introduction to feminism essay

Essay on Feminism

500 words essay on feminism.

Feminism is a social and political movement that advocates for the rights of women on the grounds of equality of sexes. It does not deny the biological differences between the sexes but demands equality in opportunities. It covers everything from social and political to economic arenas. In fact, feminist campaigns have been a crucial part of history in women empowerment. The feminist campaigns of the twentieth century made the right to vote, public property, work and education possible. Thus, an essay on feminism will discuss its importance and impact.

Importance of Feminism

Feminism is not just important for women but for every sex, gender, caste, creed and more. It empowers the people and society as a whole. A very common misconception is that only women can be feminists.

It is absolutely wrong but feminism does not just benefit women. It strives for equality of the sexes, not the superiority of women. Feminism takes the gender roles which have been around for many years and tries to deconstruct them.

This allows people to live freely and empower lives without getting tied down by traditional restrictions. In other words, it benefits women as well as men. For instance, while it advocates that women must be free to earn it also advocates that why should men be the sole breadwinner of the family? It tries to give freedom to all.

Most importantly, it is essential for young people to get involved in the feminist movement. This way, we can achieve faster results. It is no less than a dream to live in a world full of equality.

Thus, we must all look at our own cultures and communities for making this dream a reality. We have not yet reached the result but we are on the journey, so we must continue on this mission to achieve successful results.

Impact of Feminism

Feminism has had a life-changing impact on everyone, especially women. If we look at history, we see that it is what gave women the right to vote. It was no small feat but was achieved successfully by women.

Further, if we look at modern feminism, we see how feminism involves in life-altering campaigns. For instance, campaigns that support the abortion of unwanted pregnancy and reproductive rights allow women to have freedom of choice.

Moreover, feminism constantly questions patriarchy and strives to renounce gender roles. It allows men to be whoever they wish to be without getting judged. It is not taboo for men to cry anymore because they must be allowed to express themselves freely.

Similarly, it also helps the LGBTQ community greatly as it advocates for their right too. Feminism gives a place for everyone and it is best to practice intersectional feminism to understand everyone’s struggle.

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Conclusion of the Essay on Feminism

The key message of feminism must be to highlight the choice in bringing personal meaning to feminism. It is to recognize other’s right for doing the same thing. The sad part is that despite feminism being a strong movement, there are still parts of the world where inequality and exploitation of women take places. Thus, we must all try to practice intersectional feminism.

FAQ of Essay on Feminism

Question 1: What are feminist beliefs?

Answer 1: Feminist beliefs are the desire for equality between the sexes. It is the belief that men and women must have equal rights and opportunities. Thus, it covers everything from social and political to economic equality.

Question 2: What started feminism?

Answer 2: The first wave of feminism occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It emerged out of an environment of urban industrialism and liberal, socialist politics. This wave aimed to open up new doors for women with a focus on suffrage.

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• The suffrage movement
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What is intersectional feminism, how have feminist politics changed the world.

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• Council of Europe - Feminism and Women’s Rights Movements
• Academia - History and Theory of Feminism
• Pressbooks @ Howard Community College - Feminism and Sexism
• National Army Museum - Women's Work?
• Social Science LibreTexts - Feminism
• EHNE Digital Encyclopedia - Feminisms and Feminist Movements in Europe
• Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University - Feminist Theory
• Pacific University, Oregon - Four Waves of Feminism
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Feminist Philosophy
• feminism - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
• Table Of Contents

What is feminism?

At its core, feminism is the belief in full social, economic, and political equality for women. Feminism largely arose in response to Western traditions that restricted the rights of women, but feminist thought has global manifestations and variations.

In medieval France philosopher Christine de Pisan challenged the social restrictions on women and pushed for women’s education. In 18th-century England Mary Wollstonecraft ’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman became a seminal work of English-language feminist philosophy. Feminism in the United States had a number of prominent activists during the mid- to late-19th century. Notable mainstream activists included Lucretia Mott , Elizabeth Cady Stanton , and Susan B. Anthony . Less mainstream but similarly important views came from Sojourner Truth , a formerly enslaved Black woman, and Emma Goldman , the nation’s leading anarchist during the late 19th century.

Intersectionality is a term coined by professor Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 to describe how different social categories interact, sometimes resulting in compounding effects and tensions. Her paper on the subject argued that discrimination specifically against Black women is different from general anti-woman discrimination or anti-Black racism. Instead, it involves the unique compound experience of both sexism and racism. Initially used in the context of discrimination law, the concept saw a resurgence in the 21st century among left-wing activists who broadened intersectionality to include categories such as class and sexual orientation.

Feminism has provided Western women with increased educational opportunities, the right to vote, protections against workplace discrimination, and the right to make personal decisions about pregnancy. In some communities, feminism has also succeeded in challenging pervasive cultural norms about women. Outside of the Western world, activists such as Malala Yousafzai have highlighted issues such as unequal access to education for women.

feminism , the belief in social, economic, and political equality of the sexes. 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.

Throughout most of Western history, women were confined to the domestic sphere, while public life was reserved for men. In medieval Europe, women were denied the right to own property , to study, or to participate in public life. At the end of the 19th century in France, they were still compelled to cover their heads in public, and, in parts of Germany, a husband still had the right to sell his wife. Even as late as the early 20th century, women could neither vote nor hold elective office in Europe and in most of the United States (where several territories and states granted women’s suffrage long before the federal government did so). Women were prevented from conducting business without a male representative, be it father, brother, husband, legal agent, or even son. Married women could not exercise control over their own children without the permission of their husbands. Moreover, women had little or no access to education and were barred from most professions. In some parts of the world, such restrictions on women continue today. See also egalitarianism .

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. “If they are victorious now, what will they not attempt?” Cato cried. “As soon as they begin to be your equals, they will have become your superiors.”

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.

The feminist voices of the Renaissance never coalesced into a coherent philosophy or movement. This happened only with the Enlightenment , when women began to demand that the new reformist rhetoric about liberty , equality, and natural rights be applied to both sexes.

Initially, Enlightenment philosophers focused on the inequities of social class and caste to the exclusion of gender . Swiss-born French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau , for example, portrayed women as silly and frivolous creatures, born to be subordinate to men. In addition, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen , which defined French citizenship after the revolution of 1789, pointedly failed to address the legal status of women.

Female intellectuals of the Enlightenment were quick to point out this lack of inclusivity and the limited scope of reformist rhetoric. Olympe de Gouges , a noted playwright, published Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (1791; “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the [Female] Citizen”), declaring women to be not only man’s equal but his partner. The following year Mary Wollstonecraft ’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), the seminal English-language feminist work, was published in England. Challenging the notion that women exist only to please men, she proposed that women and men be given equal opportunities in education, work, and politics. Women, she wrote, are as naturally rational as men. If they are silly, it is only because society trains them to be irrelevant.

The Age of Enlightenment turned into an era of political ferment marked by revolutions in France, Germany, and Italy and the rise of abolitionism . In the United States, feminist activism took root when female abolitionists sought to apply the concepts of freedom and equality to their own social and political situations. Their work brought them in contact with female abolitionists in England who were reaching the same conclusions. By the mid-19th century, issues surrounding feminism had added to the tumult of social change , with ideas being exchanged across Europe and North America .

In the first feminist article she dared sign with her own name, Louise Otto, a German, built on the work of Charles Fourier , a French social theorist, quoting his dictum that “by the position which women hold in a land, you can see whether the air of a state is thick with dirty fog or free and clear.” And after Parisian feminists began publishing a daily newspaper entitled La Voix des femmes (“The Voice of Women”) in 1848, Luise Dittmar, a German writer, followed suit one year later with her journal, Soziale Reform .

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Feminist Philosophy

This entry provides an introduction to the feminist philosophy section of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP). Overseen by a board of feminist philosophers, this section primarily takes up feminist philosophy of the twentieth and twenty-first century. It has three subsections of entries (as can be seen in Table of Contents under “feminist philosophy”): (1) approaches to feminist philosophy, (2) feminist interventions in philosophy, and (3) feminist philosophical topics. By “approaches to feminist philosophy” we mean the main philosophical approaches such as analytic, continental, psychoanalytic, pragmatist, and various intersections. We see these as methodologies that can be fruitfully employed to engage philosophically isssues of feminist concern. The second group of entries, feminist interventions in philosophy, includes entries on how feminist philosophers have intervened in and begun to transform traditional philosopical areas such as aesthetics, ethics, the history of philosophy, metaphysics, and political philosophy. Entries in the third group, feminist philosophical topics, take up concepts and matters that traditional philosophy has either overlooked or undertheorized, including autonomy, the body, objectification, sex and gender, and reproduction. In short, this third group of entries shows how feminist philosophers have rendered philosophical previously un-problematized topics, such as the body, class and work, disability, the family, human trafficking, reproduction, the self, sex work, and sexuality. Entries in this third group also show how a particularly feminist lens refashions issues of globalization, human rights, popular culture, race and racism, and science. Following a brief overview of feminism as a political and intellectual movement, we provide an overview of these three parts of the feminist section of the SEP.

In addition to the feminist philosophy section of the SEP, there are also a number of entries on women in the history of philosophy, for example, on Mary Wollstonecraft , Mary Astell , Jane Addams , Rosa Luxemburg , Simone de Beauvoir , Iris Murdoch , and others. Additionally, dozens of other entries throughout the SEP discuss facets of feminist philosophy, including, to name just a handful, the entries on global justice , respect , contemporary Africana philosophy , multiculturalism , privacy , and Latinx philosophy .

• 1. Introduction
• 2. What is Feminism?

3. Approaches to Feminism

4. interventions in philosophy, 5. topics in feminism, other internet resources, related entries, 1. what is feminism.

Broadly understood, feminism is both an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks an end to gender-based oppression. Motivated by the quest for social justice, feminist inquiry provides a wide range of perspectives on cultural, economic, social, and political phenomena. It identifies and evaluates the many ways that some norms have been used to exclude, marginalize, and oppress people on the basis of gender, as well as how gendered identities have been shaped to conform and uphold the norms of a patriarchal society. In so doing, it tries to understand the roots of a system that has been prevalent in nearly all known places and times. It also explores what a just society would look like.

While less frequently than one would think, throughout history women have rebelled against repressive structures. It was not until the late 19th century that feminism coalesced into a movement. In the mid-1800s the term feminism was still used to refer to “the qualities of females.” After the First International Women’s Conference in Paris in 1892, the term feminism , following the French term féministe , was used regularly in English for a belief in and advocacy of equal rights for women based on the idea of the equality of the sexes. Hence the term feminism in English is rooted in the mobilization for women’s suffrage in Europe and the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

As a term, feminism has many different uses and its meanings are often contested. For example, some writers use the term to refer to a historically specific political movement in the United States and Europe; other writers use it to refer to the belief that there are injustices against women, though there is no consensus on the exact list of these injustices. Some have found it useful, if controversial, to think of the women’s movement in the United States as occurring in “waves.” The wave model has some virtues, but it also tends to overlook a great deal of heterogeneity of thought in any given moment. It works well enough for what is thought of as the first wave, identified as the period from the mid-nineteenth century until the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. This first wave focused on the struggle to achieve basic political rights. According to the wave model, feminism in the United States waned after women achieved voting rights, to be revived in the late 1960s and early 1970s as “second wave” feminism. In this second wave, the model holds, feminists pushed beyond the early quest for political rights to fight for greater equality across the board, e.g., in education, the workplace, and at home. But in actuality, many feminists during this time were focusing on more than equality. Like the first wave, many of the leaders of the second wave of feminism were white women seeking equal rights. But also, as in the first wave, other voices emerged, broadening the movement. The second wave came to include women of different identities, ethnicities, and orientations. In addition to calling for equal political rights, they called for greater equality across the board, e.g., in education, the workplace, and at home. Transformations of feminism beginning in the 1990s have resulted in a “third wave.” Third Wave feminists often critique earlier feminists for their lack of attention to the differences among women due to class, ethnicity, nationality, religion, and race (see Breines 2002; Springer 2002), and emphasize “identity” as a site of gender struggle. (For more information on the “wave” model and each of the “waves,” see the subsection on Waves of Feminism in the Other Internet Resources section.)

Some feminist scholars object to identifying feminism in terms of waves on the grounds that doing so eclipses differences within each wave as well as continuity of feminist resistance to male domination throughout history and across cultures. In other words, feminism is not confined to a few (white) women in the West over the past century or so. Moreover, even considering only relatively recent efforts to resist male domination in Europe and the United States, the emphasis on “First” and “Second” Wave feminism ignores the ongoing resistance to male domination between the 1920s and 1960s and the resistance outside mainstream politics, particularly by women of color and working class women (Cott 1987). The wave model also cannot account for theoretical work taking place between waves, for example, of the tremendous work done by Simone de Beauvoir in her groundbreaking book of 1949, The Second Sex . Because of these many limitiations of the wave model, the feminist section of the SEP makes little use of it.

Although the term feminism has a history in English linked with women’s activism from the late nineteenth century to the present, it is useful to distinguish feminist ideas or beliefs from feminist political movements, for even in periods where there has been no significant political activism around women’s subordination, individuals have been concerned with and theorized about justice for women. So, for example, it makes sense to ask whether Plato was a feminist, given his view that some women should be trained to rule ( Republic , Book V), even though he was an exception in his historical context (see, e.g., Tuana 1994). Overall, feminism can be understood as not only a social movement but also a set of beliefs, concepts, and theories that seek to analyze, diagnose, and identify solutions to the manifold injustices that people suffer on account of gendered norms. Broadly understood, this is feminism as a intellectual movement. The SEP feminist section aims to chronicle and explain the various theories, concepts, and philosophical tools that feminist philosophers have developed.

Much has been made of the methodological differences or “divides” between various philosophical traditions, namely analytic and continental, but also pragmatist and psychoanalytic. But throughout these entries the reader will find a continuity of descriptions on the meaning of feminism, even with the heterogeneity of the philosophical methodologies these entries’ authors employ. The entry on feminist ethics, written by the analytic feminist philosopher Kathryn Norlock, describes that field in a way that is agreeable to almost any feminist philosopher:

Feminist Ethics aims “to understand, criticize, and correct” how gender operates within our moral beliefs and practices (Lindemann 2005, 11) and our methodological approaches to ethical theory. More specifically, feminist ethicists aim to understand, criticize, and correct: (1) the binary view of gender, (2) the privilege historically available to men, and/or (3) the ways that views about gender maintain oppressive social orders or practices that harm others, especially girls and women who historically have been subordinated along gendered dimensions including sexuality and gender-identity. (entry on feminist ethics , introduction)

Likewise, the entry on feminist perspectives on power, written by the critical theorist Amy Allen, proposes the idea that “although any general definition of feminism would no doubt be controversial, it seems undeniable that much work in feminist theory is devoted to the tasks of critiquing gender subordination, analyzing its intersections with other forms of subordination such as racism, heterosexism, and class oppression, and envisioning prospects for individual and collective resistance and emancipation.” (entry on feminist perspectives on power , introduction)

Even with general overall shared commitments about the meaning of feminism, numerous differences among feminist philosophers do show up in the array of arenas outlined in this section of the SEP. Some of these may be due to different methodological approaches (whether, for example, continental or analytic), but others show up because of different ontological commitments (such as the category of woman) and beliefs about what kind of political and moral remedies should be sought.

Nonetheless, over the decades there has been a lot of frustration, perhaps because as philosophers these feminist theorists often want to get to the (one) truth of the matter, for example, what is “a woman”? What is freedom? What is autonomy? Yet so far any search for a unified or unifying theory of feminism has yet to bear fruit. Consider the seemingly unproblematic claim that feminism is a commitment to women’s equal rights. Perhaps it is, but framing it this way comes with its own presuppositions. The first is that feminism is committed to a liberal model of politics. Although most feminists would probably agree that there is some sense of rights on which achieving equal rights for women is a necessary condition for feminism to succeed, most would also argue that this would not be sufficient. This is because women’s oppression under male domination rarely if ever consists solely in depriving women of political and legal rights, but also extends into the structure of our society and the content of our culture, and the workings of languages and how they shape perceptions and permeate our consciousness (e.g., Bartky 1988, Postl 2017). A second presupposition is that there is some clear and universal definition of what it is to be a woman. The SEP entry, Feminist Perspectives on Sex and Gender, gives a rich overview of what is problematic about this supposition. Any attempt to define “woman,” according to Judith Butler, is also an attempt to exclude some from that category. More recently this debate shows up in discussions about nonbinary and trans people. Previously, it showed up in suppositions that the typical subject of feminism was white and middle class. While feminism would be easier to theorize if it were clear who its subject is, any attempt to define it runs into trouble. (see the entry on feminist perspectives on trans issues )

Is there any point, then, in asking what feminism is? Rather than looking for a unified field theory of feminism, perhaps feminism can be identified as an engagement precisely where there are contradictions over questions of freedom, identity, and agency. These contradictions are not just logical ones but also historical ones. For example, the question of women’s political equality to men arose precisely at those historical moments when “all men” came to be deemed as equal (McAfee 2021). During the French Revolution, the French settled the matter by saying that “men” meant men and not women. In the American Revolution, “men” was not so clearly gendered but it was certainly raced as white. Equality becomes an issue precisely where there is a disjunct between what seems to be the case normatively and what is happening empirically. Questions about the category of women arise in the context of political diversity and biological malleability, where peoples of many cultures mingle and sexual or gender identity can be altered. Feminist debates over pornography and sex work become heated in the context, respectively, of a free press and economic precarity. In short, feminist inquiry arises in the context of disagreement and contradiction and it produces new ways of approaching issues and asking questions. Thus, that it lacks a cohesive set of answers may be beside the point.

In sum, “feminism” is an umbrella term for a range of views about injustices against women. There are disagreements among feminists about the nature of justice in general and the nature of sexism, in particular, the specific kinds of injustice or wrong women suffer; and the group who should be the primary focus of feminist efforts. Nonetheless, feminists are committed to bringing about social change to end injustice against women, in particular, injustice against women as women.

2. Feminist Scholarship

Contemporary feminist philosophical scholarship emerged in the 1970s as more women began careers in higher education, including philosophy. As they did so, they also began taking up matters from their own experience for philosophical scrutiny. These scholars were influenced both by feminist movements in their midst as well as by their philosophical training, which generally was anything but feminist. Until about the 1990s, one could not go to graduate school to study “feminist philosophy.” While students and scholars could turn to the writings of Simone de Beauvoir or look back historically to the writings of “first wave” feminists like Mary Wollstonecraft, most of the philosophers writing in the first decades of the emergence of feminist philosophy brought their particular training and expertise to bear on analyzing issues raised by the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s, such as abortion, affirmative action, equal opportunity, the institutions of marriage, sexuality, and love. Additionally, feminist philosophical scholarship increasingly focused on the very same types of issues taken up by mainstream philosophers.

Feminist philosophical scholarship begins with attention to women, and to limitations on their roles and locations and the ways they were valued or devalued. It developed further by considering gender in less binary terms as well as recognizing that gender is only one fact of the complex interactions among class, race, ability, and sexuality. Feminist scholarship asks how attention to these might transform feminist philosophy itself. From here we move to the realm of the symbolic and how it constructs “the feminine.” How is the feminine instantiated and constructed within the texts of philosophy? What role does it play in forming, either through its absence or its presence, the central concepts of philosophy?

Feminist philosophers brought their philosophical tools to bear on these questions. Since these feminist philosophers employed the philosophical tools they knew best and found most promising, feminist philosophy began to emerge from all the traditions of Western philosophy prevalent at the end of the twentieth century, including analytic, continental, and classical American philosophy. While the thematic focus of their work was often influenced by the topics and questions highlighted by these traditions, the larger shared feminist concerns often create as much commonality as difference. Hence, a given question could be taken up and addressed from an array of views in ways that are sometimes divergent and at other times complementary.

As an historically male discipline, many of the leading philosophical journals and societies did not recognize much feminist scholarship as properly philosophical. In response, feminist scholars began founding their own journals and organizations. The first leading feminist journal, Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy , was founded in 1982 as a venue for feminist philosophical scholarship. It embraced a diversity of methodological approaches in feminist philosophy, publishing work from a variety of traditions. Feminist scholarship in each of these traditions is also advanced and supported though scholarly exchange at various professional societies, including the Society for Women in Philosophy, founded in the United States in 1972. Additionally, the Society for Analytical Feminism, founded in 1991, promotes the study of issues in feminism by methods broadly construed as analytic, to examine the use of analytic methods as applied to feminist issues, and to provide a means by which those interested in analytical feminism can meet and exchange ideas. The journal philo SOPHIA was established in 2005 to promote continental feminist scholarly and pedagogical development. The Society for the Study of Women Philosophers was established in 1987 to promote the study of the contributions of women to the history of philosophy. Similar organizations and journals on many continents continue to advance scholarship in feminist philosophy. Often a feminist philosophical society will publish its own journal, just as the International Network on Feminist Approaches to Bioethics publishes the International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics. While the discipline of philosophy in the West remains predominantly white and male, feminist journals and scholarship continues to proliferate.

Important feminist philosophical work has emerged from all the current major philosophical traditions, including analytic philosophy, continental philosophy, and American pragmatist philosophy. It is also emerging from other new areas of inquiry, such as Latin American thought, which arises out of the context of colonialism. Entries in the SEP under the heading “approaches to feminism” discuss the impact of these traditions and constellations of thought on feminist scholarship. The subsection also addresses how some work, such as psychoanalytic feminism, bridges two or more traditions. The editors of the feminist section of the SEP see these different traditions as a rich array of methodologies rather than “continental divides.” The array reflects a variety of beliefs about what kinds of philosophy are both fruitful and meaningful. The different methodologies bring their own ways of asking and answering questions, along with constructive and critical dialogue with mainstream philosophical views and methods and new topics of inquiry.

As the SEP continues to grow, we anticipate that this subsection on approaches to feminism will expand to address other traditions, including Black feminism. But for now, here are links to entries in this subsection:

• analytic feminism
• continental feminism
• Latin American feminism
• pragmatist feminism
• intersections between pragmatist and continental feminism
• intersections between analytic and continental feminism
• psychoanalytic feminism

Though not included along with these in the table of contents, another relevant approach can be found in the entry on gender in Confucian philosophy .

All these approaches share a set of feminist commitments and an overarching criticism of institutions, presuppositions, and practices that have historically favored men over women. They also share a general critique of claims to universality and objectivity that ignore male-dominated theories’ own particularity and specificity. Feminist philosophies of almost any philosophical orientation will be much more perspectival, historical, contextual, and focused on lived experience than their non-feminist counterparts. Unlike mainstream philosophers who can seriously consider the philosophical conundrums of brains in a vat, feminist philosophers always start by seeing people as embodied. Feminists have also argued for the reconfiguration of accepted structures and problems of philosophy. For example, feminists have not only rejected the privileging of epistemological concerns over moral and political concerns common to much of philosophy, they have argued that these two areas of concern are inextricably intertwined. Part 2 of the entry on analytic feminism lays out other areas of commonality across these various approaches. For one, feminist philosophers generally agree that philosophy is a powerful tool for, as Ann Garry states in that entry, “understanding ourselves and our relations to each other, to our communities, and to the state; to appreciate the extent to which we are counted as knowers and moral agents; [and] to uncover the assumptions and methods of various bodies of knowledge.” As such, philosophy is also a powerful tool for understanding how gender itself has been constructed, that is, why and to whose benefit it is to construct some people as lesser and less capable than others. Along these lines, feminist philosophers are keenly attuned to male biases at work in the history of philosophy, such as those regarding “the nature of woman” and supposed value neutrality, which on inspection is hardly neutral at all. Claims to universality, feminist philosophers have found, are usually made from a very specific and particular point of view, contrary to their manifest assertions. Another orientation that feminist philosophers generally share is a commitment to normativity and social change; they are never content to analyze things just as they are but instead look for ways to overcome oppressive practices and institutions.

Such questioning of the problems of mainstream approaches to philosophy has often led to feminists using methods and approaches from more than one philosophical tradition. As Ann Garry notes in Part 3 of the entry on analytic feminism (2017), it is not uncommon to find analytic feminists drawing on non-analytic figures such as Beauvoir, Foucault, or Butler; and because of their motivation to communicate with other feminists, they are more motivated than other philosophers “to search for methodological cross-fertilization.” Moreover, feminist philosophers are generally inclined to incorporate the perspectives of all those who have been oppressed.

Even with their common and overlapping orientations, the differences between the various philosophical approaches to feminism are significant, especially in terms of styles of writing, influences, and overall expectations about what philosophy can and should achieve. Analytic feminist philosophy tends to value analysis and argumentation, though anyone trained in philosophy does so as well. Continental feminist theory puts more emphasis on interpretation and deconstruction, and pragmatist feminism values lived experience and exploration. Coming out of a post-Hegelian tradition, both continental and pragmatist philosophers usually suspect that “truth,” whatever that is, emerges and develops historically. They tend to share with Nietzsche the view that truth claims often mask power plays. Yet where continental and pragmatist philosophers are generally wary about notions of truth, analytic feminists tend to argue that the way to “counter sexism and androcentrism is through forming a clear conception of and pursuing truth, logical consistency, objectivity, rationality, justice, and the good.” (Cudd 1996: 20).

These differences and intersections play out in the ways that various feminists engage topics of common concern. One key area of intersection, noted by Georgia Warnke, is the appropriation of psychoanalytic theory, with Anglo-American feminists generally adopting object-relations theories and continental feminists drawing more on Lacan and contemporary French psychoanalytic theory, though this is already beginning to change as it becomes clearer that continental psychoanalytic theory is also interested, via Julia Kristeva and Melanie Klein, in object-relations theory (see the entry on intersections between analytic and continental feminism ). The importance of psychoanalytic approaches is also underscored in Shannon Sullivan’s entry on intersections between pragmatist and continental feminism . Given the importance of psychoanalytic feminism for all three traditions, a separate essay on this approach to feminist theory is included in this section.

No topic is more central to feminist philosophy than sex and gender, but even here many variations on the theme flourish. Where analytic feminism, with its critique of essentialism, holds the sex/gender distinction practically as an article of faith (see the entry on feminist perspectives on sex and gender and Chanter 2009), continental feminists tend to suspect either (1) that even the supposedly purely biological category of sex is itself socially constituted (Butler 1990 and 1993) or (2) that sexual difference itself needs to be valued and theorized (see especially Cixous 1976 and Irigaray 1974).

Despite the variety of different approaches, styles, societies, and orientations, feminist philosophers’ commonalities are greater than their differences. Many will borrow freely from each other and find that other orientations contribute to their own work. Even the differences over sex and gender add to a larger conversation about the impact of culture and society on bodies, experience, and pathways for change.

Philosophers who are feminists have, in their work in traditional fields of study, begun to change those very fields. The Encyclopedia includes a range of entries on how feminist philosophies have intervened in conventional areas of philosophical research, areas in which philosophers often tend to argue that they are operating from a neutral, universal point of view (notable exceptions are pragmatism, poststructuralism, and some phenomenology). Historically, philosophy has claimed that the norm is universal and the feminine is abnormal, that universality is not gendered, but that all things feminine are not universal. Not surprisingly, feminists have pointed out how in fact these supposed neutral enterprises are in fact quite gendered, namely, male gendered. For example, feminists working on environmental philosophy have uncovered how practices disproportionately affect women, children, and people of color. Liberal feminism has shown how supposed universal truths of liberalism are in fact quite biased and particular. Feminist epistemologists have called out “epistemologies of ignorance” that traffic in not knowing. Across the board, in fact, feminist philosophers are uncovering male biases and also pointing to the value of particularity, in general rejecting universality as a norm or goal.

Entries under the heading of feminist interventions include the following:

• feminist aesthetics
• feminist bioethics
• feminist environmental philosophy
• feminist epistemology and philosophy of science
• feminist ethics
• feminist history of philosophy
• liberal feminism
• feminist metaphysics
• feminist moral psychology
• feminist philosophy of biology
• feminist philosophy of language
• feminist philosophy of law
• feminist philosophy of religion
• feminist political philosophy
• feminist social epistemology

Feminist critical attention to philosophical practices has revealed the inadequacy of dominant philosophical tropes as well as the need to turn philosophical attention to things that had previously gone unattended. For example, feminists working from the perspective of women’s lives have been influential in bringing philosophical attention to the phenomenon of care and care-giving (Ruddick 1989; Held 1995, 2007; Hamington 2006), dependency (Kittay 1999), disability (Wilkerson 2002; Carlson 2009), women’s labor (Waring 1999; Delphy 1984; Harley 2007), the devaluation of women’s testimonies (see the entry on feminist epistemology and philosophy of science ), and scientific bias and objectivity (Longino 1990). In doing so they have revealed weaknesses in existing ethical, political, and epistemological theories. More generally, feminists have called for inquiry into what are typically considered “private” practices and personal concerns, such as the family, sexuality, and the body, in order to balance what has seemed to be a masculine pre-occupation with “public” and impersonal matters. Philosophy presupposes interpretive tools for understanding our everyday lives; feminist work in articulating additional dimensions of experience and aspects of our practices is invaluable in demonstrating the bias in existing tools, and in the search for better ones.

Feminist explanations of sexism and accounts of sexist practices also raise issues that are within the domain of traditional philosophical inquiry. For example, in thinking about care, feminists have asked questions about the nature of the self; in thinking about gender, feminists have asked what the relationship is between the natural and the social; in thinking about sexism in science, feminists have asked what should count as knowledge. In some such cases, mainstream philosophical accounts provide useful tools; in other cases, alternative proposals have seemed more promising.

In the sub-entries included under “feminism (topics)” in the Table of Contents to this Encyclopedia , authors survey some of the recent feminist work on a topic, highlighting the issues that are of particular relevance to philosophy. These entries are:

• feminist perspectives on argumentation
• feminist perspectives on autonomy
• feminist perspectives on class and work
• feminist perspectives on disability
• feminist perspectives on globalization
• feminist perspectives on objectification
• feminist perspectives on power
• feminist perspectives on rape
• feminist perspectives on reproduction and the family
• feminist perspectives on science
• feminist perspectives on sex and gender
• feminist perspectives on sex markets
• feminist perspectives on the body
• feminist perspectives on the self
• feminist perspectives on trans issues

See also the entries in the Related Entries section below.

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• Tessman, Lisa, 2005, Burdened Virtues: Virtue Ethics for Liberatory Struggles , New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/0195179145.001.0001
• Tong, Rosemarie, 1993, Feminine and Feminist Ethics , Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
• Tougas, Cecile T., and Sara Ebenrick (eds.), 2000, Presenting Women Philosophers , Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
• Tuana, Nancy (ed.), 1992, Woman and the History of Philosophy , New York: Paragon Press.
• Tuana, Nancy (ed.), 1994, Feminist Interpretations of Plato, University Park: Penn State Press.
• Tuana, Nancy and Rosemarie Tong (eds), 1995, Feminism and Philosophy , Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
• 1987, Ancient Women Philosophers, 600 B.C.–500 A.D. , volume 1. doi:10.1007/978-94-009-3497-9
• 1989, Medieval, Renaissance, and Enlightenment Women Philosophers, 500–1600 , volume 2. doi:10.1007/978-94-009-2551-9
• 1990, Modern Women Philosophers, 1600–1900 , volume 3. doi:10.1007/978-94-011-3790-4
• 1994, Contemporary Women Philosophers, 1900–Today , volume 4. doi:10.1007/978-94-011-1114-0
• Walker, Alice, 1990, “Definition of Womanist”, in Making Face, Making Soul: Haciendo Caras , Gloria Anzaldúa (ed.), San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 370.
• Walker, Margaret Urban, 1998, Moral Understandings: A Feminist Study in Ethics , New York: Routledge.
• ––– (ed), 1999, Mother Time: Women, Aging, and Ethics , Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
• Walker, Rebecca (ed.), 1995, To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism , New York: Random House (Anchor Books).
• Ward, Julia, 1996, Feminism and Ancient Philosophy , New York: Routledge.
• Ware, Cellestine, 1970, Woman Power: The Movement for Women’s Liberation , New York: Tower Publications.
• Waring, Marilyn, 1999, Counting for Nothing: What Men Value and What Women Are Worth , second edition, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• Weisberg, D. Kelly (ed.) 1993. Feminist Legal Theory: Foundations , Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
• Wendell, Susan, 1996, The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability , New York and London: Routledge.
• Wilkerson, Abby L., 2002, “Disability, Sex Radicalism, and the Problem of Political Agency”. NWSA Journal , 14(3): 33–57. doi:10.1353/nwsa.2003.0018
• Whisnant, Rebecca, 2010, Global Feminist Ethics , Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Winnubst, Shannon, 2006, Queering Freedom , Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
• Young, Iris M., 1985 [1990], “Humanism, Gynocentrism and Feminist Politics”, Women’s Studies International Forum , 8(3): 173–183. Reprinted in Young 1990a: 73–91. doi:10.1016/0277-5395(85)90040-8
• –––, 1990a, Throwing Like a Girl and Other Essays in Feminist Philosophy and Social Theory , Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
• –––, 1990b, Justice and the Politics of Difference , Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• –––, 2011, Responsibility for Justice , Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195392388.001.0001
• Zophy, Angela Howard, 1990, “Feminism”, in The Handbook of American Women’s History , Angela Howard Zophy and Frances M. Kavenik (eds), New York: Routledge (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities).

How to cite this entry . Preview the PDF version of this entry at the Friends of the SEP Society . Look up topics and thinkers related to this entry at the Internet Philosophy Ontology Project (InPhO). Enhanced bibliography for this entry at PhilPapers , with links to its database.

Resources listed below have been chosen to provide only a springboard into the huge amount of feminist material available on the web. The emphasis here is on general resources useful for doing research in feminist philosophy or interdisciplinary feminist theory, e.g., the links connect to bibliographies and meta-sites, and resources concerning inclusion, exclusion, and feminist diversity. The list is incomplete and will be regularly revised and expanded. Further resources on topics in feminism such as popular culture, reproductive rights, sex work, are available within each sub-entry on that topic.

• Feminist Theory Website
• Women and Social Movements in the US: 1600–2000
• The Path of the Women’s Rights Movement: Detailed Timeline 1848–1997
• Documents from the Women’s Liberation Movement (Duke Univ. Archives)
• Documenting Difference: An Illustrated & Annotated Anthology of Documents on Race, Class, Gender & Ethnicity in the United States
• Race, Gender, and Affirmative Action Resource Page

Associations

• The Society for Women in Philosophy (SWIP)
• Association for Feminist Ethics and Social Theory (FEAST)
• Feminist Epistemology, Metaphysics, Methodology, and Science Studies (FEMMSS) http://femmss.org/
• Feminist Theory Website (Introduction)
• philoSOPHIA: A Feminist Society
• Society for Analytical Feminism
• The Society for the Study of Women Philosophers

“Waves” of Feminism

• “Waves of Feminism” by Jo Freeman (1996).
• Winning the Vote (Western NY Suffragists).
• Amendments to the US Constitution: 13th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 19th, 21st
• NOW’s 1966 Statement of Purpose
• “The Women’s Liberation Movement: Its Origins, Structures, and Ideals” by Jo Freeman (1971).

Feminism and Class

Marxist, socialist, and materialist feminisms.

• WMST-L discussion of how to define “Marxist feminism” Aug 1994)
• Marxist/Materialist Feminism (Feminist Theory Website)
• A Marxist Feminist Critique

Feminist Economics

• Feminist Economics (Feminist Theory Website)
• International Association for Feminist Economics
• International Center for Research on Women

Women and Labor

• Rights for Working Women
• United States Department of Labor
• United States Department of Labor: Audience – Women , a shortcut to information and services the Department of Labor (DOL) offers for women.

Feminism and Disability

• Center for Research on Women with Disabilities (CROWD)

Feminism, Human Rights, Global Feminism, and Human Trafficking

• Global Feminism (Feminist Majority Foundation)
• NOW and Global Feminism
• Sisterhood is Global Institute
• Polaris Project
• Not For Sale Campaign
• Human Trafficking Search website

Feminism and Race/Ethnicity

General resources.

• Office of the Gender and Women’s Studies Librarian (U. Wisconsin)
• Women of Color Web Sites (WMST-L)

African-American/Black Feminisms and Womanism

• Feminism and Black Womanist Identity Bibliography (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library)
• Black Feminist/Womanist Works: A Beginning List (WMST-L)

Asian-American and Asian Feminisms

• American Women’s History: A Research Guide (Asian-American Women)
• South Asian Women’s Studies Bibliography (UC Berkeley)
• Journal of South Asia Women’s Studies

Chicana/Latina Feminisms

• Chicano/a Latino/a Movimientos

American Indian, Native, Indigenous Feminisms

• Native American Studies Program (Dartmouth College)

Feminism, Sex, Sexuality, Transgender, and Intersex

• Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture (Duke Special Collections)

affirmative action | communitarianism | contractarianism | discrimination | egalitarianism | equality | equality: of opportunity | exploitation | feminist philosophy, approaches: Latin American feminism | feminist philosophy, interventions: epistemology and philosophy of science | feminist philosophy, interventions: ethics | feminist philosophy, interventions: history of philosophy | globalization | homosexuality | identity politics | justice: as a virtue | justice: distributive | legal rights | liberalism | Mill, Harriet Taylor | Mill, John Stuart | multiculturalism | parenthood and procreation | race

Acknowledgments

Over many revisions, thanks go to Ann Garry, Heidi Grasswick, Elizabeth Harman, Elizabeth Hackett, Serene Khader, Ishani Maitra, Ásta Sveinsdóttir, Leslee Mahoney, and Anita Superson.

Copyright © 2023 by Noëlle McAfee < noelle . c . mcafee @ emory . edu > Ann Garry Anita Superson Heidi Grasswick Serene Khader

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Library of Congress Catalog Data: ISSN 1095-5054

5 Essays About Feminism

On the surface, the definition of feminism is simple. It’s the belief that women should be politically, socially, and economically equal to men. Over the years, the movement expanded from a focus on voting rights to worker rights, reproductive rights, gender roles, and beyond. Modern feminism is moving to a more inclusive and intersectional place. Here are five essays about feminism that tackle topics like trans activism, progress, and privilege:

“Trickle-Down Feminism” – Sarah Jaffe

Feminists celebrate successful women who have seemingly smashed through the glass ceiling, but the reality is that most women are still under it. Even in fast-growing fields where women dominate (retail sales, food service, etc), women make less money than men. In this essay from Dissent Magazine, author Sarah Jaffe argues that when the fastest-growing fields are low-wage, it isn’t a victory for women. At the same time, it does present an opportunity to change the way we value service work. It isn’t enough to focus only on “equal pay for equal work” as that argument mostly focuses on jobs where someone can negotiate their salary. This essay explores how feminism can’t succeed if only the concerns of the wealthiest, most privileged women are prioritized.

Sarah Jaffe writes about organizing, social movements, and the economy with publications like Dissent, the Nation, Jacobin, and others. She is the former labor editor at Alternet.

“What No One Else Will Tell You About Feminism” – Lindy West

Written in Lindy West’s distinct voice, this essay provides a clear, condensed history of feminism’s different “waves.” The first wave focused on the right to vote, which established women as equal citizens. In the second wave, after WWII, women began taking on issues that couldn’t be legally-challenged, like gender roles. As the third wave began, the scope of feminism began to encompass others besides middle-class white women. Women should be allowed to define their womanhood for themselves. West also points out that “waves” may not even exist since history is a continuum. She concludes the essay by declaring if you believe all people are equal, you are a feminist.

Jezebel reprinted this essay with permission from How To Be A Person, The Stranger’s Guide to College by Lindy West, Dan Savage, Christopher Frizelle, and Bethany Jean Clement. Lindy West is an activist, comedian, and writer who focuses on topics like feminism, pop culture, and fat acceptance.

“Toward a Trans* Feminism” – Jack Halberstam

The history of transactivsm and feminism is messy. This essay begins with the author’s personal experience with gender and terms like trans*, which Halberstam prefers. The asterisk serves to “open the meaning,” allowing people to choose their categorization as they see fit. The main body of the essay focuses on the less-known history of feminists and trans* folks. He references essays from the 1970s and other literature that help paint a more complete picture. In current times, the tension between radical feminism and trans* feminism remains, but changes that are good for trans* women are good for everyone.

This essay was adapted from Trans*: A Quick and Quirky Account of Gender Variability by Jack Halberstam. Halberstam is the Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, Gender Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. He is also the author of several books.

“Rebecca Solnit: How Change Happens” – Rebecca Solnit

The world is changing. Rebecca Solnit describes this transformation as an assembly of ideas, visions, values, essays, books, protests, and more. It has many layers involving race, class, gender, power, climate, justice, etc, as well as many voices. This has led to more clarity about injustice. Solnit describes watching the transformation and how progress and “ wokeness ” are part of a historical process. Progress is hard work. Not exclusively about feminism, this essay takes a more intersectional look at how progress as a whole occurs.

“How Change Happens” was adapted from the introduction to Whose Story Is it? Rebecca Solnit is a writer, activist, and historian. She’s the author of over 20 books on art, politics, feminism, and more.

“Bad Feminist” extract – Roxane Gay

People are complicated and imperfect. In this excerpt from her book Bad Feminist: Essays , Roxane Gay explores her contradictions. The opening sentence is, “I am failing as a woman.” She goes on to describe how she wants to be independent, but also to be taken care of. She wants to be strong and in charge, but she also wants to surrender sometimes. For a long time, she denied that she was human and flawed. However, the work it took to deny her humanness is harder than accepting who she is. While Gay might be a “bad feminist,” she is also deeply committed to issues that are important to feminism. This is a must-read essay for any feminists who worry that they aren’t perfect.

Roxane Gay is a professor, speaker, editor, writer, and social commentator. She is the author of Bad Feminist , a New York Times bestseller, Hunger (a memoir), and works of fiction.

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About the author, emmaline soken-huberty.

Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and climate change are of special concern to her. In her spare time, she can be found reading or enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty with her husband and dog.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Introduction to feminism, topics: what is feminism.

• Introduction
• What is Feminism?  
• Historical Context
• Normative and Descriptive Components
• Feminism and the Diversity of Women
• Feminism as Anti-Sexism
• Topics in Feminism: Overview of the Sub-Entries

Bibliography

Works cited.

• General Bibliography [under construction]
• Topical Bibliographies [under construction]

Other Internet Resources

Related entries, i.  introduction, ii.  what is feminism, a.  historical context, b.  normative and descriptive components.

i) (Normative) Men and women are entitled to equal rights and respect. ii) (Descriptive) Women are currently disadvantaged with respect to rights and respect, compared with men.

Feminism is grounded on the belief that women are oppressed or disadvantaged by comparison with men, and that their oppression is in some way illegitimate or unjustified. Under the umbrella of this general characterization there are, however, many interpretations of women and their oppression, so that it is a mistake to think of feminism as a single philosophical doctrine, or as implying an agreed political program. (James 2000, 576)

C.  Feminism and the Diversity of Women

Feminism, as liberation struggle, must exist apart from and as a part of the larger struggle to eradicate domination in all its forms. We must understand that patriarchal domination shares an ideological foundation with racism and other forms of group oppression, and that there is no hope that it can be eradicated while these systems remain intact. This knowledge should consistently inform the direction of feminist theory and practice. (hooks 1989, 22)

Unlike many feminist comrades, I believe women and men must share a common understanding--a basic knowledge of what feminism is--if it is ever to be a powerful mass-based political movement. In Feminist Theory: from margin to center, I suggest that defining feminism broadly as "a movement to end sexism and sexist oppression" would enable us to have a common political goal…Sharing a common goal does not imply that women and men will not have radically divergent perspectives on how that goal might be reached. (hooks 1989, 23)

…no woman is subject to any form of oppression simply because she is a woman; which forms of oppression she is subject to depend on what "kind" of woman she is. In a world in which a woman might be subject to racism, classism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, if she is not so subject it is because of her race, class, religion, sexual orientation. So it can never be the case that the treatment of a woman has only to do with her gender and nothing to do with her class or race. (Spelman 1988, 52-3)

D.  Feminism as Anti-Sexism

 i) (Descriptive claim) Women, and those who appear to be women, are subjected to wrongs and/or injustice at least in part because they are or appear to be women. ii) (Normative claim) The wrongs/injustices in question in (i) ought not to occur and should be stopped when and where they do.

III.  Topics in Feminism: Overview of the Sub-Entries

• Alexander, M. Jacqui and Lisa Albrecht, eds.  1998. The Third Wave: Feminist Perspectives on Racism.  New York: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press.
• Anderson, Elizabeth.  1999a.  “What is the Point of Equality?”  Ethics 109(2): 287-337.
• ______.  1999b.  "Reply” Brown Electronic Article Review Service, Jamie Dreier and David Estlund, editors, World Wide Web, (http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Philosophy/bears/homepage.html), Posted 12/22/99.
• Anzaldúa, Gloria, ed. 1990. Making Face, Making Soul: Haciendo Caras.  San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.
• Baier, Annette C.  1994.  Moral Prejudices: Essays on Ethics.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Barrett, Michèle.  1991. The Politics of Truth: From Marx to Foucault. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
• Bartky, Sandra. 1990.  “Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power.” In her Femininity and Domination. New York: Routledge, 63-82.
• Basu, Amrita. 1995. The Challenge of Local Feminisms: Women's Movements in Global Perspective.  Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
• Baumgardner, Jennifer and Amy Richards. 2000.  Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
• Beauvoir, Simone de. 1974 (1952).  The Second Sex. Trans. and Ed. H. M. Parshley.  New York: Vintage Books.
• Benhabib, Seyla.  1992.  Situating the Self: Gender, Community, and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics.   New York: Routledge.
• Calhoun, Cheshire. 2000.  Feminism, the Family, and the Politics of the Closet: Lesbian and Gay Displacement.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• ______.  1989.  “Responsibility and Reproach.”  Ethics 99(2): 389-406.
• Collins, Patricia Hill.  1990.  Black Feminist Thought. Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman.
• Cott, Nancy.  1987.  The Grounding of Modern Feminism.  New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1991. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color.“ Stanford Law Review , 43(6): 1241-1299.
• Crenshaw, Kimberlé, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller and Kendall Thomas. 1995.  “Introduction.” In Critical Race Theory, ed., Kimberle Crenshaw, et al. New York: The New Press, xiii-xxxii.Davis, Angela. 1983. Women, Race and Class.  New York: Random House.
• Crow, Barbara.  2000.  Radical Feminism: A Documentary Reader.  New York: New York University Press.
• Delmar, Rosalind.  2001. "What is Feminism?” In Theorizing Feminism, ed., Anne C. Hermann and Abigail J. Stewart.  Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 5-28.
• Duplessis, Rachel Blau, and Ann Snitow, eds. 1998. The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices from Women's Liberation.  New York: Random House (Crown Publishing).
• Dutt, M.  1998.  "Reclaiming a Human Rights Culture: Feminism of Difference and Alliance." In Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational Age , ed., Ella Shohat. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 225-246.
• Echols, Alice. 1990.  Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967-75.   Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Engels, Friedrich.  1972 (1845).  The Origin of The Family, Private Property, and the State.   New York: International Publishers.
• Findlen, Barbara. 2001. Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation, 2nd edition.  Seattle, WA: Seal Press.
• Fine, Michelle and Adrienne Asch, eds. 1988. Women with Disabilities: Essays in Psychology, Culture, and Politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
• Fraser, Nancy and Linda Nicholson.  1990.  "Social Criticism Without Philosophy: An Encounter Between Feminism and Postmodernism." In Feminism/Postmodernism, ed., Linda Nicholson. New York: Routledge.
• Friedan, Betty.  1963. The Feminine Mystique.   New York: Norton.
• Frye, Marilyn.  1983. The Politics of Reality.  Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press.
• Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. 1997.  Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Grewal, I. 1998.  "On the New Global Feminism and the Family of Nations: Dilemmas of Transnational Feminist Practice."  In Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational Age, ed., Ella Shohat.  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 501-530.
• Hampton, Jean.  1993. “Feminist Contractarianism,” in Louise M. Antony and Charlotte Witt, eds. A Mind of One’s Own: Feminist Essays on Reason and Objectivity,  Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
• Haslanger, Sally. Forthcoming. “Oppressions: Racial and Other.”  In Racism, Philosophy and Mind: Philosophical Explanations of Racism and Its Implications, ed., Michael Levine and Tamas Pataki.  Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
• Held, Virginia. 1993. Feminist Morality: Transforming Culture, Society, and Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Herrman, Anne C. and Abigail J. Stewart, eds. 1994.  Theorizing Feminism: Parallel Trends in the Humanities and Social Sciences.  Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
• Heywood, Leslie and Jennifer Drake, eds. 1997.  Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism. 
• Hillyer, Barbara. 1993.  Feminism and Disability. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
• Hoagland, Sarah L.  1989. Lesbian Ethics: Toward New Values.   Palo Alto, CA: Institute for Lesbian Studies.
• Hooks, bell. 1989. Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black.  Boston: South End Press.
• ______.  1984. Feminist Theory from Margin to Center.  Boston: South End Press.
• ______. 1981.  Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism.   Boston: South End Press.
• Hurtado, Aída.  1996.  The Color of Privilege: Three Blasphemies on Race and Feminism. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• Jagger, Alison M.  1983.  Feminist Politics and Human Nature.  Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
• James, Susan. 2000.  “Feminism in Philosophy of Mind: The Question of Personal Identity.” In The Cambridge Companion to Feminism in Philosophy, ed., Miranda Fricker and Jennifer Hornsby.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Kiss, Elizabeth. 1995.  "Feminism and Rights." Dissent 42(3): 342-347
• Kittay, Eva Feder.  1999.  Love’s Labor: Essays on Women, Equality and Dependency. New York: Routledge.
• Kymlicka, Will.  1989. Liberalism, Community and Culture. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Mackenzie, Catriona and Natalie Stoljar, eds.  2000.  Relational Autonomy: Feminist perspectives on Autonomy, Agency and the Social Self.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• MacKinnon, Catharine.  1989.  Towards a Feminist Theory of the State.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• ______.  1987. Feminism Unmodified.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Mohanty, Chandra, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres, eds.  1991.  Third  World Women and the Politics of Feminism.    Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Molyneux, Maxine and Nikki Craske, eds. 2001. Gender and the Politics of Rights and Democracy in Latin America. Basingstoke: Palgrave McMillan.
• Moody-Adams, Michele. 1997.  Fieldwork in Familiar Places: Morality, Culture and Philosophy.  Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Moraga, Cherrie.  2000. "From a Long Line of Vendidas: Chicanas and Feminism." In her Loving in the War Years, 2nd edition.  Boston: South End Press.
• Moraga, Cherrie and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds. 1981.  This Bridge Called My Back: Writings of Radical Women of Color. Watertown, MA: Persephone Press.
• Narayan, Uma.  1997.  Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions, and Third World Feminism.   New York: Routledge.
• Nussbaum, Martha. 1995.  "Human Capabilities, Female Human Beings." In Women, Culture and Development : A Study of Human Capabilities, ed., Martha Nussbaum and Jonathan Glover.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 61-104.
• _______.  1999.  Sex and Social Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• O’Brien, Mary.  1979.  “Reproducing Marxist Man.”  In The Sexism of Social and Political Theory: Women and Reproduction from Plato to Nietzsche, ed., Lorenne M. G. Clark and Lynda Lange.  Toronto: Toronto University Press, 99-116.  Reprinted in (Tuana and Tong 1995: 91-103).
• Ong, Aihwa.  1988. "Colonialism and Modernity: Feminist Re-presentation of Women in Non-Western Societies.” Inscriptions 3(4): 90. Also in (Herrman and Stewart 1994).
• Okin, Susan Moller. 1989.  Justice, Gender, and the Family.  New York: Basic Books.
• ______.  1979.  Women in Western Political Thought.   Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Pateman, Carole.  1988.  The Sexual Contract.    Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
• Reagon, Bernice Johnson. 1983. "Coalition Politics: Turning the Century." In: Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, ed. Barbara Smith. New York: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 356-368.
• Robinson, Fiona.  1999.  Globalizing Care: Ethics, Feminist Theory, and International Affairs. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
• Rubin, Gayle.  1975.  “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the “Political Economy” of Sex.”  In Towards an Anthropology of Women , ed., Rayna Rapp Reiter.  New York: Monthly Review Press, 157-210.
• Ruddick, Sara. 1989.  Maternal Thinking: Towards a Politics of Peace.  Boston: Beacon Press.
• Schneir, Miriam, ed. 1994. Feminism in Our Time: The Essential Writings, World War II to the Present.  New York: Vintage Books.
• ______.  1972.  Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings. New York: Vintage Books.
• Scott, Joan W. 1988.  “Deconstructing Equality-Versus-Difference: or The Uses of Poststructuralist Theory for Feminism.” Feminist Studies 14 (1):  33-50.
• Silvers, Anita, David Wasserman, Mary Mahowald. 1999.   Disability, Difference, Discrimination: Perspectives on Justice in Bioethics and Public Policy . Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield.
• Simpson, J. A. and E. S. C. Weiner, ed., 1989. Oxford English Dictionary.   2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press. OED Online. Oxford University Press.  “feminism, n1” (1851).
• Snitow, Ann.  1990.  “A Gender Diary.”  In Conflicts in Feminism, ed. M. Hirsch and E. Fox Keller.  New York: Routledge, 9-43.
• Spelman, Elizabeth.  1988. The Inessential Woman.   Boston: Beacon Press.
• Tanner, Leslie B.  1970  Voices From Women's Liberation.   New York:  New American Library (A Mentor Book).
• Taylor, Vesta and Leila J. Rupp.  1996. "Lesbian Existence and the Women's Movement: Researching the 'Lavender Herring'."  In Feminism and Social Change , ed. Heidi Gottfried.  Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
• Tong, Rosemarie.  1993.  Feminine and Feminist Ethics.   Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
• Tuana, Nancy and Rosemarie Tong, eds. 1995.  Feminism and Philosophy. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
• Walker, Alice. 1990. “Definition of Womanist,” In Making Face, Making Soul: Haciendo Caras , ed., Gloria Anzaldúa.  San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 370.
• Walker, Margaret Urban.  1998. Moral Understandings: A Feminist Study in Ethics. New York: Routledge.
• ______, ed. 1999.  Mother Time: Women, Aging, and Ethics. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
• Walker, Rebecca, ed. 1995. To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism.   New York: Random House (Anchor Books).
• Ware, Cellestine.  1970.  Woman Power: The Movement for Women’s Liberation .  New York: Tower Publications.
• Weisberg, D. Kelly, ed.  1993.  Feminist Legal Theory: Foundations.  Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
• Wendell, Susan. 1996. The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability. New York and London: Routledge.
• Young, Iris. 1990a. "Humanism, Gynocentrism and Feminist Politics."  In Throwing Like A Girl. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 73-91.
• Young, Iris. 1990b.  “Socialist Feminism and the Limits of Dual Systems Theory.”  In her Throwing Like a Girl and Other Essays in Feminist Philosophy and Social Theory . Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
• ______.  1990c.  Justice and the Politics of Difference.   Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Zophy, Angela Howard. 1990.  "Feminism."  In The Handbook of American Women's History , ed., Angela Howard Zophy and Frances M. Kavenik.  New York: Routledge (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities).

General Bibliography

Topical bibliographies.

• Feminist Theory Website
• Race, Gender, and Affirmative Action Resource Page
• Documents from the Women's Liberation Movement (Duke Univ. Archives)
• Core Reading Lists in Women's Studies (Assn of College and Research Libraries, WS Section)
• Feminist and Women's Journals
• Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy
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• M-Fem (information page, discussion group, links, etc.)
• WMST-L discussion of how to define “marxist feminism” Aug 1994)
• Marxist/Materialist Feminism (Feminist Theory Website)
• MatFem   (Information page, discussion group)
• Feminist Economics
• Feminist Economics (Feminist Theory Website)
• International Association for Feminist Economics
• Feminist Political Economy and the Law (2001 Conference Proceedings, York Univ.)
• Journal for the International Association for Feminist Economics
• Feminism and Disability
• World Wide Web Review: Women and Disabilities Websites
• Disability and Feminism Resource Page
• Center for Research on Women with Disabilities (CROWD)
• Interdisciplinary Bibliography on Disability in the Humanities (Part of the American Studies Crossroads Project)
• Feminism and Human Rights, Global Feminism
• World Wide Web Review: Websites on Women and Human Rights
• International Gender Studies Resources (U.C. Berkeley)
• Global Feminisms Research Resources (Vassar Library)
• Global Feminism (Feminist Majority Foundation)
• NOW and Global Feminism
• United Nations Development Fund for Women
• Global Issues Resources
• Sisterhood is Global Institute (SIGI)
• Feminism and Race/Ethnicity
• General Resources
• WMST-L discussion on “Women of Color and the Women’s Movement” (5 Parts) Sept/Oct 2000)
• Women of Color Resources (Princeton U. Library)
• Core Readings in Women's Studies: Women of Color (Assn. of College and Research Libraries, WS Section)
• Women of Color Resource Sites
• African-American/Black Feminisms and Womanism
• African-American/Black/Womanist Feminism on the Web
• Black Feminist and Womanist Identity Bibliography (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library)
• The Womanist Studies Consortium (Univ. of Georgia)
• Black Feminist/Womanist Works: A Beginning List (WMST-L)
• African-American Women Online Archival Collection (Duke U.)
• Asian-American and Asian Feminisms
• Asian American Feminism (Feminist Theory Website)
• Asian-American Women Bibliography (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe)
• American Women's History: A Research Guide (Asian-American Women)
• South Asian Women's Studies Bibliography (U.C. Berkeley)
• Journal of South Asia Women's Studies
• Chicana/Latina Feminisms
• Bibliography on Chicana Feminism (Cal State, Long Beach Library)
• Making Face, Making Soul: A Chicana Feminist Website
• Defining Chicana Feminisms, In Their Own Words
• CLNet's Chicana Studies Homepage (UCLA)
• Chicana Related Bibliographies (CLNet)
• American Indian, Native, Indigenous Feminisms
• Native American Feminism (Feminist Theory Website)
• Bibliography on American Indian Gender Roles and Relations
• Bibliography on American Indian Feminism
• Bibliography on American Indian Gay/Lesbian Topics
• Links on Aboriginal Women and Feminism
• Feminism, Sex, and Sexuality
• 1970's Lesbian Feminism (Ohio State Univ., Women's Studies)
• The Lesbian History Project
• History of Sexuality Resources (Duke Special Collections)
• Lesbian Studies Bibliography (Assn. of College and Research Libraries)
• Lesbian Feminism/Lesbian Philosophy
• Society for Lesbian and Gay Philosophy Internet Resources
• QueerTheory.com
• World Wide Web Review: Webs of Transgender

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Feminism: A Very Short Introduction

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Feminism: A Very Short Introduction provides an historical account of feminism, exploring its earliest roots as well as key issues including voting rights, the liberation of the sixties, and its relevance today. How much have women's lives really changed? In the West women still come up against the ‘glass ceiling’ at work, most earning considerably less than their male counterparts. What are we to make of the now commonplace insistence that feminism deprives men of their rights and dignities? And how does one tackle the issue of female emancipation in different cultural and economic environments — in, for example, the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent, and Africa?

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Feminism in the Past and Nowadays Essay

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Introduction

Liberal feminism, radical feminism, works cited.

The feminist movement is spread all over the world, and more and more people are sharing their values. In the context of the modern era, the position of women has changed. Discrimination based on gender is slowly vanishing from our reality, though it is still an issue in emerging countries. The patriarchal type of relations has almost disappeared, and household duties are usually shared by family members. Such positive changes would be impossible without the influence of passionate women, who stand for their rights. Although the feminist movement is still making a huge impact on global society, some of its aspects have changed throughout time, and this paper is focused on observing the present-day agenda in comparison with previous goals and achievements of feminism.

The definition of liberal feminism is the following: “a particular approach to achieving equality between men and women that emphasizes the power of an individual person to alter discriminatory practices against women” (“Liberal Feminism: Definition & Theory” par. 2). In other words, it is based on the idea that in a democratic system women can create an equal society where law and men respect them. It should be noted that democratic institutions have developed significantly, so nowadays women have more opportunities for action. However, every movement has different directions, and liberal feminism can be addressed from two points of view: middle-class and working-class feminism.

Middle-class Feminism

The division by class here is for a reason. A famous activist bell hook claims that in the US middle-class white women had more opportunities to fight for their interests than women from other class and race (hooks 6). It means that privileged women had access to media, universities, and other public institutions, unlike others, so they could easier address the large audience.

The problems that middle-class feminists were highlighting mostly concerned about their isolation and inequality in the labor market. “The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan, which illustrated the sad truth about the life goals of women, provoked a massive reaction and protest. Friedan disagreed with the nationwide promotion of early marriages and family as the only goal for women and revealed the problem of never questioning. It was torturing women, who did not even realize their true state of mind (Friedan 54). Hence, the movement became focused on highlighting women’s individuality and abilities to make an impact in society along with men.

Working-class Feminism

The status of working-class women was always vulnerable and open to debate. Firstly, as workers, they had to face the dehumanizing nature of labor and suffered from poverty daily. Furthermore, they were suspicious about middle-class women’s attempts to get a place at the labor market and knew that this liberation movement threatened their jobs (hooks 98). Therefore, the main struggle for them was to get decently paid and to avoid total discrimination.

All in all, liberal feminism was reflected in massive protests and public speeches, which finally reached many of its primary goals. In 1920 American women finally obtained the right to vote. Later, it became possible for women to work in the same positions as men. Today’s feminism missions would be much more complicated without this progress. Gender discrimination at work is gradually vanishing, and women keep raising awareness about it in order to eliminate it completely. Erasing these inequalities contributes to making a healthy society, where people respect each other and value work of the others.

Another school of feminism is called radical and focuses on fighting against male violence and patriarchy. Challenging the patriarchy means dealing with male dominance at home and at work (Mackay 4). Unfortunately, men’s supremacy has been a feature of every community for a long time. Hence, the concepts of radical feminism are interconnected with ideas of the liberal school, as male supremacy was always one of the major concerns for all women.

Radicals stress the topic of rape and violence. This is a critical issue that has always been hard to discuss. Women had never been eager to share their traumatic experiences and to combat violence at home until some brave activists began the public protest. It caused a tidal wave of disagreement, and it is noteworthy that women living in civilized countries can feel safe nowadays. Law protects them and brings confidence to millions of women across the world.

However, there are still many countries where the state does not protect from violence. It happens because of the reluctance of members of these societies to make a change. Possibly, they underestimate the features of healthy societies, and it results in indifference.

Modern feminism would not have been what it is without influencers and activists from the past. Literature, music, and other cultural ways of transferring a message helped feminists to widespread their ideas and beliefs. Second-wave feminism was the period when the movement was at its peak, so most of the remarkable works concerning the position of women in society were created at this time. Along with authors who discussed basic women’s rights, like bell hooks, others promoted the topics which had never been talked about before. For example, Erica Jong developed a theme of female sexuality in her novel “Fear of Flying” published in 1973. It was a provocative subject for those days, but it was time for the society to reconsider conservative views and accept the natural causes of the phenomenon.

Another outstanding example in modern feminism is Alice Walker, a writer who coined the term “womanism.” It was meant to symbolize all women, including the black ones, as “feminism” did not usually encompass them. According to Walker, “womanism” is a philosophy of women who love their gender, which also addresses all issues mentioned above (Junior 16). Although the opposite term “misogyny” has been popular lately, there are still many proponents of Walker’s views.

In the context of education, the feminist movement became a global appeal for critical thinking and overviewing the common concepts of the position of women. Women started asking themselves, and they finally realized that their opinion and self-respect matter. It is important that the ideas of feminism gave a sense of community to women, and this sense of participation brought power and confidence to many of them. Women became capable of debating openly over controversial topics. This is how the slogan “the personal is political” occurred – it addressed the connection between the self and political reality. It was one of the first steps in discussing the subject of political consciousness among women, and it seems especially important today when we finally see women-politicians, women-presidents.

To sum up, the contemporary feminist movement has progressed to the state of a global and powerful philosophy which helps women worldwide. Fashion claims that the future is feminine, men join the movement and support active women, and this would never be true without the founders and previous activists, who were first to declare women’s rights. Besides, today’s agenda has become more diversified, and feminists’ concerns are not only about women but also about global development in general. Thus, the efforts of the first feminists were not useless, and future generations can rely on modern activists.

Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique . W.W. Norton and Co, 1963

Hooks, bell. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center . Routledge, 2014.

Jong, Erica. Fear of Flying . Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973.

Junior, Nyasha. An Introduction to Womanist Biblical Interpretation . Presbyterian Publishing Corp, 2015.

Mackay, Finn. Radical Feminism: Feminist Activism in Movement. Springer, 2015.

“Liberal Feminism: Definition & Theory.” Web.

• Feminism in Latin America
• Feminism in "My Life on the Road" by Gloria Steinem
• Feminism: Reflection of Cultural Feminism
• Modern Feminism and Its Major Directions
• Womanism from Alice Walker's Perspective
• Female Empowerment and Women’s Health Movements
• Methods of Feminism Education and Its Modern Theories
• Feminism in Lorrie Moore's "You're Ugly, Too"
• The Theory of Feminism Through the Prism of Time
• Concept of "Western Feminism"
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, September 26). Feminism in the Past and Nowadays. https://ivypanda.com/essays/feminism-in-the-past-and-nowadays/

"Feminism in the Past and Nowadays." IvyPanda , 26 Sept. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/feminism-in-the-past-and-nowadays/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Feminism in the Past and Nowadays'. 26 September.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Feminism in the Past and Nowadays." September 26, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/feminism-in-the-past-and-nowadays/.

1. IvyPanda . "Feminism in the Past and Nowadays." September 26, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/feminism-in-the-past-and-nowadays/.

Bibliography

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What is feminism?: An introduction to feminist theory

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Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Feminism: An Essay

Feminism: An Essay

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on April 27, 2016 • ( 6 )

Feminism as a movement gained potential in the twentieth century, marking the culmination of two centuries’ struggle for cultural roles and socio-political rights — a struggle which first found its expression in Mary Wollstonecraft ‘s Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). The movement gained increasing prominence across three phases/waves — the first wave (political), the second wave (cultural) and the third wave (academic). Incidentally Toril Moi also classifies the feminist movement into three phases — the female (biological), the feminist (political) and the feminine (cultural).

The first wave of feminism, in the 19th and 20th centuries, began in the US and the UK as a struggle for equality and property rights for women, by suffrage groups and activist organisations. These feminists fought against chattel marriages and for polit ical and economic equality. An important text of the first wave is Virginia Woolf ‘s A Room of One’s Own (1929), which asserted the importance of woman’s independence, and through the character Judith (Shakespeare’s fictional sister), explicated how the patriarchal society prevented women from realising their creative potential. Woolf also inaugurated the debate of language being gendered — an issue which was later dealt by Dale Spender who wrote Man Made Language (1981), Helene Cixous , who introduced ecriture feminine (in The Laugh of the Medusa ) and Julia Kristeva , who distinguished between the symbolic and the semiotic language.

The second wave of feminism in the 1960s and ’70s, was characterized by a critique of patriarchy in constructing the cultural identity of woman. Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex (1949) famously stated, “One is not born, but rather becomes a woman” – a statement that highlights the fact that women have always been defined as the “Other”, the lacking, the negative, on whom Freud attributed “ penis-envy .” A prominent motto of this phase, “The Personal is the political” was the result of the awareness .of the false distinction between women’s domestic and men’s public spheres. Transcending their domestic and personal spaces, women began to venture into the hitherto male dominated terrains of career and public life. Marking its entry into the academic realm, the presence of feminism was reflected in journals, publishing houses and academic disciplines.

Mary Ellmann ‘s Thinking about Women (1968), Kate Millett ‘s Sexual Politics (1969), Betty Friedan ‘s The Feminine Mystique (1963) and so on mark the major works of the phase. Millett’s work specifically depicts how western social institutions work as covert ways of manipulating power, and how this permeates into literature, philosophy etc. She undertakes a thorough critical understanding of the portrayal of women in the works of male authors like DH Lawrence, Norman Mailer, Henry Miller and Jean Genet.

In the third wave (post 1980), Feminism has been actively involved in academics with its interdisciplinary associations with Marxism , Psychoanalysis and Poststructuralism , dealing with issues such as language, writing, sexuality, representation etc. It also has associations with alternate sexualities, postcolonialism ( Linda Hutcheon and Spivak ) and Ecological Studies ( Vandana Shiva )

Elaine Showalter , in her “ Towards a Feminist Poetics ” introduces the concept of gynocriticism , a criticism of gynotexts, by women who are not passive consumers but active producers of meaning. The gynocritics construct a female framework for the analysis of women’s literature, and focus on female subjectivity, language and literary career. Patricia Spacks ‘ The Female Imagination , Showalter’s A Literature of their Own , Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar ‘s The Mad Woman in the Attic are major gynocritical texts.

The present day feminism in its diverse and various forms, such as liberal feminism, cultural/ radical feminism, black feminism/womanism, materialist/neo-marxist feminism, continues its struggle for a better world for women. Beyond literature and literary theory, Feminism also found radical expression in arts, painting ( Kiki Smith , Barbara Kruger ), architecture( Sophia Hayden the architect of Woman’s Building ) and sculpture (Kate Mllett’s Naked Lady).

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Essay on Feminism

Introduction to Feminism

Feminism, a multifaceted socio-political movement, advocates for the equality of the sexes in a world historically dominated by patriarchal structures. Originating in the late 19th century, feminist ideologies have evolved through three distinct waves, each addressing diverse facets of gender inequality. Despite progress, contemporary feminism still faces various challenges, necessitating a nuanced understanding of its principles. This essay explores the historical context, core tenets, intersectionality, achievements, and ongoing struggles within feminism, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of its relevance in pursuing a more equitable society.

The Three Waves of Feminism

Three distinct waves categorize the history of feminist movements, each representing a specific era of activism and addressing evolving gender inequality.

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First Wave (Late 19th to Early 20th Century)

• Focus: The primary focus of the first wave was on legal rights, particularly women’s suffrage. Activists sought to secure basic political and legal rights, challenging societal norms restricting women’s participation in public life.
• Pioneering Figures: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others led the suffrage movement, advocating for women’s right to vote.
• Achievements: The first wave of feminism resulted in substantial legal improvements, including the enactment of the 19th Amendment in the United States in 1920, giving women the right to vote.

Second Wave (1960s to 1980s)

• Broadening Scope: The second wave expanded the feminist agenda beyond legal rights to address broader social and cultural issues. Activists focused on reproductive rights, workplace discrimination, and challenging traditional gender roles.
• Notable Achievements: The feminist movement of the 60s and 70s led to “The Feminine Mystique” and NOW. It also achieved legal victories, including Roe v. Wade, legalizing abortion in the US.
• Cultural Impact: Second-wave feminism influenced cultural shifts, promoting discussions on gender roles, sexuality, and the portrayal of women in media.

Third Wave (1990s to Present)

• Intersectionality: Intersectionality was introduced during the third wave, recognizing that multiple social categories like race, class, and sexual orientation shape women’s experiences.
• Inclusivity: Recognizing the interconnectedness of feminist issues with broader social justice concerns, this wave embraces diversity and individuality. It seeks to include the voices and experiences of women from diverse backgrounds.
• Technology and Globalization: Social media and the internet revolutionized third-wave feminism, allowing for global connection, advocacy, and the quick spread of consciousness. Hashtags like #MeToo have sparked movements against sexual harassment worldwide.

Core Principles of Feminism

Here are some key core principles of feminism:

• Gender Equality and Dismantling Patriarchal Structures: Feminism fundamentally seeks equality between genders, challenging societal norms that perpetuate gender-based discrimination. It also aims to dismantle patriarchal structures that traditionally prioritize men’s power and marginalize women.
• Reproductive Rights and Bodily Autonomy: Advocates for women’s right to make decisions about their bodies, including access to contraception, safe abortion, and healthcare. Emphasizes that individuals can control their bodies without external coercion or interference.
• Equal Pay and Economic Empowerment: Addresses the gender pay gap, advocating for equal compensation for similar work. Promotes economic opportunities for women, including access to education, employment, and leadership roles.
• Education and Awareness: Advocates for equal access to education for all genders, challenging stereotypes and biases in educational settings. It aims to raise awareness about gender-based issues, fostering a culture of understanding and empathy.
• Intersectionality: Recognizes that various forms of oppression (based on race, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc.) intersect and compound, influencing individuals’ experiences. Promoting inclusivity within the feminist movement ensures addressing the concerns of marginalized groups.
• Challenging Traditional Gender Roles: Encourages individuals to challenge and transcend traditional gender roles and expectations that limit personal and professional growth. Promotes the freedom to make choices that align with desires rather than conforming to societal expectations.
• Addressing Violence Against Women: Advocates for the prevention and punishment of violence directed at women, including domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. Promotes the creation of safe environments where women are free from the fear of violence and harassment.
• Political and Legal Advocacy: Engages in political and legal advocacy to reform laws and policies perpetuating gender inequality. Strives for increased representation of women in political and leadership roles to ensure diverse perspectives in decision-making.
• LGBTQ+ Rights and Inclusivity: The larger feminist movement promotes the rights and inclusion of people throughout the LGBTQ+ spectrum. Recognizes and addresses the distinct issues that gay people experience within the context of feminism.
• Solidarity and Sisterhood: Encourages solidarity among women and marginalized groups to collectively address systemic issues. Promotes the creation of supportive networks where individuals can share experiences and empower each other.

Debunking Common Misconceptions

Debunking common misconceptions about feminism is crucial for fostering a better understanding of the movement’s goals and principles. Here are some prevalent misconceptions and explanations to challenge them:

Feminism is Anti-Men:

• Misconception: Some believe feminism promotes the superiority of women over men.
• Debunking: Feminism advocates for gender equality, recognizing that both men and women can be affected by restrictive gender norms. It seeks to dismantle patriarchal systems that harm everyone.

Feminists Hate Traditional Gender Roles:

• Misconception: Critics argue that feminists reject traditional roles and family structures.
• Debunking: Feminism seeks to dismantle rigid gender roles, allowing individuals to choose roles and lifestyles free from societal expectations. It supports choices, whether they align with or deviate from traditional norms.

Feminism is No Longer Necessary:

• Misconception: Some argue that since women have made progress, feminism is obsolete.
• Debunking: Despite significant achievements, gender inequalities persist in various domains. Feminism continues to address evolving challenges, ensuring a more equitable society for all genders.

All Feminists Think Alike:

• Misconception: Assuming a monolithic feminist perspective, disregarding diverse opinions within the movement.
• Debunking: Feminism is multifaceted, encompassing various ideologies and perspectives. Internal debates and discussions contribute to the movement’s growth and adaptability.

Feminism Ignores Men’s Issues:

• Misconception: Critics argue that feminism neglects issues affecting men.
• Debunking: While feminism focuses on women’s rights, it also addresses issues such as toxic masculinity, gender stereotypes, and men’s mental health. Feminism seeks a world where harmful gender norms affect everyone less.

Feminists Reject Beauty and Femininity:

• Misconception: Some believe feminists disdain traditional expressions of femininity, such as makeup or fashion.
• Debunking: Feminism supports individual choice. Whether someone embraces or rejects traditional beauty norms, feminism advocates for autonomy and eliminating societal pressures.

Feminism Is a Western Concept:

• Misconception: Perceiving feminism as relevant only in Western contexts.
• Debunking: Feminism is a global movement addressing gender inequalities across diverse cultures. Women worldwide engage in feminist activism, adapting principles to their cultural and social contexts.

Feminism Ignores Biological Differences:

• Misconception: Critics argue that feminism dismisses biological differences between men and women.
• Debunking: Feminism acknowledges biological distinctions but emphasizes that these differences should not justify unequal treatment or limit gender-based opportunities.

Feminists Are Angry and Unapproachable:

• Misconception: Stereotyping feminists as angry or hostile.
• Debunking: Feminists express passion for gender equality but vary in demeanor. Anger often stems from frustration with systemic injustices rather than an inherent characteristic of feminists as individuals.

Feminism Equates to Female Supremacy:

• Misconception: Some argue that feminism seeks female dominance.
• Debunking: Feminism promotes equality, not superiority. It aims to dismantle power imbalances and create a society where all genders have equal opportunities and rights.

Contemporary Feminist Movements

Here are explanations of some notable modern feminist movements:

• #MeToo Movement: The #MeToo movement, sparked in 2006 by activist Tarana Burke and gained global prominence in 2017, focuses on raising awareness about sexual harassment and assault. This movement encourages survivors to share their experiences publicly, aiming to shed light on the prevalence of such incidents and dismantle systems that perpetuate abuse. #MeToo has led to accountability for perpetrators in various industries and has prompted societal discussions about consent, power dynamics, and the need for cultural change to eradicate sexual misconduct.
• Climate Feminism: Climate feminism recognizes that climate change disproportionately impacts women and marginalized populations. Women often bear the brunt of environmental crises due to factors like unequal access to resources and their caregiving roles. This movement advocates for inclusive environmental policies, emphasizes the importance of women’s voices in climate discussions, and highlights the interconnectedness of gender and environmental justice. Addressing gender and ecological concerns, climate feminism strives for a sustainable and equitable future.
• Reproductive Justice Activism: Reproductive justice activism goes beyond traditional reproductive rights by considering the broader socio-economic factors influencing individuals’ ability to make reproductive choices. This movement addresses issues such as access to comprehensive healthcare, family planning, and the impact of economic disparities on reproductive autonomy. Reproductive justice seeks to create an inclusive framework that recognizes the intersectionality of reproductive rights with race, class, and other social factors. It advocates for policies that ensure equal opportunities for all individuals to make informed decisions about their bodies and families.
• Indigenous Feminism: Indigenous feminism centers on the experiences and struggles of Indigenous women, acknowledging the unique challenges they face due to historical and ongoing colonization. This movement seeks to reclaim and amplify Indigenous voices, emphasizing the interconnectedness of gender, culture, and land. Indigenous feminists advocate for preserving traditional knowledge, cultural autonomy, and the right to self-determination. Their activism addresses issues like violence against Indigenous women, environmental justice, and protecting Indigenous rights within a feminist framework.
• Online Activism and Hashtag Campaigns: The rise of social media has given impetus to online feminist activism, with hashtag campaigns playing a pivotal role in amplifying voices and mobilizing communities. Movements such as #TimesUp and #WhyIDidntReport have gained momentum, providing a platform for survivors to share their stories and demand accountability. Online activism enables global solidarity, facilitates rapid information dissemination, and empowers individuals to engage in feminist discourse and advocacy.
• Disability Feminism: Disability feminism focuses on the intersection of gender and disability, advocating for the rights and inclusion of disabled women. This movement challenges ableism, stereotypes, and systemic barriers that disproportionately affect disabled women. Disability feminists work towards ensuring equal access to education, healthcare, employment, and reproductive rights, recognizing the unique challenges faced by women with disabilities within the broader feminist framework.

Feminism and Men

The relationship between feminism and men is integral to the broader pursuit of gender equality. Here are key aspects of the intersection between feminism and men:

• Challenging Stereotypes and Toxic Masculinity: Feminism seeks to dismantle restrictive gender norms, including harmful stereotypes that negatively impact both men and women. By challenging toxic masculinity, feminism opens avenues for men to express their emotions, reject rigid expectations, and embrace a more authentic sense of self.
• Promoting Healthy Relationships: Feminism advocates for consent, communication, and relationship equality. This benefits men by fostering healthier dynamics and breaking away from traditional, often harmful, power imbalances.
• Parental Roles and Work-Life Balance: Feminism challenges traditional expectations around gender roles, encouraging shared responsibilities in parenting and domestic duties. This allows men to participate more actively in family life and pursue a better work-life balance.
• Addressing Men’s Mental Health: The pressure to conform to societal notions of masculinity may exacerbate men’s mental health problems. Feminism supports breaking down stigmas around mental health, encouraging emotional expression, and creating an environment where seeking help is normalized.
• Inclusivity within Feminist Spaces: Men can be allies and advocates for gender equality. Inclusivity within the feminist movement involves recognizing that men, too, can contribute to dismantling patriarchal structures. Encouraging men to engage in feminist discussions and initiatives fosters a more collaborative approach to achieving shared goals.
• Educational and Professional Opportunities: Feminism seeks to break down barriers to education and professional opportunities based on gender. This benefits men by challenging stereotypes that may limit their career choices and encouraging a more inclusive and diverse workforce.
• Legal Equality: Legal changes advocated by feminism, such as anti-discrimination laws, benefit men by promoting equal treatment in various spheres of life, including the workplace and legal systems.
• Men as Allies in Ending Gender-based Violence: Feminism actively works to combat gender-based violence, and men play a crucial role as allies in this fight. Engaging men in discussions about consent, bystander intervention, and dismantling rape culture contributes to creating safer communities.
• Shared Vision for a Just Society: Ultimately, feminism and men working together envision a society where individuals, regardless of gender, have equal rights, opportunities, and the freedom to be their authentic selves.

The Role of Technology in Feminism

Technology has become a powerful tool for feminists to amplify their voices, challenge stereotypes, and mobilize for change. Here’s an exploration of the role of technology in feminism:

• Social Media and Activism: Social media platforms have emerged as significant instruments for feminist activism, allowing people to raise awareness about gender issues, share personal stories, and mobilize collective action. Hashtags such as #MeToo and #TimesUp have sparked global conversations, demonstrating the impact of technology in amplifying feminist voices.
• Online Movements and Grassroots Organizing: Technology facilitates the formation of online communities and grassroots movements, allowing feminists to connect across geographical boundaries. Virtual spaces provide platforms for organizing protests, sharing resources, and building solidarity, fostering a sense of unity among activists.
• Digital Storytelling and Representation: The digital space allows for diverse and inclusive storytelling, challenging traditional narratives. Feminists use blogs, podcasts, and online platforms to share varied perspectives, experiences, and voices, leading to a better understanding of the complexities of gender issues.
• Crowdsourced Data and Research: Technology enables crowdsourced data collection, shedding light on underreported issues and providing a more accurate picture of gender disparities. Online surveys and platforms encourage individuals to share their experiences, contributing to research that informs policy advocacy and societal change.
• Tech Industry Initiatives for Inclusivity: Within the tech industry, there is a growing awareness of the need for gender inclusivity. Initiatives addressing the gender gap in STEM through diversity and inclusion in hiring, mentorship programs, and educational outreach provide more opportunities for women.
• Online Education and Empowerment: Technology facilitates online education and skill-building initiatives that empower women. Online courses, webinars, and mentorship programs provide accessible resources for women to develop their professional skills, encouraging greater participation in traditionally male-dominated fields.
• Digital Security and Combating Online Harassment: Feminists use technology to address the dark side of online spaces, such as cyberbullying and harassment. Efforts to enhance digital security, raise awareness about online threats, and develop tools to combat cyber abuse contribute to creating safer online environments for women.
• Global Connectivity and Solidarity: Technology fosters global connectivity, allowing feminists to share strategies, resources, and support internationally. Online collaboration facilitates the exchange of ideas and solutions, enabling a more unified and coordinated approach to addressing global gender challenges.

Challenges Faced by Feminism

In pursuing gender equality, feminism has encountered many challenges that underscore the complexity of dismantling deeply ingrained societal norms. Here are some key challenges faced by feminism:

• Gender-based Violence: Despite advancements, domestic violence remains a pervasive issue globally, affecting women across various socio-economic backgrounds. The #MeToo movement brought to light the frequency of sexual harassment and assault, revealing structural issues in workplaces and institutions.
• Wage Gap and Workplace Discrimination: Women continue to earn less than men for the same work, reflecting long-standing gender disparities. Glass ceilings and gender biases hinder women’s progress into leadership positions, limiting their influence in shaping organizational policies and cultures.
• Intersectionality: Feminism must address the unique struggles faced by women from various backgrounds, including those of different races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and socio-economic statuses. Ensuring that feminism is inclusive and intersectional is an ongoing challenge, as the experiences of all women need to be acknowledged and validated.
• Backlash and Misconceptions: Feminism often faces resistance due to misconceptions about its goals and values, such as the misperception that it seeks to undermine men or advocate for female superiority. Some individuals and groups oppose feminist initiatives, contributing to a polarized discourse and hindering progress.
• Legal and Policy Challenges: Gaps in legal frameworks may leave women vulnerable to discrimination, harassment, and violence. Access to reproductive healthcare, including issues such as abortion rights, faces continuous challenges and debates.
• Global Inequality: Women in different parts of the world face varying degrees of inequality, with some regions experiencing more significant challenges regarding education, healthcare, and political representation. Cultural norms and religious beliefs can perpetuate gender roles and impede the progress of feminist ideals in certain societies.

Case studies

Here are two real case studies that exemplify the intersection of feminism with various aspects, such as workplace discrimination and reproductive rights:

Case Study 1: “Pay Equity at Google”

Background: In 2017, three former employees at Google, Ursula Burns, a former senior engineer; Kelly Ellis, a former software engineer; and Holly Pease, a former manager, filed a class-action lawsuit against Google, alleging systemic gender pay discrimination. They claimed that Google consistently paid female employees less than their male counterparts for similar work.

Key Points:

• The plaintiffs argued that Google’s compensation policies and practices violated the California Equal Pay Act and that the company systematically assigned women to lower salary ranges.
• The lawsuit brought attention to the broader issue of gender pay disparities in the tech industry and prompted discussions about the need for greater transparency in pay structures.
• In response, Google maintained that it was committed to equal pay and was working to address any possible disparities.

Outcome: In 2018, Google settled with the plaintiffs, agreeing to pay $2.6 million to settle the claims. As part of the settlement, Google also committed to reviewing and improving its current policies and practices to ensure pay equity. The case underscored the importance of addressing gender-based wage gaps and encouraged other tech companies to evaluate and adjust their compensation structures.

Case Study 2: “Ireland’s Abortion Referendum”

Background: In 1983, Ireland passed the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, effectively prohibiting abortion by recognizing the equal right to life of the mother and the unborn. This restriction forced women seeking abortions, even in cases of rape or fatal fetal abnormalities, to travel abroad.

• Activists, led by groups such as the Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment, campaigned for a repeal of the constitutional abortion ban, arguing that it infringed upon women’s reproductive rights.
• The campaign gained momentum through the use of social media, grassroots organizing, and personal stories shared by women who had experienced the hardships of the abortion ban.
• The referendum, held in May 2018, saw a historic voter turnout, with 66.4% voting in favor of repealing the Eighth Amendment.

Outcome: The referendum result marked a significant victory for reproductive rights in Ireland. Following that, the Irish government passed legislation legalizing abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and in circumstances where the mother’s life or health is at risk. The case demonstrated the power of grassroots activism, social media, and storytelling in bringing about legal and societal change.

The Future of Feminism

The future of feminism promises continued progress and evolving strategies to address emerging challenges in pursuing gender equality. As the movement adapts to a changing world, several key aspects shape its trajectory:

• Intersectional Advocacy: Future feminism will increasingly prioritize intersectionality, recognizing and addressing the unique challenges individuals face at the intersections of multiple identities.
• Economic Empowerment: Feminist efforts will intensify to address economic disparities, advocate for equal pay and workplace opportunities, and dismantle barriers to financial independence.
• Education and Awareness: Feminist initiatives will continue to promote education and awareness, challenging gender norms early on and fostering a culture of equality.
• Policy Reforms: Future feminism will push for legislative changes and policies that address systemic gender inequalities, promoting legal frameworks that protect and empower all genders.
• Men as Allies: Feminism will encourage more active involvement and allyship from men, recognizing the importance of collaborative efforts in dismantling patriarchal structures.
• Cultural Shifts: The future of feminism envisions sustained cultural shifts, challenging harmful norms, and fostering a society where diverse gender expressions are accepted and respected.
• Technological Innovation: Technology will play a role in advancing feminist causes, with innovations addressing online harassment, enhancing accessibility to resources, and creating new avenues for advocacy.
• Health and Well-being: Feminist movements will emphasize people’s physical and mental health, calling for healthcare that addresses the specific demands and obstacles that each gender faces.
• Inclusive Language: Future feminism will continue to evolve its language to be more inclusive, ensuring that it reflects the experiences of individuals across the gender spectrum.
• Community Building: Feminist activism will emphasize community building, creating supportive networks that empower individuals and foster resilience in the face of systemic challenges.
• Political Engagement: Feminism will encourage increased political engagement, focusing on electing leaders who champion gender equality and ensuring policies that reflect feminist principles.
• Continuous Evolution: Feminism will remain dynamic, adapting to emerging challenges and evolving societal norms to address the ever-changing landscape of gender equality.

Feminism stands as an enduring force driving societal transformation towards true gender equality. Evolving through historical waves, it adapts to contemporary challenges. As it embraces intersectionality, inclusivity, and global perspectives, feminism charts a course for a future free from systemic biases. Leveraging technology and activism, it strives for economic empowerment, legal reforms, and cultural shifts. The ongoing journey of feminism envisions a world where individuals, irrespective of gender, thrive in an environment of equity, respect, and shared opportunity.

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22 An Introduction to Feminist Theory

Brittany John; Caitlin Andreasen; Ryan French; and Katherine Whitcomb

Feminist criticism dates back to well before our time.  Although women’s movements in the 1960s and 1970s sparked a contemporary feminist criticism, texts that were written much earlier call for a certain feminist critique.  The feminist movements of the 1960s and 70s were calling attention to the unfortunate female experiences under male power.  There was a shift in feminist critique and theory by the 1980s that Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar helped move into action.  Before the 1980s, feminist theory was more about the stereotypes that men had against females, and after the 1980s, feminist theory was more about the rearranging of forms that were seen as “feminine”, like a diary.  There were two kinds of feminists: liberal and radical.  The liberal feminists believed that, ultimately, gender was something that was constructed, and feminism should go outside of that construct that was built around them.  The radical feminists believed that there was a certain female essence, and that essence should be embraced by women.  These two types of feminists would lead into the two of the key ideas of feminist theory today: essentialist and constructivist.

Essentialist feminism is concerned with the inherent differences between men and women.  Taking root in psychoanalytic theory, the essentialist feminists believed that gender reflects a natural difference between men and women.  They believed this difference is as much psychological and linguistic as it is biological.

Essentialist feminists thought that women’s physical differences made them more attached to the physical world.  They believed this attachment made them more concerned with protecting nature than men.  Men, on the other hand, once separated from the mother, begin thinking in abstractions which allow them to assign identities and social roles to themselves and others.  While men think of rights while confronted with ethical issues, women think of responsibilities to others.

Constructivist feminism, on the other hand, has roots in Marxism. The constructivist feminists believe that gender is formed by culture in history.  They believe that patriarchal culture constructed gender identities with the intention to make men seem superior to women.  While essentialist feminists see female identity and psychology as inherently different from men, constructivist feminists see these differences as products of conditioning.

Another major duality in the feminist theory is the dynamic between the “angel” and the “monster” in female characters. The “angel” is described as a female character who is the perfect Victorian wife.  She is devoted to her husband/lover and she is selfless.  The “angel” is seen as virginal and pure, passive and ordinary, submissive and powerless, with no real story of her own and no story to set herself apart.

The “monster” in feminist theory is described as being able to express her desires and have an opinion of her own.  She has a sexual energy, and she shows a certain autonomy, authority, and aggressiveness.  The “monster” threatens to take the angels place, as she is the angel’s “mirror image” or “sister”.  Rivkin and Ryan argue that the monster can sometimes lie within the angel, and that no woman is inherently angelic.  This dynamic has been used in literature for years, and now, more contemporarily, used in film and television.

The four main points of the feminism theory are the differences between constructivist feminism and essentialist feminism, and the dynamic between the female “angel” and “monster” characters in a literary context.  One of the takeaways is that a constructivist feminist would say that gender is a construct formed by culture in history, and an essentialist feminist would say that gender reflects a natural difference between men and women.  The other takeaway is the importance of remembering that the “monster” sometimes lies within the “angel”, and that no woman is purely an “angel”.

Gilbert, Sandra, and Susan Gubar. “The Madwoman in the Attic.”  Literary Theory, an Anthology , by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan, Blackwell, 1998.

The Student Theorist: An Open Handbook of Collective College Theory Copyright © 2018 by Brittany John; Caitlin Andreasen; Ryan French; and Katherine Whitcomb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Care Extraction And The Gendered Landscape Of Indian Healthcare Workers

For much of the Covid-19 crisis, we witnessed an outpouring of sentimental expressions of profuse respect and profound gratitude towards our healthcare workers on the front lines, who were valiantly shielding our society from the silent scourge of the pandemic. But when the lockdown was lifted, and we could once again experience the world outside of the four walls that encapsulated us for months, how much of this performative compassion actually translated to institutional change? 

Not a lot. 

The lack of pan-India mobilisation for healthcare workers meant that any receptivity to addressing their struggles was purely momentary, and any movements faced political and social inertia more often than not. But while the pandemic lent visibility to the prevailing issues, the paradigm of care extraction and labour exploitation, the day-to-day battles our nurses grapple with are hardly a new phenomenon. To truly delve into the edifices of the gendered struggles of the nursing industry, we must start at the beginning. 

Caste, class, and the tiered nursing hierarchy

It would be a travesty to say that pre-colonial India was anything but a regressive society for lower caste women. These lower caste women from rural areas were predominantly the only women in medicine, practising intergenerational midwifery via their knowledge of obstetrics and gynaecology. Since nursing as a career was debased because of its status as a ‘feminine’ occupation, and a last resort of sorts for distressed women on the margins in Hindu society, it was typically relegated to the sidelines when it came to policy questions of funds allocation and infrastructural growth, a phenomenon which persevered until as well as after Independence. 

These lower caste women from rural areas were predominantly the only women in medicine, practising intergenerational midwifery via their knowledge of obstetrics and gynaecology.

This lower-caste nurse, known as a ‘ dai ‘, a specialist in female reproductive and gynaecological health, was not only well-versed in the act of childbirth and postpartum care, but acted as a pillar of society via the versatile roles she fulfilled, from brokering marriage alliances to being a crucial part of social and communication networks. 

However, upon being colonised, the Indian medical system witnessed a segmentation – the introduction of more advanced Western medical systems by the British did not end up usurping our indigenous forms of medicine, but instead coexisted alongside it, splintering the sector into two. The dai could not be eradicated from the framework due to her historical role in the societal fabric, so she was absorbed into the medical system too, but as the “inferior” helper to the technologically “superior” trained nurses. 

With the rise of colonial power, the dai found her mastery and knowledge of midwifery and gynaecology debased by the patriarchal system and devalued by the insistence on the adoption of “better” Western healthcare and medicine. This process was further accelerated by colonial critiques of the dai , which revolved around her barbaric and unhygienic habits which supposedly contributed to the furthering of infanticide and maternity mortality rates. 

This shunted the dai into the institutionalised role of hands-on bedside caregiver, offering more corporeal and affective labour, taking on the “dirtier” tasks that trained European nurses refused to. Therefore, in India, it was both caste and class that led to a greater division of labour and a change in the internal paradigm within the nursing profession. 

Precarious labour: ASHAs, anganwadi workers, and community healthcare

This caste- and class- segregated nursing hierarchy continues to pervade the medical system till today. The lack of respect for nursing workers and their skills, as well as the patriarchal notion that healthcare work is just an extension of women’s services in the household has led to many issues for rural healthcare workers. 

These workers took on incredibly vital roles during the Covid-19 crisis.

This can be seen in the struggles of Anganwadi workers and Accredited Social Health Activists (or ASHAs). These workers take on a legion of crucial responsibilities within India’s healthcare minutiae, which for Anganwadi workers revolve around nutrition, immunisation, and health-care check-ups and education under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme, and for ASHAs focus on primary healthcare, including education and awareness of government health and nutrition related programmes, as well as distribution of medication and health service delivery. 

These workers took on incredibly vital roles during the Covid-19 crisis. One would expect that such vital workers, working on the front-lines of the healthcare industry, would at the very least receive acceptable wages and benefits for the wide range of work they take on. Or would they? 

The reality is often much worse than we can fathom.

Barring the issue that most Anganwadi workers and ASHAs did not receive additional wages for their roles during the Covid-19 crisis, they were also not equipped with the appropriate safety gears to protect themselves from the disease. As an ASHA worker from Rajasthan said , ‘ We did not receive any face mask or gloves or face shields from the government. We were asked to buy masks ourselves or use cloth to cover our face. We were asked to go out, survey households and perform other duties without armouring us with safety measures. Why did the government ignore its foot soldiers like this? What is the use of appreciating us in public but still avoiding our demand of providing us with safety gears? ‘ So not only were our healthcare workers quite literally risking their lives on the front lines, they were also not remunerated adequately or respected in any other fashion other than word-of-mouth.  

Under the ICDS scheme, these workers are addressed as voluntary workers, paid not a wage but a very meagre ‘honorarium’ . As a group of anganwadi workers from Punjab exclaim , ‘ Why do we not deserve to be called government employees? We work very hard and fulfil all our responsibilities and duties on time ‘.

As Dr KK Pathak, Anaganwadi Nodal Officer, Rajasthan told NDTV: ‘ They are low paid employees. In Rajasthan, they are getting Rs. 7,500 per month as honorarium. I don’t think it is enough for them to live a dignified life. We have almost 62,000 Anganwadi centres in the state and most of them work in harsh conditions and face range of issues like poor condition of the building, lack of space. Sometimes, the lack of cooperation from citizens also creates challenges for them especially when they refuse to send their children to the centre. But these women defy all odds and perform their duties well. The state is thankful to them. We have been trying to improve their condition but there is still a long way to go. Right now, we are not getting adequate funds from the centre. But when we get sufficient funds, it will be utilised in making things better for them. ‘

This lack of regularisation means they are more vulnerable to exploitation and are unable to accept essential benefits, such as Provident Funds, pensions, and Employee State Insurance (ESI) cards.

This lack of regularisation means they are more vulnerable to exploitation and are unable to accept essential benefits, such as Provident Funds, pensions, and Employee State Insurance (ESI) cards. Anganwadi workers also have numerous other complaints with the execution of their work, such as inadequate infrastructure and insufficient space, and shortage of food supplied, which makes health education harder, as how can one preach about the importance of nutritional consumption when access to nutritional food is practically nonexistent? 

Devaluation of healthcare work: care extractivism

So, what really went wrong with the treatment of the Anganwadi workers and ASHAs, and with the gendered nursing landscape itself? The answer lies within the government initiatives that were supposed to liberate women but trapped them into an unproductive cycle instead. These initiatives were, instead of being based on the logic of the welfare state, were based on the modern capitalist logic that leads to exploitation and extraction of the masses. 

Simply put, bringing the logic of neoliberal capitalism into the health industry, while the best cost optimisation route for the government to take, simply means that any female empowerment programmes initiated by the Indian government are just a disguised way to exploit women’s unpaid labour. The treatment of the Angwadi workers and ASHAs can be pinned down to the government induced ‘ Covid capitalism ‘, a term coined by economists Tithi Battahacharya and Gareth Dale to define an economy of destruction which gives preference to death-making over life-making.

The economic strategies of rolling back the welfare state, of outsourcing, of voluntarism, of privatisation, meant the government could deliver on one public policy outcome outcome (health) at the expense of another (welfare). The incapability of the state in caring for our most vital front-line workers and failing to deliver necessary equipment has laid bare its systemic disregard and institutional feebleness. As the UNICEF said on the topic of India’s community workers, ‘ It’s a silent revolution sweeping over, one family at a time. ‘

References:

Who Cares? Care Extraction and the Struggles of Indian Health Workers. Book by Christa Wichterich and Maya John, (eds.)

https://thewire.in/labour/anganwadi-icds-child-development-ministry

https://thewire.in/labour/despite-crucial-welfare-work-indias-scheme-workers-denied-dignified-employment-conditions

https://dhaaramagazine.in/2024/02/29/politics-of-birth-position-of-midwives-in-colonial-bengal/#:~:text=

https://swachhindia.ndtv.com/the-unsung-heroes-of-indias-primary-healthcare-the-anganwadi-workers-and-ashas-57204

https://www.unicef.org/india/stories/trained-foot-soldiers-indias-healthcare-system-stir-silent-revolution

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How to cite ChatGPT

Use discount code STYLEBLOG15 for 15% off APA Style print products with free shipping in the United States.

We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test , and we know our roles in a Turing test . And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT . We’ve also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.

In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we’ll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.

Quoting or reproducing the text created by ChatGPT in your paper

If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.

Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT “chat” are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications , with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.

When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.

When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

Creating a reference to ChatGPT or other AI models and software

The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.

The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:

• Parenthetical citation: (OpenAI, 2023)
• Narrative citation: OpenAI (2023)

Let’s break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):

Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.

Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.

Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.

The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.

Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.

Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).

Other questions about citing ChatGPT

You may have noticed the confidence with which ChatGPT described the ideas of brain lateralization and how the brain operates, without citing any sources. I asked for a list of sources to support those claims and ChatGPT provided five references—four of which I was able to find online. The fifth does not seem to be a real article; the digital object identifier given for that reference belongs to a different article, and I was not able to find any article with the authors, date, title, and source details that ChatGPT provided. Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model’s interpretation of them.

We’ve also received a number of other questions about ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? What guidelines should instructors create for students using AI? Does using AI-generated text constitute plagiarism? Should authors who use ChatGPT credit ChatGPT or OpenAI in their byline? What are the copyright implications ?

On these questions, researchers, editors, instructors, and others are actively debating and creating parameters and guidelines. Many of you have sent us feedback, and we encourage you to continue to do so in the comments below. We will also study the policies and procedures being established by instructors, publishers, and academic institutions, with a goal of creating guidelines that reflect the many real-world applications of AI-generated text.

For questions about manuscript byline credit, plagiarism, and related ChatGPT and AI topics, the APA Style team is seeking the recommendations of APA Journals editors. APA Style guidelines based on those recommendations will be posted on this blog and on the APA Style site later this year.

Update: APA Journals has published policies on the use of generative AI in scholarly materials .

We, the APA Style team humans, appreciate your patience as we navigate these unique challenges and new ways of thinking about how authors, researchers, and students learn, write, and work with new technologies.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

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Trump and Allies Forge Plans to Increase Presidential Power in 2025

The former president and his backers aim to strengthen the power of the White House and limit the independence of federal agencies.

Donald J. Trump intends to bring independent regulatory agencies under direct presidential control. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times

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By Jonathan Swan Charlie Savage and Maggie Haberman

• Published July 17, 2023 Updated July 18, 2023

Donald J. Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands.

Their plans to centralize more power in the Oval Office stretch far beyond the former president’s recent remarks that he would order a criminal investigation into his political rival, President Biden, signaling his intent to end the post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence from White House political control.

Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him.

Mr. Trump intends to bring independent agencies — like the Federal Communications Commission, which makes and enforces rules for television and internet companies, and the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces various antitrust and other consumer protection rules against businesses — under direct presidential control.

He wants to revive the practice of “impounding” funds, refusing to spend money Congress has appropriated for programs a president doesn’t like — a tactic that lawmakers banned under President Richard Nixon.

He intends to strip employment protections from tens of thousands of career civil servants, making it easier to replace them if they are deemed obstacles to his agenda. And he plans to scour the intelligence agencies, the State Department and the defense bureaucracies to remove officials he has vilified as “the sick political class that hates our country.”

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