Feminism is a collection of social theories, political movements, and moral philosophies largely motivated by or concerned with the liberation of women. In simple terms, feminism is a belief in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes, and a movement organized around the conviction that biological sex should not be the pre-determinant factor shaping a person's social identity or socio-political or economic rights. A large portion of feminists are especially concerned with the social, political and economic inequality between the sexes which favours men at women's expense; some have argued that gendered and sexed identities, such as "man" and "woman", are socially constructed. Under continuing pressure to conform to masculine norms, feminists disagree over the sources of inequality, how to attain equality, and the extent to which gender and gender-based identities should be questioned and critiqued.
Modern feminist political activists commonly campaign for women's human right to bodily integrity and autonomy on matters such as reproductive rights, including the right to abortion, access to contraception and quality prenatal care, protection from violence within a domestic partnership, sexual harassment, street harassment, discrimination and rape, and for workplace rights to maternity leave, and equal pay. Many feminists today regard feminism as a grass-roots movement that seeks to cross boundaries based on social class, race, culture and religion. They also argue that an effective feminist movement should address both universal issues such as rape, incest, and prostitution and culturally specific issues relevant to the women of the society in question such as female genital cutting in some parts of Africa and the Middle East and "glass ceiling" practices that impede women's advancement in developed economies. Themes explored in feminism include patriarchy, stereotyping, sexual objectification and oppression.
Feminism in many forms
Most feminist social movements promote women's rights, interests and issues. Several subtypes of feminist ideology have developed over the years. Early feminists and primary feminist movements are often called the first-wave feminists, and feminists after about 1960 the second-wave feminists. More recently, some younger feminists have identified themselves as third-wave feminists while the second-wave feminists are still active.
Wendy Kaminer identifies another conflict between forms of feminism: the conflict between, what she calls, "egalitarian" and "protectionist" feminism. She characterizes egalitarian feminism as 'promoting equality between women and men through the granting of equal rights;' whereas 'protectionist feminists prefer to focus on legal protections for women, such as employment laws and divorce laws that protect women, sometimes advocating restricting men's rights, such as free speech (specifically, the right to produce and consume pornography).' She identifies both protectionist and egalitarian currents within first-wave feminism and second-wave feminism. Kaminer's critics counter that, for a subordinated class, egalitarian claims cannot be advanced in the absence of legal protection and enforcement.
Some radical feminists, such as Mary Daly,Charlotte Bunch and Marilyn Frye, have advocated separatism (a complete separation of male and female in society and culture). Others question not only the relationship between men and women, but the very meaning of "man" and "woman" as well (see Queer theory). Some, such as Judith Butler and Mary Joe Frug, argue that gender roles, gender identity and sexuality are themselves social constructs (see also heteronormativity).
There are also male organizations sympathetic to the feminist view who believe the dominant model of manhood or masculinity is oppressive to women and limiting for men.
Relationship to other movements
Some feminists take a holistic approach to politics, following the concept expounded by Martin Luther King Jr., "A threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." In that belief, some self-identified feminists support other movements such as the civil rights movement and the gay rights movement. At the same time, many black feminists such as bell hooks criticize the movement for being dominated by white women. Feminist claims regarding disadvantages faced by women in Western society may be less relevant to the lives of black women, especially as compared to oppression they face which white women do not. This idea is the key in postcolonial feminism. Many black feminist women prefer the term womanism for their views.
Feminism is often linked with gay, lesbian and transgender studies and Psychoanalytic feminism places focus on psychosexual development. Some feminists are wary of the transgender movement because they view it as challenging the distinction between men and women. Transgender and transsexual individuals who identify as female are excluded from some "women-only" gatherings and events and are rejected by some feminists, who say that no one who was assigned as male at birth can fully understand the oppression that women face. This exclusion is criticized as "transphobic" by some feminists and transgender people, who assert that their political and social struggles are linked to those of feminists, and that discrimination against gender-variant people is a facet of the patriarchy. (See transfeminism and gender studies.)
In the 1800s the women's rights movement in the United States splintered over questions concerning the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution granting African American men the right to vote. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, among others, contended that black men should not be franchised unless similar rights were granted to all women. From 1868 to 1870, when the 15th Amendment was passed, this created division in the broader U.S. civil rights movement and, in 1869, caused a schism the women's suffrage movement, leading to the creation of the separate National Woman's Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman's Suffrage Association (AWSA) in the United States.
Modern feminism
Most feminists believe discrimination against women still exists worldwide, but there is disagreement within the movement regarding the severity of current problems, what the problems are, and how to confront them.
Extremes on the one hand include some radical feminists, such as Mary Daly, who argue that human society would be better off with dramatically fewer men. On the other hand, figures such as Christina Hoff Sommers and Camille Paglia identify themselves as feminist but accuse the movement of anti-male prejudice.
Many feminists question the use of the term feminist by groups or people who do not recognize a fundamental equality between the sexes. Some feminists, like Katha Pollitt (see her book Reasonable Creatures) or Nadine Strossen (President of the ACLU and author of Defending Pornography: a treatise on freedom of speech), consider feminism to hold simply that "women are people." Views that separate the sexes rather than unite them are considered by these writers to be sexist rather than feminist.
There are also debates between difference feminists such as Carol Gilligan, who believe that there are important differences between the sexes (which may or may not be inherent, but which cannot be ignored), and those who believe that there are no essential differences between the sexes, and that the roles observed in society are due to conditioning.
In Marilyn French's seminal works she defines patriarchy as a system that values power over life, control over pleasure and dominance over happiness. According to French, "it is not enough either to devise a morality that will allow the human race simply to survive. Survival is an evil when it entails existing in a state of wretchedness. Intrinsic to survival and continuation is felicity/pleasure. Pleasure has been much maligned, diminished by philosophers and conquerors as a value for the timid, the small-minded and the self-indulgent. 'Virtue' too often involves the renunciation of pleasure in the name of some higher purpose, a purpose that involves power (for men) or sacrifice (for women). Pleasure is described as shallow and frivolous in a world of high-minded, serious purpose. But pleasure does not exclude serious pursuits or intentions, indeed, it is found in them, and it is the only real reason for staying alive."
Issues in defining feminism
One of the difficulties in defining and circumscribing a complex and heterogeneous concept such as feminism is the extent to which women have rejected the term from a variety of semantic and political standpoints. Many women engaged in activities intimately grounded in feminism have not considered themselves feminists. Likewise, it is assumed that only women can be feminists. However, feminism is not grounded in the basis of one's gender, but in rejecting and refuting sexist oppression politically, socially, privately, linguistically, and otherwise. (Though there are people - both men and women - who claim feminism itself be biased in its approach to gender relations.) Redefining feminism in this way illustrates and reflects today's reality of both men and women openly supporting feminism and also openly adhering to sexist ideals. From a political vantage, the term "feminism" has been rejected both because of fears of labeling, and because of its innate ability to attract broad misogyny. Historically Virginia Woolf was one of the more prominent women to reject the term early in its history in 1938, although it would be easy to overstate Woolf's position, considering that she is regarded as an icon of feminism. However Betty Freidan would revisit this concern in 1981 in The Second Stage.
Nevertheless, defining ideas does not necessarily imply tagging the individual. Ann Taylor, for instance, offers the following definition, after Karen Offen: A person (male or female) who recognizes "the validity of women's own interpretation of their lived experiences and needs," protests against the institutionalized injustice perpetrated by men as a group against women as a group, and advocates the elimination of that injustice by challenging the various structures of authority or power that legitimate male prerogatives in a given society. Another way of expressing this is that one of the main goals is to correct androcentric bias.
Other attempts at definition have been made by the United Nations. However, one of feminism's unique characteristics, strengths and weaknesses is its persistent defiance of being confined by definition. Charlotte Witt observes that this reflects the "contested nature of the "us" of contemporary feminism...and is a part of, on-going debates within feminism over its identity and self-image..in the final analysis, the result of debate within feminist philosophy over what feminism is, and what its theoretical commitments should be, and what its core values are." This is the subject of one of the more lively debates in feminism, that which Nannerl Keohane has called the "perpetual oscillation between essentialism and nominalism (constructionism) in feminist theory." Briefly, "to essentialise is to reduce a complex idea or object to simplistic characteristics, thereby denying diversity, multiple meanings and alternative interpretations" in the words of Joan Marler, an opponent of essentialism in feminism.
Effects of feminism in the West
It should be noted that the preceding arguments mainly apply to middle-class women.
In her 1996 book Dubious Conceptions, Kristin Luker discusses the effect of feminism on teenage women's choices to bear a child, both in and out of wedlock. She argues that as childbearing without being married has become more socially acceptable, young women, especially poor young women, while not bearing children at a higher rate than in the 1950s, now see less reason to get married before having a child. Her explanation for this is that economic prospects for poor men are slim, and so poor women have a low chance of finding a husband who will be able to provide reliable financial support.
There have also been changes in attitudes towards sexual morality and behavior with the onset of second wave feminism and "the Pill." Women are more in control of their bodies, and are freer to experience sex with fewer repercussions. This sexual revolution was seen as positive (especially by sex-positive feminists) as it enabled women and men to experience sex in a more free and equal manner.
Evangelical (Christian) feminists sometimes argue that closed marriages ideally promote egalitarianism in sex, especially when viewed in light of some other alternatives to monogamy (e.g., polygamy, swinging, open marriages, or infidelity). However, some feminists endorse cohabitation, open marriage, casual sex and other forms of responsible non-monogamy as egalitarian lifestyles (see sex-positive feminism).
Friedrich Engels, in his essay The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State expresses his belief that monogamy was originally conceived as a way for men to control women.
Effect on religion
Feminism has affected many aspects of religion. In liberal branches of Protestant Christianity (and, notably, in some theologically conservative dominations, such as Assemblies of God) women are ordained as clergy, and in Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism, women are ordained as rabbis and cantors. Within these Christian and Jewish groups, women have gradually obtained more positions of power; their perspectives now have greater influence in developing new statements of belief.
The leadership of women in religious matters has been resisted by many denominations, for example Roman Catholicism, which has historically excluded women from entering the priesthood and other clerical positions, limiting women to the roles of nuns or laypeople.
Feminism also has had an important role in spreading new forms of religion. Neopagan religions especially tend to emphasize the importance of Goddess spirituality, and question what they regard as traditional religion's hostility to women and the sacred feminine. In particular, Dianic Wicca's origins lie within radical feminism. Among traditional religions, feminism has led to self examination, with reclaimed positive Christian and Islamic views and ideals of Mary, Islamic views of Fatima Zahra, and especially the Catholic belief in the Coredemptrix.
