Amy Tan The Kitchen God's Wife Analysis

The author, Tan, has written the books The Joy Luck Club, and The Kitchen God's Wife. She is Asian-American, her parents are originally from China, but moved to Oakland, California. The audience in Tan's essay is people 20-35 years old who are culturally diverse. Tan focuses on this audience in order reach out to those who are in her past situation. In her house, there were two languages spoken: English and Chinese. Tan knew how to speak

When thinking about feminism in today’s society we tend to direct our minds and thoughts to a more radical and powerful train of thought. Feminism has been going on for centuries, with two main ideologies at the forefront; liberal and cultural feminism. Someone who identifies as a liberal feminist is someone who believes that women and men are a like and equal in most respects and deserve equal roles and opportunities (Wood & Fixmer-Oraiz, 2017, p. 58). And cultural feminism is someone who identifies as someone who believes that men and women are fundamentally differently; you have different rights, role and opportunities (Wood & Fixmer-Oraiz, 2017, p. 58). The women’s rights movement can be understood and broken down into three “waves”.

In this assignment I will evaluate and consider the arguments of the women’s right movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s by critically analyzing the differences and similarities between the liberal and radical feminists, the Equal Rights Act, similarities and differences between those who supported and opposed the Equal Rights Act, working class women who opposed and also surged the feminist movement, different key events such as the National Organization of Women that influenced the development of a women’s right movement, and the long range consequences of the modern women’s right movement.

The Merriam-Webster definition of feminism is “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” In the past century, gender roles have been challenged because of feminism. The very idea has completely flipped households, workplaces, and the general community and changed it for the better. A plethora of women’s movements were initiated in the 1960’s, and it gave people a look at how powerful women are when we stand united. Feminism has gained many followers in the past thirty to forty years as more people are becoming aware of conflicts pertaining to discrimination. However, there are many that were hesitant both in the 1960’s and in the present day, but for very different reasons. Nevertheless, persistence seems to be a beacon in women’s rights movements, thanks to very strong and level-headed role models.

Throughout the history of the world women have often been subjected to fewer rights and to a lower social class than that of men. In most societies the traditional role of the woman was the role of wife, mother, and caretaker. Women endured this type of prejudiced behavior since the dawn of time until the first women’s movements began to develop during the 1800’s in the United States and Europe. These women’s movements are often referred to as feminist movements or feminism. The development of feminism in the 1800’s was a very crucial part of history because women began the long road of gaining women’s rights with the Seneca Falls Convention, the founding of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and the first National Women’s

Feminism has become an ugly word. Some say it does not even live up to its definition anymore. However, the definition remains unchanged in the pages of history. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary’s definition of Feminism reads, “The theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” If one digs deep into this definition, beyond the surface of society’s view on feminism today, one can see that feminism would benefit both sexes. The true ideals of feminism break down gender roles, thus benefitting men, women and future generations.

Because women come from all races, social classes, and age, they have been an important instrument in shaping western ideology and the world. Feminism is a broad term encompassing the entirety of the historical movement in the nineteenth century and the philosophical thought leading into the twentieth century (Zophy and Kavenik 206). Although the term wasn’t popularized until the 1950’s and 60’s, it represents the ideology into the modern era. With Woman’s History being a major thread of United States history, it is important we understand the progression of women’s rights, freedoms, and feminism throughout the Colonial Era, the Woman’s Suffrage Movement, and the rise of second and third wave

The Women’s Rights Movement in the 1960s and the 1970s grew out of the turbulent social disruption that characterized those decades of American history. This movement also known as “second wave feminism”, progressed from the suffrage movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Feminists pursued equality for women by challenging unfair labor practices and discriminatory laws. Many women of all ages, social class, and educational background founded organizations that provided other women with educational material about sex and reproduction, and fought to legalize all forms of birth control. In addition, they provided women with hope to gain their freedom in order to motivate them to fight for their rights.

Since the mid-1800's, women in the United States and around the world have organized political movements to obtain the same social, economic, and political rights that men have traditionally enjoyed. These feminist movements have sought to change the laws to prevent discrimination against women and to provide them with equal opportunities in all aspects of life, including education, employment, and government representation.

Before the 1960s, American women were contained within a rut that hindered them from living equally among American men. According to Dixon (1977), women had been without a voice to articulate the injustice and brutality of women’s place and without instrumentality to fight against their exploitation and oppression for nearly forty years. However, “[from] the late 1960s into the 1980s there was a vibrant women’s movement in the United States” (Epstein, 2001). This movement, fueled by feminism, promised drastic improvement in the lives of American women and also promised to “[…] equalize the status of all women” (Dixon, 1977). Due to the uplifting wave of the 1970s women’s movement, females in America anxiously awaited the freedom to live as

The definition of feminism is very elusive. Maybe because of its ever-changing historical meaning, it’s not for certain whether there is any coherence to the term feminism or if there is a definition that will live up to the movement’s variety of adherents and ideas. In the book “No Turning Back,” author Estelle Freedman gives an accurate four-part definition of the very active movement: “Feminism is a belief that women and men are inherently part of equal worth. Because most societies privilege men as a group, social movements are necessary to achieve equality between women and men, with the understanding that gender always intersects with other social hierarchies” (Freedman 7).

     Amy Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife is the story of a relationship between a mother and daughter that is much more than it seems. This touchingly beautiful narrative not only tells a story, but deals with many of the issues that we have discussed in Women Writers this semester. Tan addresses the issues of the inequality given women in other cultures, different cultures' expectations of women, abortion, friendship, generation gaps between mothers and daughters, mother-daughter relationships, and the strength of women in the face of adversity. Tan even sets the feminist mood with the title of the book, which refers to a woman in Chinese Mythology who cared for a selfish man who became a

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s women feminists fought to be treated equally. The feminists did not want special treatment nor did the feminists want to be treated as inferior to men. Affirmative action adds to the women’s dream that early

The earliest recorded incidents of women trying to break down barriers to improve the lives of women occurred in 600 B.C. (Waller, 2005). However, the most significant event and start of the feminist movement as we know it today is the suffrage movement in the early 1900’s, where both women and men with higher education fought for the right for white women to vote. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, feminism picked up steam with anti-Vietnam war protests, hippie sit-ins and bra-burnings. This part of the movement created additional career opportunities and choices about having children, but again, it only did so for white women. Women of colour still had limited opportunity.

Feminism is an umbrella term for people who think there is something wrong with the idea that gender has the capability to limit an individual’s social and political right. Even if there is inequality between men and women, feminism has never been the main reason to give women their civil rights. Feminism started among European activists in the 19th century, when women were not treated equally and were not elected to high positions of power. Indeed, it sought to eliminate sexism in all forms. While feminism has made advances for women to compete with men and narrow gender differences, feminism is still not a way for creating equality due to opposition and to the existence of different types of feminism, such