feminism
- Created by: loupardoe
- Created on: 21-08-18 23:12
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the origins of feminism
- largely fragmentary evidence of a growing female consciousness and opposition to a male-dominated wolrd
- the Amazons- semi-mythical tribe of fierce women warriors; feminist ideas must have flourished in ancient greece
- Aristophenes' play about Lysistrata- metaphor for the potential power of women from the same era; woman who organised the other women of Greece to withhold their sexual favours until the men brought war to an end
- French revolution and the enlightenment- inspiration for early ideas that women might enjoy equal rights with men
- a vindication of the rights of women (1792), Mary Wollstonecraft- first well known and rigorous work on women's rights
- doesn't go as far as to advocate equality for women
- urges that they be offered a good education and they assert their right to be considered useful members of society
- being a good wife and mother was a worthy aspiration
- at the same time women should become independent from their husbands and should develop their minds to the fullest extent
- Wollstonecraft was not a feminist in the modern sense of the word
- was a pioneer of the movement
- much of the attention on the issue of the inferior position of women was to move to the USA in the 19th century
- these early signs are merely fragments
- feminism as a serious political and social movement did not emerge until the middle and 2nd hald of the 19th century
- there were some concerns about the legal and social position of women
- John Stuart Mill campaigned for the passage of the Married Women's Property Act 1882- allowed women to keep their own property after they married
- Charlotte Perkins Gilman was writing extensively about the lack of opportunities for independent women; argued that the inferior position of women in the home was a model of their subordinate position in wider life
- it was the issue of the franchise that attracted most attention
- 1890- the National American Woman Suffrage Association founded; followed by the National Woman's Party
- 1920- the 19th Amendment to the US constitution passed; guaranteed equal voting rights for women
- 1903- WSPU founded and run by the Pankhurst family; led the suffragette movement that was ultimately to secure votes for married women over the age of 30 (1918)
- 1928- secured equal voting rights with men
- the suffragettes and their american counterparts formed the earliest example of a well organised women's movement
- suffrage movement came to be known as first wave feminism
- the assumption of the suffrage movement was that once women were granted voting rights and could stand for election to representative bodies, 2 developments would followed
- many women would quickly seek election to office
- parliament and government would pass legislation to improve conditions for women and establish equality in all kinds of economic and social fields
- neither occured
- little impact at all
- 1960s- movement known today began to emerge
- second wave feminism
- part of a broader cultural movement spreading at that time
- sought to offer a general critique of post industrial society
- identified the alienation of…
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