Feminism

23.2- Women Fight for Equality • New Women’s Movement o A new idea and theory that also arose from the 1960’s came known as feminism, which was that all women should have the same equality as men in society.

Power, in its relation to gender, is the main focus of the feminism. Many inequalities exist in society today between men and women at both the micro and macro level. The idea that men and women should be equal in all respects, including economically, politically, and socially equal is at

When I was young, I always wondered why girls get to wear pink, purple, and flowery outfits while boys are given blue and gray ones, or why the man’s surname is adopted by the woman upon marriage and not the other way around. Gender roles are the acceptable and expected behaviors of men and women and these ‘rules’ of behavior were passed from generation to generation. Over the length of time, this mentality eventually led to the birth of feminism which is the belief in the social, economic, and political equality of the sexes as the dictionary defines it.It has ranged from letting women work in the late 20th century to not needing a husband just to get a credit card in the modern times. A feminist is someone, regardless of gender and age, who do not acknowledge sexism by recognizing both men and women with full equality and humanity.

Introduction Since the beginning of time women have been considered inferior to men, which seem to proceed to affect everyday lives of all social beings in this world. Women have a disease, a disease that will prevent them for ever having the political drive to achieve political, social or economic opportunities men have. This "disease" is the need for independency and self-respect or the lack there of. This is what we have come to know as feminism. Feminism refers to the body of thought on the cause and nature of women's disadvantaged and subordinate position in society, and efforts to minimize and eliminate the subordination (Hughes, 2002:160). Understanding that the need for independency and self-respect is not a real disease,

The idea of feminism grew through a variety of movements, theories and philosophies. Feminism motivates the experiences of women through social, political and academic situations. Through social movements, feminism focuses on the documentation of gender inequality and changes in the social representation of women. Some argue that genders are social constructs and research the construction of sexuality and develop alternative models for studying social relations. In regards to politics, the feminist political activism campaigns on issues such as reproductive rights, violence within a domestic partnership, maternity leave, equal pay, sexual harassment, discrimination and sexual violence. Common themes that explores feminism include

With the rise of the feminist movement there have been many significant advances toward women gaining equality in all aspects of life. Media has a strong influence on society and it is continuously educating, informing and conditioning how humans behave and display themselves. With the media endorsing so many hyper sexualized images of men and women, it is very unlikely that these ideas would render no impact on our sense of identity. Feminism is a social principle and political movement mostly based on and aggravated by the experiences of women. It usually provides a critique of social relations, however many aspects of feminism also focuses on evaluating gender inequality and the support of women’s civil rights, benefits and concerns. A person who subscribes to feminism can be either a male or a female. Feminist theory recognizes the nature of gender biases and focuses on gender politics, power and sexuality. Themes explored in feminism include inequality, stereotyping, sexual objectification, domination and patriarchy. Cultural critic Bell Hooks describes “feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression”. However, despite the ongoing progression of feminism many of the issues that feminism is fundamentally opposed to are still heavily ingrained in society. For example, magazines, music videos and advertisements often normalize the objectification and sexualisation of women and men for profit, all of which can have an adverse affect on people.

Men, women, boy, girl, or anyone in society can be feminist. Furthermore, feminism can be portrayed as a movement. An upheaval that involves men and women who desire the world to be equivalent and exclusive of limitations. These restrictions or boundaries are identified as discrimination and prejudice against age, sex, sexual orientation, marital position and financial status. A set priority that masculinity will continue to uphold the power and importance socially, politically and economically than femininity because feminist’s views society as unequal.

Feminism is the movement towards women’s equality and the fight for equal gender in the social, political, cultural and economical aspects of society. Feminism also fights for equal opportunity for women in employment and education. A feminist is someone who advocates their support for women’s rights but is not restricted to only women; anyone who supports women’s rights and equality are feminists, including men. Feminism is not only about the females; it fights for gender equality for all. Feminist movements, or Women’s movements, campaign for reforms in household issues with domestic violence, political issues with equal pay, employment and maternity leave, and reproduction rights. All feminism movements fight for equal rights, but it cannot be conquered or be made known all at once. First wave feminism was mostly about women’s suffrage and political equality in general whereas the second wave feminism went more in depth about the social and cultural inequalities.

Throughout the history of the world, the position, rights and treatment of women has always been one of the ‘’unimportant’’ issues and has been not given the attention needed by others all over the world. Even though there has been progress made today, many women still feel oppressed even in the most developed countries. This oppression derives from the lack of education, religious affiliation and the typical stereotypes, which portray men as the ones in charge and women as the weak part of the chain of our societies.

In general, the feminist is pure struggle of women in various aspects of getting to the same status as men. The women fight for their rights, status, dignity and empowerment of feminism . Since the 16th century, emerging leaders and the organizations that claim to the rights of women but initially only for political purposes only. Similarly, the United States declared "all men are created equal” and believe that a female demon that should be avoided, not least in terms of religious, political and social women looked down upon and treated as lower class ( Harding, 1987). As such case, the woman began to rise up for their rights after discovering that they had long oppressed and their rights taken away. Feminist methodology refers to the method, and research methods used to understand the voices of women , eradication of the concept of bias that occurs between men and women (Harding, 1987).

There are many misconceptions about feminism. Some men see feminists as lesbians or man haters. Anti-feminists typically dictate the term as supporting women’s equality and opposing men’s. In addition, some more common misconceptions consist of feminism being a movement only for gender equality, a fight for matriarchy and power, and male feminists being considered against their gender. Many individuals see the word Feminism, and immediately interpret it as a movement strictly for women’s causes. However, men can be feminists too. In fact, anyone who believes in gender equality can be a feminist. Nevertheless, to me feminism is the movement that not just aims for women’s equality but also for men’s. Feminism embraces the belief that every human-being is entitled to freedom and liberty and should not be discriminated based on gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, culture, or lifestyle.

WGS 3600: Feminist Theory Frankie Snyder and Jax McMillian Due: 12/10/2015 Feminism is gender liberation Feminism needs to be more broadly defined in terms of gender liberation to encompass individuals from all walks of genders (or nongenders). Separating gender nonconforming issues from feminism is erasive; marginalized gender nonconforming individuals should not be told to fend for themselves and their own rights due to a multitude of oppressions experienced by these individuals (based on the prejudicial gender assumptions the patriarchy puts on them). In all, feminism should encompass gender nonconforming rights because to do otherwise would be to align with the patriarchal system in which feminists are fighting against; including gender nonconforming issues in the sphere of feminism will help strengthen the discourse of general gender equality as has been argued for centuries.

Feminism at its roots was a challenge to patriarchal standards and the exclusion of women from the workplace. Women since the early 1850s have been fighting for equality whether it be for respect or representation in politics, women wanted the same rights as men. The core of feminism although similar

Feminism by definition is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. So feminism has a dictionary definition, but when it comes to feminists and feminism there are so many different personal definitions that people and groups hold. Feminism has been around for quite a while.

the time.” (Williams, par. 1) However, through philosophical theory, patriarchalism as a construction of society started to diminish through women’s rights movements as it pertained many feminist theories. Similarly, patriarchy is a social construction much like gender roles. Social constructionism is the idea that social systems and awareness created a social norm within the system, rather than holding a vital truth on their own, highlighting how some cultures produce and perpetuate gender roles. In today’s society, we separate biological sex from gender, however, this was only lately, before this sex and gender were considered to be one entity. An early women 's rights leader challenged existing