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HistoryofFeministMovementintheU.S..pptxWhat is feminism?
“Fem-i-nism n. 1. Belief in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes.”—Anna Quindlen
Feminism has as its goal to give every woman "the opportunity of becoming the best that her natural faculties make her capable of."—Millicent Garrett Fawcett
"I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute”—Rebecca West
“Simply put, feminism is the movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.”—bell hooks
"Third World feminism is about feeding people in all their hungers."—Cherríe Moraga
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“Feminism’s agenda is basic: It asks that women not be forced to “choose” between public justice and private happiness. It asks that women be free to define themselves- instead of having their identity defined for them, time and again, by their culture and their men”(Faludi)
“Feminism politicizes gender consciousness, inserts it into a systematic analysis of histories and structures of domination and privilege”(Hogeland)
“Feminism requires an expansion of the self- an expansion of empathy, interest, intelligence, and responsibility across differences, histories, cultures, ethnicities, sexual identities, othernesses”(Hogeland)
Waves of Feminism: Pre-Feminism (up to 1848)
Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792.
In 1840, women delegates to the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention are not allowed to participate. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton plan for women’s right convention.
“Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life, the basis of every virtue; and independence I will ever secure by contracting my wants, though I were to live on a barren heath.”
“Till women are more rationally educated, the progress in human virtue and improvement in knowledge must receive continual checks.”
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First Wave Feminism, or Liberal Feminism
In 1848, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton call the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls.
Sojourner Truth delivers “Ain’t I a Woman” speech at the Women Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851.
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American Equal Rights Association is founded in 1866 to secure rights for women and former slaves.
In 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution is passed, grants suffrage to former male African American slaves, but not to women.
The Movement for Suffrage
Suffrage, or the right to vote, becomes a primary focus of first wave feminism.
By 1900, women have full suffrage in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho.
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On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment is adopted. Women in the U.S. are fully enfranchised.
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1920-1960s: Post-Suffrage, WWII, Civil Rights Movement
In 1963, Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique, exposing "the problem that has no name“—that is, sexism and the domestic subjugation of white, middle-class women.
In 1966, Friedan co-founds the National Organization of Women (NOW). But lesbians? Women of color?
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Second Wave Feminism: Women’s Liberation Movement (1960s-1990s)
Overall, feminists organize to transform society, not just overcome legal obstacles (voting, property rights) to full citizenship, addressing structural inequalities between men and women and raising consciousness about sexuality, family, workplace, and reproductive rights.
In 1967, women’s liberation groups and consciousness-raising groups start forming across the nation like the New York Radical Women.
A year later, NYRW protests the Miss America Pageant.
In 1969, slogans like "Sisterhood is Powerful" and "The Personal is Political" become buzzwords of the feminist movement.
In 1973, Roe v. Wade secures a women’s right to terminate a pregnancy.
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Transforming the Scope of Feminism
In 1969, the Stonewall Riots mark the beginning of Gay Liberation. Radicalesbians form in 1970 and proclaim, “A lesbian is the rage of all women condensed to the point of explosion.”
The National Black Feminist Organization is founded in 1973, and in 1974, the Combahee River Collective, one of the most important black socialist feminist organizations of all time. Primarily a black feminist and lesbian organization, this group challenged feminism to integrate an analysis of race within its movement.
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Let’s stop for a moment.
Consider this “Thank A Feminist” List:
Women should have the right to vote
Women should have access to contraceptives
Women should have the right to work outside the home
Women should receive equal pay for equal work
Women should have the right to refuse sex, even with their husbands
Women should be able to receive a higher education
Women should have access to safe, legal abortions
Women should be able to participate in sports
Women should be able to hold political office
Women should be able to choose any career that interests them
Women should be free from sexual harassment in the workplace
Women should be able to enter into legal and financial transactions
Women should be able to study issues about women’s lives and experiences
1980s and Backlash against Feminism
In 1982, the Equal Rights Amendment fails to win passage in the 38 states necessary. Congress ratified it in 1972 (49 years after Alice Paul wrote it), but only 35 states passed it. It would have would have prohibited sex-based discrimination at the federal level.
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Third Wave Feminism: Moving Beyond (Just) Women?
In 1992, in response to Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearings and Anita Hill’s testimony, Rebecca Walker publishes an article entitled "Becoming the Third Wave" in which she states, "I am not a post-feminism feminist. I am the third-wave,” giving renewed focus to the next generation of feminism and feminists.
Many third wave feminists emphasize a non-essentialist understanding of sex, gender, and sexuality, embrace queer resistance to norms, engage in anti-racist, decolonizing work, and celebrate sex.
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LIBERAL FEMINISM
Started off with Betty Friedan’s “Feminine Mystique”
Recognizes that women are left out of many realms of power: most especially professions
work=liberation, home=oppression
gender inequality stems from men & women occupying different spheres
gender inequality stems from unequal socialization
gender inequality stems from unequal access to social institutions
often called the “add women and stir” variety: social institutions were fine as is—just need to add women!
Push to consider women and men as equal humans, as individuals.
Often appealed to older, white, middle class women.
RADICAL FEMINISM
• Inspired by a younger cohort of women: mostly college women coming out of the experience of the “New Left”
• Experienced irony of “liberation” talk in these movements, and actual subordination of women within the movements
• Developed the notion that the “PERSONAL IS POLITICAL”- brought a whole new array of women’s issues into the fold of public politics
• CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING (CR) groups
• Politically motivated lesbianism
• Institutions were corrupted at the core by male domination: even the anti-war new left organizations were headed in a hierarchical way. THIS IS WHY THESE FEMINISTS CALLED THEMSELVES “RADICAL”- IN OPPOSITION TO LIBERAL FEMINISM
• Believed that institutions needed to be created anew to rid them of patriarchy
• The development of new, women’s only institutions (RAPE CRISIS CENTERS, WOMEN’S BOOKSTORES, DV SHELTERS, WOMEN’S FESTIVALS)
• Sometimes, the re-essentializing of women’s attributes- but valuing them differently (valuing women’s cooperation, nurturance, inherent peacefulness, closeness to nature)
• Mostly appealed to younger, college aged white women
Socialist feminism
More popular in Europe, not as popular in US
Inspired by Marxist analysis of social inequalities
Added that class and gender inequality exist together at the heart of social institutions
GENDER INEQUALITY IS A TOOL OF CAPITALIST CLASS RELATIONS/DOMINATION
Conception of “Reproductive labor” alongside tradition Marxist concept of “productive labor”
Italy- “wages for housework” campaigns.
Developed an analysis of how systems of inequality can intersect/interlock (in this case, just capitalism and gender)
Mostly appealed to working-class women
MULTIRACIAL FEMINISM
Mostly coming from experiences of women in both women’s liberation and antiracist movements
Grew out of socialist feminist thinking (provided conception of interlocking dominations)
These women have insisted that they are not only gendered subjects, they are also racialized, classed- need for a theory to recognize women’s location in multiple hierarchies.
SIMULTANEITY: not an additive model
Intersecting forms of domination produce varying degrees of oppression and opportunity: SO MULTIRACIAL FEMINISM APPLIES TO EVERYONE.
Especially highlights the importance of race in understanding the social construction of gender. Argues that race is SO pervasive that you can’t talk about gender without talking about race.
Variations of multiracial feminist theory (Chicana feminist theory, Black feminist theory): but united by recognition that race is a primary force situating genders differently: centrality of race institutionalized racism, and struggles against racial oppression link various perspectives of women of color.
MULTIRACIAL FEMINISM, CONTINUED….
Search for women’s universal characteristics/shared experiences of gender are abandoned. NO UNIVERSAL WOMAN or “woman’s experience”
DIFFERENCE becomes more important.
People experience race, class, gender, sexuality differently depending on their social location in any of these hierarchies.
Also recognizing the power differentials in recognizing “difference” (not just an endless plurality: but also many axes of privilege and oppression)
