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• Feminism


  An awareness of women's oppression and exploitation in society, at work and within the family, and conscious action by women and men to change the situation
• Feminism


  Means agitation on women's issues and rights
• Feminism


  The "women's movement" of various groups working for the advancement of women's position, mainly in the form of campaigns for equal rights and legal reforms
• Feminism


  The changing situation of women in society
• Feminism


  Originated from the French word "femme", meaning woman
• Feminist Principles


  • Women as agents and creator of knowledge
  • Perspectives of women on a wide range of topics and issues that affect women's lives
  • Emphasis on social action – toward change that benefit and empower women
  • Analysis, examination and questioning of given and mainstream discourses from women's perspectives
• Feminist Theories


  Born out of the women's movements during the French and Industrial revolutions
• First Wave Feminism (1830-early 1900)

  The term first-wave was coined in March 1968 by Martha Lear writing in The New York Times Magazine
• First Wave Feminism focused very little on the subjects of abortion, birth control and overall reproductive rights of women
• There was a notable connection between the slavery abolition movement and the women's rights movement
• Liberal Feminism


  Builds on a Western liberal political and philosophical framework that idealizes a society in which autonomous individuals are provided maximal freedom to pursue their own interests
• Liberal Feminism


  Human beings are basically good within themselves, and human goodness comes from the use of reason, knowledge and free will
• Early advocates of Liberal Feminism


  • Mary Wollstonecraft - equality of the sexes, education as key to equality and independence
  • Olympe de Gouge - women's ability to reason and make moral decisions, women not the same as men but equal, women have the right to speak
• Two main gender implications of Liberal Feminism

  • Women have reason, knowledge and free will
  • Provide the conditions for women's rights and participation in all levels of society, reproductive rights, choices, education, work and legal protection
• Gains from Liberal Feminism

  • The concept of women's rights to higher education, suffrage, employment protection and safety
  • Awareness of the woman question- Violence against Women (VAW), discrimination, and unequal status
• Critique against Liberal Feminism

  • Still largely a middle class perspective
  • Does not give attention to patriarchy and capitalism and their complicity in the woman question (political/economic blindness)
  • Still uses the male standards to which women measure themselves (being equal to men)
• Marxist Feminism


  Builds its analysis of the woman question on the reality of social classes because of unjust distribution of resources and opportunities like education and employment
• Marxist Feminism


  Women's oppression is equated with that of the oppression of the masses like the workers and peasants
• Marxist Feminism


  Women's participation in the struggle against class oppression will bring about their own liberation
• Gains from Marxist Feminism

  • Sees women as a work force (human resource) both in employed work and housework
  • Places importance in incorporating women in an organized workers' movement
  • Gives importance to the social/material roots of women's oppression-socio economic inequalities and political discrimination of women
• Critique of Marxist Feminism

  • Instrumentalizes women – women as work force not women as persons
  • Despite recognition of the value of housework, it still takes secondary importance to employed work
  • Simplistic equation of workers' liberation with women's liberation
  • Still male-oriented in its perspectives
• Early Marxist Feminists


  • Clara Zetkin
  • Rosa Luxemburg
  • Alexandra Kollantai
• Second Wave Feminism (1960s-1970s)

  Focused on the issue of idealization of domesticity and motherhood and liberation through socialist struggle
• Achievements of Second Wave Feminism

  • The outlawing of gender discrimination in education, college sports, and obtaining financial credit
  • The banning of employment discrimination against pregnant women
  • The legalization of abortion and birth control
  • The establishment of "irreconcilable differences" as grounds for divorce and equalization of property division during divorce
• Radical Feminism


  Defines women as beings whose primary functions are either to bear and raise children or to satisfy male sexual desires (biological determinism)
• Radical Feminism


  The liberation of women requires the dismantling of patriarchy, particularly male control of women's bodies
• Radical Feminism


  Sees patriarchy (i.e., the systemic oppression of women by men) as the root of women's subordination in sex- specific ways
• Critique of Radical Feminism

  • Tendency to be a-historical – there has been no moment in history that women and men were not together
  • Tendency to be amoral – setting aside the moral sensibility of culture and society
• Gains from Radical Feminism

  • Courage to deviate from norms that expand social and ethical parameters
  • Support of research and reproductive technologies to free women
  • Support for other sexualities and gender preferences
• Radical Feminists


  • Audre Lorde
  • Alice Walker
  • Adrienne Rich
  • Mary Daly
• Socialist Feminism


  Integrates women's issues with economic and political concerns of the lower classes – workers, peasants and the poor
• Socialist Feminism


  Places importance in an independent women's movement
• Socialist Feminism


  Gives social value and importance to women's work – social support for women at home
• Critique of Socialist Feminism

  • Problem of prioritizing – which comes first woman question or social issues
  • Strong ties to its Marxist beginnings – still very male oriented
• Socialist Feminists


  • Voltairine de Cleyre
  • Emma Goldman
  • Zillah Eisenstein
• Ecofeminism


  A term coined by François d'Eaubonne in 1974
• Ecofeminism


  A reaction to the Bacon and Newton's scientific revolution that views nature as feminine – mysterious, beautiful, bountiful, and dangerous, thus in need of control, taming and submission to reason (exemplified by male)
• Ecofeminism


  Combines the goals of ecology and feminism
• Ecofeminism


  Sees women's oppression as connected to man's irresponsible and uncaring exploitation of nature
• Ecofeminism


  Woman is associated with nature for nature's (moon) cycle plays out in her body