Feminism is the belief that women deserve equal social,

economic, and political rights and freedoms. Over the years,

feminism has focused on issues like the right to vote,
reproductive and sexual freedom, and equal pay. Feminism has
also explored racism, gender norms, self-expression, and much
more.
Although largely originating in the West, feminism
is manifested worldwide and is represented by various
institutions committed to activity on behalf of women’s
rights and interests.

History of feminism
There is scant evidence of early organized protest
against such circumscribed status. In the 3rd
century BCE, Roman women filled the Capitoline
Hill and blocked every entrance to the Forum when
consul Marcus Porcius Cato resisted attempts to
repeal laws limiting women’s use of expensive goods.

That rebellion proved exceptional, however. For most

of recorded history, only isolated voices spoke out
against the inferior status of women, presaging the
arguments to come. In late 14th- and early 15th-
century France, the first feminist
philosopher, Christine de Pisan, challenged prevailing
attitudes toward women with a bold call for female
education. Her mantle was taken up later in the
century by Laura Cereta, a 15th-century Venetian
woman who published Epistolae familiares (1488;
“Personal Letters”; Eng. trans. Collected Letters of a
Renaissance Feminist), a volume of letters dealing with
a panoply of women’s complaints, from denial of
education and marital oppression to the frivolity of
women’s attire.

The defense of women had become a literary subgenre

by the end of the 16th century, when Il merito delle
donne (1600; The Worth of Women), a feminist
broadside by another Venetian author, Moderata
Fonte, was published posthumously. Defenders of the
status quo painted women as superficial and inherently
immoral, while the emerging feminists produced long
lists of women of courage and accomplishment and
proclaimed that women would be
the intellectual equals of men if they were given equal
access to education.

The so-called “debate about women” did not reach

England until the late 16th century, when
pamphleteers and polemicists joined battle over the
true nature of womanhood. After a series of satiric
pieces mocking women was published, the first
feminist pamphleteer in England, writing as Jane
Anger, responded with Jane Anger, Her Protection for
Women (1589). This volley of opinion continued for
more than a century, until another English
author, Mary Astell, issued a more reasoned rejoinder
in A Serious Proposal to the Ladies (1694, 1697). The
two-volume work suggested that women inclined
neither toward marriage nor a religious vocation
should set up secular convents where they might live,
study, and teach.

First wave
For generations, the feminist movement has forged ahead
advocating for women's rights. Many scholars and activists
assume that there are three distinct "waves" of feminism, with
the “#MeToo Movement” marking a contemporary fourth wave.
However, the history of the feminist movement is much more
complex.

The first wave of the feminist movement is usually tied to the

first formal Women’s Rights Convention that was held in 1848.
However, first wave feminists were influenced by the collective
activism of women in various other reform movements. In
particular, feminists drew strategic and tactical insight from
women participating in the French Revolution, the Temperance
Movement, and the Abolitionist Movement.
As the French Revolution began in 1789, women were
frequently on the front lines advocating for their rights. Even
though they were considered “passive citizens,” these women
took an active role in the political climate of their country. On
October 5, 1789, thousands of armed French women marched
from markets in Paris to the Palace of Versailles. They
demanded that the King address their economic concerns and
the drastic food shortages happening across France.
Unfortunately, their fight was far from over.
A few months prior, reformers were able to persuade the
French National Constituent Assembly to adopt the
“Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.” This
document provided citizenship rights to various members of the
population. Unfortunately, it still excluded women and other
minority groups from citizenship. When this document became
the preamble to the French Constitution in 1791, many women
shifted their focus to gaining citizenship and equal rights.

One of these women, playwright Olympes de Gouges, wrote

“Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen” in
1791. Gouges’ declaration begins as follows: “Women are born
free and are man's equal in law. Social distinctions can be
founded solely on common utility.” Her statement also includes
the various rights that both men and women should possess.
This document and the collective activism of the women in the
French Revolution became a source of inspiration for first wave
feminists.

The Temperance Movement

First wave feminists were also influenced by the widespread
activism of women during the temperance movement. In the
early nineteenth century, many United States citizens began to
promote “moral reform.” In an effort to fight against immorality,
the temperance movement developed in the 1820s to limit or
prohibit the consumption of alcohol. For many middle-class
white women who were deemed the “moral authorities of their
households,” drinking was considered a threat to the stability
of their homes. These women, along with male supporters of
temperance, began to create cartoons, pamphlets, songs
and speeches about the harms of alcohol.

The Abolitionist Movement

As many of those women began to advocate for their political
voice, women from different ethnicities and backgrounds were
also fighting to have basic human rights. In the early
nineteenth century, much of the African American population in
the United States was enslaved. With the first group of
enslaved Africans arriving in the early 1600s, African American
men and women had been fighting for freedom and citizenship
for centuries. Their collective activism was the foundation of
the abolitionist movement that pushed for the end of slavery.
African American women were central to early nineteenth
century abolitionism. During the 1820s and 1830s, these
women established social and literary organizations, as well as
religious groups to challenge slavery and support their
communities.

On February 12, 1821, two-hundred working–class African

American women established the Daughters of Africa Society in
Philadelphia. This society provided support to their members,
and a weekly allowance of $1.50 when they were sick.
Similarly, the Colored Female Free Produce Society was
formed in 1831 to boycott the exploitation of enslaved labor by
only selling items that were produced by free African
Americans.

This is the variety of feminism that works within the structure of

mainstream society to integrate women into that structure. Its
roots stretch back to the social contract theory of government
instituted by the American Revolution. Abigail Adams and Mary
Wollstonecraft were there from the start, proposing equality for
women. As is often the case with liberals, they slog along
inside the system, getting little done amongst the compromises
until some radical movement shows up and pulls those
compromises left of center. This is how it operated in the days
of the suffragist movement and again with the emergence of
the radical feminists. [JD]
[See Daring to be Bad, by Alice Echols (1989) for more detail
on this contrast.]

Radical Feminism
Provides the bulwark of theoretical thought in feminism.
Radical feminism provides an important foundation for the rest
of "feminist flavors". Seen by many as the "undesirable"
element of feminism, Radical feminism is actually the breeding
ground for many of the ideas arising from feminism; ideas
which get shaped and pounded out in various ways by other
(but not all) branches of feminism. [CTM]

Radical feminism was the cutting edge of feminist theory from

approximately 1967-1975. It is no longer as universally
accepted as it was then, nor does it provide a foundation for, for
example, cultural feminism. [EE]

This term refers to the feminist movement that sprung out of the
civil rights and peace movements in 1967-1968. The reason
this group gets the "radical" label is that they view the
oppression of women as the most fundamental form of
oppression, one that cuts across boundaries of race, culture,
and economic class. This is a movement intent on social
change, change of rather revolutionary proportions, in fact.
[JD]

The best history of this movement is a book called Daring to be

Bad, by Alice Echols (1989). I consider that book a must! [JD]
Another excellent book is simply titled Radical Feminism and is
an anthology edited by Anne Koedt, a well-known radical
feminist [EE].

Marxist and Socialist Feminism

Marxism recognizes that women are oppressed, and attributes

the oppression to the capitalist/private property system. Thus
they insist that the only way to end the oppression of women is
to overthrow the capitalist system. Socialist feminism is the
result of Marxism meeting radical feminism. Jaggar and
Rothenberg [Feminist Frameworks: Alternative Theoretical
Accounts of the Relations Between Women and Men by Alison
M. Jaggar and Paula S. Rothenberg, 1993] point to significant
differences between socialist feminism and Marxism, but for our
purposes I'll present the two together. Echols offers a
description of socialist feminism as a marriage between
Marxism and radical feminism, with Marxism the dominant
partner. Marxists and socialists often call themselves "radical,"
but they use the term to refer to a completely different "root" of
society: the economic system. [JD]

Cultural Feminism

As radical feminism died out as a movement, cultural feminism

got rolling. In fact, many of the same people moved from the
former to the latter. They carried the name "radical feminism"
with them, and some cultural feminists use that name still.
(Jaggar and Rothenberg [Feminist Frameworks] don't even list
cultural feminism as a framework separate from radical
feminism, but Echols spells out the distinctions in great detail.)
The difference between the two is quite striking: whereas
radical feminism was a movement to transform society, cultural
feminism retreated to vanguardism, working instead to build a
women's culture. Some of this effort has had some social
benefit: rape crisis centers, for example; and of course many
cultural feminists have been active in social issues (but as
individuals, not as part of a movement). [JD]

As various 1960s movements for social change fell apart or got

co-opted, folks got pessimistic about the very possibility of
social change. Many of then turned their attention to building
alternatives, so that if they couldn't change the dominant
society, they could avoid it as much as possible. That, in a
nutshell, is what the shift from radical feminism to cultural
feminism was about. These alternative-building efforts were
accompanied with reasons explaining (perhaps justifying) the
abandonment of working for social change. Notions that
women are "inherently kinder and gentler" are one of the
foundations of cultural feminism, and remain a major part of it.
A similar concept held by some cultural feminists is that while
various sex differences might not be biologically determined,
they are still so thoroughly ingrained as to be intractable.

 Women’s economic empowerment is essential

to achieving women’s rights and gender
equality. Women’s economic empowerment means
ensuring women can equally participate in and
benefit from decent work and social protection;
access markets and have control over resources,
their own time, lives, and bodies; and increased
voice, agency, and meaningful participation in
economic decision-making at all levels from the
household to international institutions.
 When more women work, economies
grow. Women’s economic empowerment increases
economic diversification and income equality for
shared prosperity [2]. It is estimated that closing the
gender gap could give the global economy a USD 7
trillion boost [3].
 Increasing women’s and girls’ educational
attainment contributes to women’s economic
empowerment and more inclusive,
environmentally sustainable economic
growth. Education, upskilling, and re-skilling—
especially to keep pace with rapid technological
transformations affecting jobs—are critical for
women’s and girls’ health and wellbeing, as well as
their income-generation opportunities and
participation in the formal labour market.
 Women’s economic equality is good for
business. Companies greatly benefit from
increasing employment and leadership opportunities
for women, which is shown to increase
organizational effectiveness and growth. It is
estimated that companies with three or more
women in senior management functions score
higher in all dimensions of organizational
performance [4].

 As of 1 June 2024, there are 27 countries

where 28 women serve as Heads of State
and/or Government [1]. At the current rate,
gender equality in the highest positions of
power will not be reached for another 130
years [2].
 Just 18 countries have a woman Head of
State, and 15 countries have a woman Head
of Government [3].
 Data compiled data by UN Women show
that women represent 23.3 per cent of
Cabinet members heading Ministries, leading
a policy area as of 1 January 2024 [4]. There
are only 15 countries in which women hold
50 per cent or more of the positions of
Cabinet Ministers leading policy areas [5].
 The five most commonly held portfolios by
women Cabinet Ministers are Women and
gender equality, followed by Family and
 children affairs, Social inclusion and
development, Social protection and social
security, and Indigenous and minority
affairs [6].

India ranks 20th from the bottom in terms of representation of

women in Parliament.[1] Women have held the posts
of president and prime minister in India, as well as chief
ministers of various states. Indian voters have elected women
to numerous state legislative assemblies and national
parliament for many decades.

When more women are empowered to lead, everyone benefits.

Decades of studies show women leaders help increase
productivity, enhance collaboration, inspire organizational
dedication, and improve fairness.

Decades of psychological research confirm when women are

empowered to take on leadership positions, the effects can be
metamorphic for everyone.

Female leaders demonstrate more transformational leadership
styles, according to a landmark 1992 meta-analysis of 61
studies led by Eagly. They are more likely to epitomize what’s
good in the organization and inspire people to go along with its
mission, compared with men, study results show.

Women are now seen as equally or more competent as men,
finds a 2020 meta-analysis led by Eagly. The study included
data from 16 nationally representative public opinion polls
involving more than 30,000 U.S. adults from 1946 to 2018. The
researchers looked at three types of traits—communion (i.e.,
compassion, sensitivity), agency (i.e., ambition, aggression),
and competence (i.e., intelligence, creativity)—and whether
participants thought each trait was truer of women or men or
equally true of both.

Results showed that competence stereotypes changed

 dramatically over time. For example, in one 1946 poll, only 35%
of those surveyed thought men and women were equally
intelligent, and of those who believed there was a difference,
more thought men were the more competent sex. In contrast, in
one 2018 poll, 86% believed men and women were equally
intelligent, 9% believed women were more intelligent, and only
5% believed men were more intelligent. Further, communal
stereotypes viewing women as more compassionate and
sensitive than men strengthened over time.

Team collaboration is greatly improved by the presence of
women in the group, an effect that is primarily explained by
women’s benefits to group processes, according to a 2010
study. In two studies with 699 people, organizational
psychologist Anita Williams Woolley, PhD, and her colleagues
examined working groups of two to five people and found the
proportion of women in a group was strongly related to the
group’s collective intelligence, which is their ability to work
together and solve a wide range of problems. Groups with more
women exhibited greater equality in conversational turn-taking,
further enabling the group members to be responsive to one
another and to make the best use of the knowledge and skills
of members.

Women rank better than or equal to men in seven of eight
traits relevant to leadership assessed in a 2008 national survey
by the Pew Research Center. Half of the respondents ranked
women as more honest than men, with 20% saying that men
are more honest than women. In terms of intelligence, 38%
said they viewed women as smarter, with only 14% indicating
men are smarter. Women were also ranked as being more
compassionate, outgoing, and creative.

Women’s sexual and reproductive health is related to multiple

human rights, including the right to life, the right to be free from
torture, the right to health, the right to privacy, the right to
education, and the prohibition of discrimination. The Committee
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) and the
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW) have both clearly indicated that women’s right to
health includes their sexual and reproductive health.

This means that States have obligations to respect, protect and

fulfill rights related to women’s sexual and reproductive health.
The Special Rapporteur on the right to health maintains that
women are entitled to reproductive health care services, and
goods and facilities that are:

 available in adequate numbers;

 accessible physically and economically;
 accessible without discrimination; and
 of good quality (see report A/61/338).

Examples of violations

Despite these obligations, violations of women’s sexual and

reproductive health and rights are frequent. These take many
forms, including:

 denial of access to services that only women require;

 poor quality services;
 subjecting women’s access to services to third party
authorization;
 forced sterilization, forced virginity examinations, and
forced abortion, without women’s prior consent;
 early marriage.

Violations of women’s sexual and reproductive health and

rights are often due to deeply engrained beliefs and societal
values pertaining to women’s sexuality. Patriarchal concepts of
women’s roles within the family mean that women are often
valued based on their ability to reproduce. Early marriage and
pregnancy, or repeated pregnancies spaced too closely
together—often as the result of efforts to produce male
offspring because of the preference for sons—has a
devastating impact on women’s health with sometimes fatal
consequences. Women are also often blamed for infertility,
suffering ostracism and being subjected to various human
rights violations as a result.