Feminism: General Overwiev

 

FEMINISM

“Feminism is an assertion that women as a group have been historically disadvantaged relative to men of their race, class, ethnicity, or sexual identity; and a commitment to changing the structures that systemically privilege men over women.”

Journal of Women’s History

           There are many definitions of what a feminist is the simplest and probably the best is what is listed in most dictionaries a person who believes in the full equality of women and men. This means anyone male or female who supports this idea can be a feminist.  Gloria Steinmen is a Jewish American feminist and journalist and a spokeswoman for women’s rights and she is the founder and original publisher of Ms. magazin says that a feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and man.[1] The goal of feminism is equality and that means both that women do what men have done be fire fighters and corporate executives and that men do what women have done be stay-at-home fathers and secretaries. Feminism is both an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for women and the end of sexism in all forms. However, there are many different kinds of feminism. Feminists disagree about what sexism consists in, and what exactly ought to be done about it; they disagree about what it means to be a woman or a man and what social and political implications gender has or should have.  Feminism is a diverse collection of social theories, political movements, and moral philosophies. Some versions are critical of past and present social relations. Many focus on analyzing what they believe to be social constructions of gender and sexuality. Many focus on studying gender inequality and promoting women’s rights, interests, and issues.  Feminist theory aims to understand the nature of gender inequality and focuses on gender politics, power relations and sexuality. Feminism is also based on experiences of gender roles and relations.

           Firstly, feminism principles guide the their equality- seeking organizations.  These are the some of feminist principles such as accountability, advocacy, challenge and conflict, choice, consultation, diversity, education and mentoring, equality, evaluation, joy and celebration, leadership, power sharing and safety.  The feminist principle of accountability is necessary to building and maintaining healthy, active equality- seeking organizations.  Global women’s movement improves and strengths the collective efforts towards peace, equality and justice.  Feminists are accountable through our practice of feminist principles.  The feminst principle of advocacy means supporting or recommending a position or course of action.  It has been informed by women’s experiences in their efforts to cause equality and inclusion.  Advocacy may take place through a variety of actions and strategies.  Susan Hollet says that

I can vote, have own my business, attend university, and own property…  because there have been changes in the world. These changes did not just evolve or occur as a result of new technologies.  They were result of women making themselves and their beliefs into immovable objects around which the system had to move and thereby forcing those radical changes. (Hollet 1)
The feminist principle of challenge and conflict means that we accept conflict as inevitable while embracing challenge as the practice of calling into account, questioning and reflecting.  When feminists are committed to respectful ways of challenging and healthy conflict resolution processes, we deepen feminists’ individual and collective understanding.
           Another principle of feminism is the choice. The principle of choice means that men and women should respect, support and advocate for women’s individual and collective right to make our own decisions about women’s bodies, families, jobs and lives.  The right to choose is integral to the feminist pursuit of social, legal political, economic and cultural equality for women.  Therefore, I think choice is often seen as a cornerstone of feminist principles, and as feminists we are often challenged on its relevance.  The feminist principle of consultation means working collaboratively, seeking guidance and sharing information to develop strategies and actions to advance women’s equality.  The feminist principle of diversity means that we respect, accept and celebrate our individual and collective differences as women, including those based on on age, race, culture, ability, sexuality, geography, religion, politics, class, education and image among others.  Classism is discrimination based on class, income or social status.
      There is another principle is education equality.  It means the principle of education and mentoring means creating opportunities to guide, counsel, coach and teach each other.  Constantly sharing skills, knowledge, history and understanding makes organizations healthier and more effective in their pursuit of equality.  The feminist of joy and celebration enables human to reconnect with feminist reasons for choosing equality seeking work and reclaim feminism as basis of unity.  Moreover, the feminist principle of leadership means embracing and sharing skills and knowledge of individual women, providing opportunities for all women to develop their leadership potential.  All women have the capacity to become leaders and they have to be equal with men.  The feminist principle of power sharing means we are committed to creating balanced power relationships through democratic practices of shared leadership, decision-making, authority, and responsibility.  According to feminism there is no hierarchy in the nature.  Unequal power cannot exist between men and women.  On the other hand, patriarchy supports the natural order and unequal power.  Another principle is that the safety means that feminists individually and collectively encourage the full participation of women within organizations by fostering environments that are healthy, empowering, educational and confidential.

            Feminism occurs the 1790’s, Olympe de Gouges, a butcher’s daughter, proved to be one of the most outspoken and articulate women revolutionaries. In 1791 she wrote the following declaration, directly challenging the inferiority presumed of women by the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Her attempts to push this idea lead to her being charged with treason during the rule of the National Convention. She was quickly arrested, tried, and on November 3, 1793, executed by the guillotine. As understand, women had no right to support their rights and equality.  With the Age of Enlightment emerged the women’s right and secular intellectual reasoning, and a flowering of philosophical writing characterized Enlightment Age. A vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) and Declaration of the Rights of Women are the former implementations.  This declaration is the one of the works that can be clearly called feminist. 

           Besides, there are three movements to show the feminism.  First Wave Feminism refers to the first concerted movement working for the reform of women’s social and legal inequalities in the nineteenth century. Although individual feminist such as Mary Wollstonecraft had already argued against the injustices suffered by women, it was not until the 1850′s that something like an organized feminist movement evolved in Britain.  Its headquarters was at Langham Place in London, where a group of middle-class women, led by Barbara Bodichon (1827-91) and Bessie Rayner Parkes (1829-1925), met to discuss topical issues and publish the English Woman’s Journal (1858-64).  The key concerns of First Wave Feminists were education, employment, the marriage laws, and the plight of intelligent middle-class single women. They were not primarily concerned with the problems of working-class women, nor did they necessarily see themselves as feminists in the modern sense (the term was not coined until 1895). First Wave Feminists largely responded to specific injustices they had themselves experienced.  Their major achievements were the opening of higher education for women; reform of the girls’ secondary-school system, including participation in formal national examinations: the widening of access to the professions, especially medicine; married women’s property rights, recognized in the Married Women’s Property Act of 1870; and some improvement in divorced and separated women’s child custody rights. Active until the First World War, First Wave Feminists failed, however, to secure the women’s vote.
           The second one can be called Second Wave of Feminism.  It was coined by Marsha Lear, and refers to the increase in feminist activity that occurred in America, Britain, and Europe from the late sixties onwards. In America, second wave feminism rose out of the Civil Rights and anti-war movements in which women, disillusioned with their second-class status even in the activist environment of student politics, began to band together to contend against discrimination.  The tactics employed by Second Wave Feminists varied from highly-published activism, such as the protest against the Miss America beauty contest in 1968, to the establishment of small consciousness-raising groups. However, it was obvious early on that the movement was not a unified one, with differences emerging between black feminism, lesbian feminism, liberal feminism, and social feminism.  Second Wave Feminism in Britain was similarly multiple in focus, although it was based more strongly in working-class socialism, as demonstrated by the strike of women workers at the Ford car plant for equal pay in 1968. The slogan ‘the personal is political’ sums up the way in which Second Wave Feminism did not just strive to extend the range of social opportunities open to women, but also, through intervention within the spheres of reproduction, sexuality and cultural representation, to change their domestic and private lives. Second Wave Feminism did not just make an impact upon western societies, but has also continued to inspire the struggle for women’s rights across the world.
           The Third Wave of Feminism occurs when Rebecca Walker, daughter of author Alice Walker and godchild of activist Gloria Steinem, published an article in Ms. entitled “I Am The Third Wave,” it drew a surprising response. Young women from all over the country wrote letters informing the magazine of the activist work they were quietly engaged in and encouraging older feminists and leaders of the women’s movement not to write them off.
The front page of the Third Wave Foundation web site explains that the organization strives to combat inequalities that face as a result of their age, gender, race, sexual orientation, economic status or level of education. By empowering young women, Third Wave is building a lasting foundation for social activism around the country.

           Lastly, feminism doesn’t want to patriarchy because all human creates equal.  If a men has a right to vote women also can have rights to vote with no doubt.  Patriarchy decribes the structuring the society on the basis of family, in which fathers have the accountability for the wellfare of families.  Feminism supports their rights in terms of equality, making decision.  In Turkey, women do not come first in every place because our society is patriarchal.  On the other hand, our women can work everywhere and they have the rights to express themselves.  Some women and men can oppose the feminism because feminism exploits some rights such as abortion. Therefore, some people don’t support it.

---

[1] http://www.umt.edu/wcenter/default_files/Page862.htm