Political Science Notes – For W.B.C.S. Examination – Political Ideologies Feminism.

Feminism is a type of political movement and philosophy that intends to modernize the social role of females. It was one of the great political and social movements of the 19th and 20th century. The term feminism can be used to define 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. Feminists have emphasized what they see as the political relationship between the sexes that is the supremacy of men and the domination of women in most of the societies.Continue Reading Political Science Notes – For W.B.C.S. Examination – Political Ideologies Feminism.

Feminist ideology is categorized by two basis beliefs. First, women and men are treated differently because of their sex, and second, that imbalanced treatment can and should be overturned. Although most feminists embrace the goal of gender equality, it is misleading to define feminism in terms of this goal as some feminists distinguish between liberation and equality, debating that the latter implies that women should be ‘like men’. The fundamental notion in feminist analysis is patriarchy, which draws attention to the totality of oppression and exploitation to which women are subject. This highlights the political importance of gender, understood to refer to socially imposed rather than biological differences between women and men. Most feminists view gender as a political paradigm, usually based upon stereotypes of ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ behaviour and social roles.

History:

Maggie Humm and Rebecca Walker stated that 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. Feminist theory emerged from these feminist movements. It is manifest in a variety of disciplines such as feminist geography, feminist history and feminist literary criticism.

Modern feminism were emerged with the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft and John Stuart Mill. Wollstonecraft wrote the Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792, which debated that women should have the equal rights as men, including the right to education, earnings and property. John Stuart Mill, in his 1869 book, The Subjection of Women, also discussed that women should be given same legal rights as males.

Historians described the first wave of feminism as being from the middle of the 19th century to the early 20th century. The feminist movement during the first wave was principally concerned with fundamental political rights, such as the right to vote; economic rights, such as the right to own property apart from a husband; rights to education and employment; and impartial marriage laws. The first wave of feminism was diligently related with the women’s suffrage movement, which emerged in the 1840s and 1850s. The achievement of female suffrage in most Western countries in the early twentieth century. It meant that the campaign for legal and civil rights expected a lower profile and disadvantaged the women’s movement of a combining focus.

The second wave of feminism arose during the 1960s and expressed, in addition to the established concern with equal rights, the more revolutionary demands of the rising Women’s Liberation Movement. Since in the beginning of 1970s, feminism has undergone a process of de-radicalisation, leading some to pronounce the appearance of post-feminism. This was indisputably linked to a growing repercussion against feminism, related with the rise of the New Right, but it also reflects the development of more individualised and conventionalised forms of feminism, characterised by an unwillingness any longer to view women as ‘victims’.

The focus of the second wave was on employment and reproductive rights. Some major laws were passed during this period, including the Equal Pay Act; Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibited gender discrimination in employment; and Title IX, which prohibits discrimination in education. The breakthrough Supreme Court decisions of Griswold v. Connecticut, involving birth control, and Roe v. Wade, regarding abortion, greatly stretched female reproductive rights.

The third wave of feminism is the recent movement. The third wave is in part a reaction to a perceived overemphasis of the movement to focus on middle-class ordinary white females. The third wave movement is more diverse and divergent as compared to the past waves and is spread from a national movement to the grassroots level. Major concerns of the third wave of feminism include such things as globalism, technology and other forces that affect women.

Another major attribute of third wave feminism is the respect of the value of the feminine. For example, because of traditional feminine characteristics of nurturing and empathy, females are often superior at dispute resolution. Additionally, modern feminism is also about choice. Modern feminism considers that women should have the choice to chase all the opportunities that are available to men but also have the right to choose ‘traditional’ roles as well. Main point is not what females choose to do but that they have the choice.

Theoretical schools:

Feminist theory is an expansion of feminism into theoretical or philosophical arenas. It incorporates work in a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, economics, women’s studies, literary criticism, art history, psychoanalysis and philosophy. Feminist theory has aim to understand gender inequality and focuses on gender politics, power relations and sexuality. While providing a evaluation 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), oppression and patriarchy.

The American literary criticizer and feminist Elaine Showalter defines 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 disparaged this model, seeing it as an essentialist and deterministic model for female bias that fails to account for the situation of women outside the West.

Ideologies of feminism:

Feminist philosophy and practice is highly dissimilar, however. Distinctive liberal, socialist/Marxist and radical forms of feminism are usually identified.

Liberal feminism replicates a commitment to individualism and formal equality, and is characterised by the quest for equal rights and opportunities in ‘public’ and political life. Liberal feminism proclaims the equality of men and women through political and legal reform. It is an individualistic form of feminism, which focuses on women’s capability to show and maintain their impartiality through their own actions and choices. Liberal feminism uses the personal interactions between men and women as the place from which to change culture. Some prominent writers were Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria steward, The Grimke Sisters, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem and Molly Yard.

Liberal feminists stated that all women are capable of asserting their ability to accomplish equality, therefore it is possible for change to happen without changing the structure of society. Several issues important to liberal feminists include reproductive and abortion rights, sexual harassment, voting, education, “equal pay for equal work”, affordable childcare, affordable health care, and bringing to light the frequency of sexual and domestic violence against women (hooks, bell, 1986).

Socialist feminism, largely derived from Marxism, highlights links between female subservience and the capitalist mode of production, drawing attention to the economic significance of women being confined to the family or domestic life. Eminent writers were Marx, Engels, Gilman, Kollontai and Eisenstein.

Socialist feminism links the oppression of women to Marxist philosophies about exploitation, oppression and labor. Socialist feminists consider unequal standing in both the workplace and the domestic areas holds women down. Socialist feminists perceive prostitution, domestic work, childcare, and marriage as ways in which women are browbeaten by a patriarchal system that diminishes women and the substantial work they do. Socialist feminists concentrate on far-reaching change that affects society as a whole instead of on an individual basis. They see the need to work alongside not just men but all other groups, as they see the oppression of women as a part of a larger pattern that affects everyone involved in the capitalist system (Ehrenreich, Barbara, 1976).

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