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Feminism

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Maham Shahzad
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
32 views14 pages

Feminism

Uploaded by

Maham Shahzad
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The History of Feminism

The struggle for gender equality


What is Feminism?

It is the belief in social, economic and political equality of opposite genders. Although it
originated in the West, feminism has manifested worldwide and is represented by various
institutions committed to the activity on behalf of women's rights and interests.

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The history of feminism is divided onto four “waves”. The feminist movement is usually
broken up into three “waves.” The first wave in the late 19th and early 20th centuries pushed
for political equality. The second wave, in the 1960s and 70s, pushed for legal and
professional equality. And the third wave, in the past couple decades, has pushed for social
equality. Fourth-wave feminism is a phase of feminism that began around 2012 and is
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characterized by a focus on the empowerment of women and the use of internet tools.

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The Suffrage Movement (The First Wave of Feminism)
Before the suffrage movement, individual feminists voiced the unfair treatment of women. One
of the earliest literary works found was 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. Other works
include Il merito delle donne (1600; The Worth of Women), a feminist broadside by another
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Venetian author, Moderata Fonte and Jane Anger, Her Protection for Women (1589) by Jane
Anger, first feminist pamphleteer in England.

Since many articles and books were published regarding the inclusivity of women in education,
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work and politics. All these debates and discussions eventually culminated into the first
women's convention, held in July 1848 in a small town of Seneca Falls, New York. The
convection was led by  of Lucretia Mott, a Quaker preacher and veteran social activist, Martha
Wright (Mott’s sister), Mary Ann McClintock, Jane Hunt, and Elizabeth Candy Stanton.

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Here the “Declaration of Sentiments” which focused on the educational and political rights
of women. Eventually they formed the Woman’s National Loyal League in 1863 to support
the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery and to campaign for full citizenship for blacks
and women.

The first country to grant national-level voting rights to women was the self-governing
British colony of New Zealand, which passed the Electoral Bill in September 1893. The
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British colony of South Australia granted full suffrage in 1894, giving women the right to
vote and to stand for parliament. Australia federated in 1901 and country-wide women’s
suffrage followed quickly in 1902; however, women of Australia’s indigenous people were
specifically excluded until 1949, when the right to vote in federal elections was granted to
all indigenous people. Remaining restrictions were abolished in 1962. Other countries
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followed soon after New Zealand, with limited rights granted to women in Sweden, Britain,
Finland, and some U.S. states by the early 20th century. 

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Originally it focused on the promotion of equal contract and property rights for women and
the opposition to chattel marriage and ownership of married women (and their children) by
their husbands. However, by the end of the nineteenth century, activism focused primarily
on gaining political power, particularly the right of women's suffrage. 

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The Second Feminist Wave
The women’s movement of the 1960s and ’70s, the so-called “second wave” of feminism,
represented a seemingly abrupt break with the tranquil suburban life pictured in American
popular culture. Mainstream groups such as the National Organization for Women (NOW)
launched a campaign for legal equity, while other HOC groups staged sit-ins and marches
for any number of reasons—from assailing college curricula that lacked female authors to
promoting the use of the word Ms. as a neutral form of address—that is, one that did not
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refer to marital status.

Unlike the first wave, second-wave feminism provoked extensive theoretical discussion
about the origins of women’s oppression, the nature of gender, and the role of the
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family. Several books were written regarding these issues . Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics
made the best-seller list in 1970, Shulamith Firestone, a founder of the New York Radical
Feminists, published The Dialectic of Sex in the same year. One year later, Germaine Greer,
an Australian living in London, published The Female Eunuch.
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Despite all the discussions that circled throughout Europe and U.S none was able to agree
to a coherent, all-encompassing feminist ideology.  While most could agree on the questions
that needed to be asked about the origins of gender distinctions, the nature of power, or the
roots of sexual violence, the answers to those questions were bogged down by ideological
hairsplitting, name-calling, and mutual recrimination. 

Feminism became a river of competing eddies and currents. Ultimately, three major streams
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of thought surfaced. The first was liberal, or mainstream, feminism, which focused its
energy on concrete and pragmatic change at an institutional and governmental level. Its goal
was to integrate women more thoroughly into the power structure and to give women equal
access to positions men had traditionally dominated.
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Radical feminism aimed to reshape society and restructure its institutions, which they saw as
inherently patriarchal. Radicals strove to supplant hierarchical and traditional power
relationships they saw as reflecting a male bias, and they sought to develop nonhierarchical
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and antiauthoritarian approaches to politics and organization.
The third and final, cultural or “difference” feminism, the last of the three currents, rejected
the notion that men and women are intrinsically the same and advocated celebrating the
qualities they associated with women, such as their greater concern for affective relationships
and their nurturing preoccupation with others.

The scholar Imelda Whelehan suggests that the second wave was a continuation of the earlier
phase of feminism involving the suffragettes in the UK and USA. Second-wave feminism has
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continued to exist since that time and coexists with what is termed third-wave feminism.

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The Third Wave of Feminism
The third wave of feminism emerged in the mid-1990s, arising as a response to perceived
failures of the second wave and also as a response to the backlash against initiatives and
movements created by the second wave.  It was led by so-called Generation Xers who, born
in the 1960s and ’70s in the developed world, came of age in a media-saturated and
culturally and economically diverse milieu.

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Some of the early advocates of the novel way were daughters of the second wavers like
Rebecca Walker, the daughter of the novelist and second-waver Alice Walker. Jennifer
Baumgardner and Amy Richards, authors of Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the

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Future (2000), were both born in 1970 and raised by second wavers who had belonged to
organized feminist groups.

Influenced by the postmodernist movement in the academy, third-wave feminists sought to


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question, reclaim, and redefine the ideas, words, and media that have transmitted ideas about
womanhood, gender, beauty, sexuality, femininity, and masculinity, among other things.
There was a decided shift in perceptions of gender.
The third wave was much more inclusive of women and girls of colour than the first or
second waves had been. In reaction and opposition to stereotypical images of women as
passive, weak, virginal, and faithful, or alternatively as domineering, demanding,
and emasculating, the third wave redefined women and girls as assertive, powerful, and in
control of their own lives.

The increasing ease of publishing on the Internet meant that e-zines (electronic magazines)


and blogs became ubiquitous. Many serious independent writers, not to mention
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organizations, found that the Internet offered a forum for the exchange of information and
the publication of essays and videos that made their point to a potentially huge audience.
The Internet radically democratized the content of the feminist movement with respect to
participants, aesthetics, and issues.
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However third wavers faced a great deal of criticism. Some writers had declared themselves
postfeminist and arguing that the movement had lived beyond its usefulness. Meanwhile,
established feminists of the earlier generation argued that the issues had not really changed
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and that the younger women were not adding anything of substance.
As with any other social or political movement, fissures and disagreements were present in
each wave of feminism. The third wave, to an extent almost unimaginable to the members of
the first and second waves before it, was plural and multifaceted, comprising people of
many gender, ethnic, and class identities, experiences, and interests. As such, its greatest
strength, multivocality, was attacked by some as its greatest weakness. Third-wavers
countered this criticism by stating that the goal seemingly unrealistic as well as undesirable.

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The Fourth Feminist Wave
It is believed that another feminist wave began in 2012. While previous waves of feminism have
encountered such obstacles as rigid sociopolitical structures and a lack of available communication
channels, fourth-wave feminists harness digital media as a far-reaching platform on which to
connect, share perspectives, create a broader view of experienced oppression, and critique past
feminist waves.

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British journalist Kira Cochrane and feminist scholar Prudence Chamberlain describe the fourth
wave as focusing on justice for women, particularly opposition to sexual harassment (including
street harassment), violence against women, workplace discrimination and harassment, body
shaming, sexist imagery in the media, online misogyny and assault on public transport, and rape
culture. 3
However people have argued over what the fourth wavers truly represent. British scholar Pauline
Maclaran argues that although celebrities are at the forefront of fourth-wave feminism, ready access
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to information has enabled the movement to draw greater attention to economic inequalities faced
by women than heretofore possible.
Others have regarded as more supportive of the LBTG community. British historian Amanda
Vickery claims that fourth-wave feminism marginalizes women of colour who are fighting
for inclusivity, neglecting the specific injustices they face to make way for the mainstream
struggle. Canadian Ruth Phillips argues that fourth-wave feminism falls within the broader
agenda of financial, political, and environmental concerns and is recognized as a key factor
in alleviating poverty, improving women's health, and achieving economic growth.

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Thank You!

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