

• Feminist theory is an extension of feminism into
theoretical or philosophical fields. It encompasses work in
a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology,
economics, women's studies, literary criticism, art history,
psychoanalysis and philosophy.

• Feminist theory aims to understand gender
inequality and focuses on gender politics power
relation and sexuality.
• Critique of these social and political relations, much
of feminist theory focuses on the promotion of
women's rights and interests. Themes explored in
feminist theory include discrimination, stereotyping,
objectification (especially sexual objectification),

• The American literary critic and feminist Elaine Showalter
describes the phased development of feminist theory .
• The first she calls "feminist critique," in which the feminist
reader examines the ideologies behind literary phenomena
• The second Showalter calls "gynocriticism," in which 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," in which the
"ideological inscription and the literary effects of the
sex/gender system" are explored.
• The scholar Toril Moi criticized this model, seeing it as
an essentialist and deterministic model for female
subjectivity that fails to account for the situation of
women outside the West.

• Anarcha-feminism, Anarchist feminism,
Anarcho-feminism
• Anarchism+ Feminism= Anarchist-feminism
• Anarchism: Political theory favouring the
abolition of government
• Feminism: Struggle against power
structures created by male members of
society/ patriarchy
• Anarchist feminism: It generally views
patriarchy as a manifestation of involuntary
coercive hierarchy, that should be replaced
by decentralized free association
• Struggle against patriarchy is an essential
part of ‘class struggle’ and the anarchist
struggle against the State

• It is described to be an anti-
authoritarianism, anti-capitalism,
anti-oppressive philosophy, with the
goal of creating an "equal ground"
between males and females.
• The term "anarcha-feminism"
suggests the social freedom and
liberty of women, without needed
dependence upon other groups or
parties.
• L. Susan Brown “an anarchism is a
political philosophy that opposes all
relationships of power, it is inherently
feminist”

• The "Free Women" movement in
Spain during the Spanish revolution
is a classic example of women
anarchists organising themselves to
defend their basic freedoms and
create a society based on women's
freedom and equality
• Freedom is the world's oldest
anarchist newspaper, founded by
Charlotte Wilson in 1886.
• Historic anarcha-feminists: Emma
Goldman, Federica Montseny,
Voltairine de Cleyre
• Contemporary anarcha-feminists:
Germaine Greer, L. Susan Brown

• Connects the oppression of
women to Marxist ideas of
exploitation, oppression and labor
• Domestic work, childcare, and
marriage exploits and devalues
women
• Oppression of women is a larger
part of a pattern that affects
everyone involved in the capitalist
system

• Marx felt that with the end of class
oppression, gender oppression
will end as well.
• Whereas, some socialist feminists
work on separating gender
phenomena from class
phenomena.
• Fredrick Engels and August
Bebels show link between the two.

• Male based authority and power
structure is responsible for women’s
oppression.
• Women can free themselves only
when they are done away with
dominating patriarchal system
• In the presence of these values
societies can not reform in any
significant way
• Radical feminism believes that the
oppression of women goes so deep,
that it will take a significant overhaul
of existing society to make the world
more fair to women

• Cultural- feminism: differences
between men and women are
psychological, culturally
constructed rather than
biologically innate.
• Separatist-feminism: believe that
opposition to patriarchy is best
done through focusing exclusively
on women and girls

• Men can not make positive
contributions to the feminist
movement, even well intentioned
men replicate patriarchal dynamics
• Marylin Frye “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”

• Asserts the equality of men and
women through political and legal
reforms
• Focuses on women’s ability to
maintain their equality through their
own actions and choices.
• Liberal feminists argue that society
holds the false belief that women
are, by nature, less intellectually and
physically capable than men
• The goal for liberal feminists in the
late 1800’s and early 1900’s was to
gain women’s suffrage under the
idea that they would then gain

• In 1920, after nearly 50 years of
intense activism, women were finally
granted the right to vote and the right
to hold public office in the United
States.
• Education, equal pay for equal work,
affordable childcare, affordable health
care etc.
• Giddens (British sociologist) defines
liberal theory as a “feminist theory that
believes gender inequality is produced
by reduced access for women and girls
to civil rights and allocation of social
resources such as education and

• Class oppression, gender identity
and racism are inextricably bound
together. The way these concepts
relate to each other is called
intersectionality
• Black feminism became popular in
the 1960s
• Proponents of black feminism
argue that black women are
positioned within structures of
power in fundamentally different
ways from white women.

• Oppression relating to colonial
experience has marginalised women
in postcolonial societies
• Postcolonial feminism argues that by
using the term "woman" as a
universal group, women are then
only defined by their gender and not
by social class, race, ethnicity, or
sexual preference
• Object the portrayals of women of
non-Western societies as passive,
voiceless victims and
• Women of Western societies as
modern, educated and empowered

• Postcolonial feminists are against the
universalisation of female experience and
lack of attention to gender issues in
mainstream postcolonial thought
• Postcolonial feminists also work to
incorporate the ideas of indigenous and
other Third World feminist movements into
mainstream Western feminism
• Third World feminism stems from the idea
that feminism in Third World countries is
not imported from the First World, but
originates from internal ideologies and
socio-cultural factors.

• They criticise Western feminism
on grounds that it does not focus
on the unique experience of
women from third-world countries
• Postcolonial feminism is
sometimes criticized from
mainstream feminism arguing that
postcolonial feminism weakens
the wider feminist movement by
dividing it
• It is also often criticized for its
Western bias

• Forms of feminism that ignore the
aspect of race can discriminate against
many people esp women, through
racial bias
• Alice Walker’s “Womanism”: is a social
theory based on the racial and gender-
based oppression of black women, and
other women of marginalized groups.
• Experience of Black women is totally
different from that of White women
• Angela Davis in her book Women,
Race and Class talked about the
intersection of race, gender and class.

• Chandra Talpade Mohanty's
essay, "Under Western Eyes:
Feminist Scholarship and Colonial
Discourses”
• Gayatri Spivak's "Can the
Subaltern Speak”
• Trinh T. Minha's “Woman, Native,
Other: Writing Postcoloniality and
Feminism”

• Fragmentation
• Rejection of meta-narratives
• Attack on scientific truth
• Emphasis on local narratives
• Deconstruction
• Denial of history

• American Philospher and Gender
theorist.
• “Gender Trouble” critiques the works
of Simone De Beauvoir, Jaques
Lacan, Claude Levi Strauss, Michael
Focault etc.
• Simone de Beauvior in
“The second sex” that we are all
brought up in a world defined by
men, where women are defined as Other, or not normal. No woman can
act out of this constriction.

• Claude Levi Strauss using Ferdinand de Saussure’s
concepts saw that language is crucial in telling us
something about society’s structure which means the
rules of human relations and culture are centered around
binary oppositions like good/bad, up/down, male/female
etc.
• Jacques Lacan gives names to particular objects in terms
of symbolism such as sun is masculine so moon is
feminine, the towers, boats, trees, are masculine and
caves, doorways, windows are feminine.
• Butler takes a “Linguistic Turn” when she calls gender as
“Performative” rather than a “Biological Fact”.

• For Butler woman is a debatable category which is
complicated by class ,ethnicity, sexuality and other facets
of identity.
• They criticize:
• the conflation of gender and sex.
• the generalization about man and woman.
• the tendency to view gender as :fixed", "binary”, and determined “at birth.
• The dualistic view of gender, heteronormativity and biological determinism.
• The assumption that all women share a common oppression which has
naturalized the category of “woman” into a white, heterosexual, able bodied
and young to middle aged norm.
• Rather gender is fluid and mobile construct that allows for
multiple gender expressions.

• Technological intervention has blurred the boundaries
b/w man and woman.
• Dona is professor in feminist studies.
• Modern technology:
• has blurred the boundaries
b/w human and machine.
• brought a windfall to the traditional
feminist theories.
• destabilized hierarchical dualisms
such as man/woman,
heterosexual/homosexual, black/white etc.
• redefined the concepts of literacy, nature, work, reproduction and
culture.

• She criticizes the traditional notions of feminism
particularly its emphasis on identity rather than
affinity.
• She uses the metaphor of Cyborg to construct a
postmodern feminism that moves beyond
dualisms and traditional gender, feminism and
politics.

A figure without boundaries that
is both human and machine.
Harraway takes the figure to help
feminist theorists imagine a world
without being confined to
hierarchical dualisms. The
cyborg resists and eludes the
final definitions which Harraway
wants feminists to avoid too in
totalizing the category of woman.

• Various forms of entertainment media.
• Gender roles changed. For instance:
• Movie “Ki and Kaa”, Lara Croft games, “Salt”, etc
• Music such as: Beyonce, Lady Gaga etc.

• Links ecology with feminism.
• Ecofeminists argue that both land
and women are exploited by men
for their own benefits.
• There is a connection between
women and nature that comes
from their shared history of
oppression by patriarchal western
socity.
• They argue that women should
strive to create a healthy
environment and stop the
destruction of the lands that most
women rely on to provide for their
families.

• Gender-neutral
language.
• Inclusion of both
sexes (gender-
inclusive language).
• Exclusion of the sexes
(non-sexist language).

• The two career couples
spend about equal amounts
of time working, but women
still spend more time on
households.
• It is unfair for women to
be expected to perform
domestic works and
child care when both
members of the
relationship also work
outside the home.

 Western societies and their resources
 Shifting support from family to state
 Third World countries and lack of resources
 India
 No law to enforce alimony
 Amir khan’s show Satyamav Jayate
 Male domains for work
 Schopenhauer and his thought

 3rd October , 2013 BBC highlighted Canadian Movement
of women.
• “True patriot love in all thy son command”
 Fanon on Nationalism discussed men
 National independence , women are forced.
 Chatterjee then claimed that woman have the major role
in preserving the national culture , they play the role of
custodians.
 Asian women hold national cultural much importance
than the feminist movement. ( National songs , gender
bias)

Britain’s daily mail reported business of t-shirts
for “What the feminist look like” campaign.
Mauritius women labors working in sweatshops
Working 45hrs basic week, live in dormitories,
16 in a single room and are paid 62 penny.
US ranked 26 and UK ranked 22

 Gunter Frank argued that there is an unequal exchange
between the central countries and peripheries.
 Unfair Business of technology and national resources

1. Stand for them
but don’t victimize
them

 Western Feminists assume wrong about
developing nations , specifically Islamic nations.
Many women are oppressed
Western Women are not their saviors

 Western Feminist are outspoken.
 Speaking for Gender inequality
 Assuming about non-Western women

3. Don’t
assume that
western culture
norms are
more Feminist

 Western women may find that women in Saudi
Arabia are not allowed to drive.
Have to wear Niqab and burka
Cultural and religious reasons

4. Educate yourself
on the struggles of
non-western
feminists

 Western feminism is itself deeply inculcated
with racial discriminations.
 Educate yourself on the struggles of others
 Allowing their experiences to teach you

5. Acknowledge
your privilege and
use your voice to
raise awareness.

 Western women must work for others.
 Belonging from protective country
Teacher and writer , use your voice.

 American women struggled for their rights.
 Female identity is different according to their
cultures and their customs.
 Women subjugation worldwide
 Susan B Antony established Women Suffrage
Association in 1869.
 Margaret Sangar 1921
 Betty Freidan “ The Feminine Mystique.

 In 1963, Congress passed the equal pay act.
 Roev Wade in 1973 , movement facilitating
safer pregnancy treatments.

 Disconnection between feminist and women
globally
 Internet is best source for global feminism
 Western Feminism is a complicated model
 Rights acknowledgment from culture to culture
 The more voices heard , the better.

o Representation of women in colonized countries
o Discourses
o Aims
o Resist not only colonial power but also patriarchal
power.
o Postcolonial theory is male centered itself. Edward
Said, Homi K Bhabha and Carole Davies.
o Under Western Eyes by Chandra Mohanty
o Gaytri Spivak about western writers
o Concerns at publishing such discourses in which
women are strong.

 Feminism theory and literature published around the world.
 Example of some texts
1. The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope
2. The handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
3. The round house by Louise Erdish
4. A thousand splendid suns by Khalid Hosseini
5. Memoirs of geisha by Arthur Golden
6. The Chinese Cinderella
7. The Dark holds no terror by Sashi Despande
8. The dancing girls of Lahore by Louis Browne
9. The Sultan’s Harem
10. The Princess by Sultana Al Saud and Jean Sasson
•

• Brown, Elsa Barkley. ""What Has Happened Here": The Politics Of
Difference In Women's History And Feminist Politics. " Feminist Studies
18.2 (1992): 295. GenderWatch (GW), ProQuest. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.
• Ferguson, Ann. "Two Women's Studies Conferences in China: Report by an
American Feminist Philosopher. " Asian Journal of Women's Studies 3.1
(1997): 161. GenderWatch (GW), ProQuest. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.
• Gurel, Perin "Transnational Feminism, Islam, and the Other Woman: How
to Teach." Radical Teacher 86 (2009): 66-70. Academic Search Premier.
EBSCO. Web. 8 Dec. 2009.
• Imbornoni, Anne-Marie. "Women's Rights Movement in the US:Timeline of
Key Events in the American Women's Rights Movement." InfoPlease.
Pearson Education. Web. 7 Dec. 2009. .
• Lind, Amy, and Stephanie Brzuzy, eds. Battleground, Women, Gender and
Sexuality. Vol. 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2008. Print.

• Ackerly, B., and Attanasi, K., 2009, “Global Feminisms: Theory and Ethics for
Studying Gendered Injustice,” New Political Science, 31(4): 543–555.
• Alcoff, L., 2009, “Discourses of Sexual Violence in a Global Framework,”
Philosophical Topics, 37(2): 123–139.
• Bahar, S., 1996, “Human Rights are Women's Rights: Amnesty International
and the Family,” Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 11(1): 105–134.
• Binion, G., 2006, “Human Rights: A Feminist Perspective,” in Women's
Rights: A Human Rights Quarterly Reader, B. Lockwood (ed.) Baltimore: The
Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 70–86.
• Bunch, C., 2004, “A Feminist Human Rights Lens on Human Security,”
Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice, 16(1): 29–34.
• –––, 2006, “Women's Rights as Human Rights: Toward a Re-Vision of
Human Rights,” in Women's Rights: A Human Rights Quarterly Reader, B.
Lockwood (ed.) Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 57–69.
• Copelon, R., 2003, “Rape and Gender Violence: From Impunity to
Accountability in International Law,” Human Rights Dialogue, 2(10),
published by the Carnegie Council, available online (accessed November
21, 2013).
• Cudd, A., 2005, “Missionary Positions,” Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist
Philosophy, 20(4): 164–182.

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