Feminist Theory Of Feminism

Early feminism was typically focused only on white women, likely because racism was still extremely prominent at the time feminism began emerging. It was not until Kimberlé Crenshaw introduced the term “intersectionality” in 1989 that feminism started to look at oppressed group’s needs (Nash, 2008, 2). Intersectionality is a way of thinking that acknowledges that when a person has identities that belong to more than one oppressed group, it impacts their quality of life more negatively. In this paper, I will argue that intersectionality is important in the discussion of feminist theories and activism because it ensures that feminism is for all women, not just a select group of them. Intersectionality has changed the way the feminist movement handles the overlapping of different identities, which has helped feminist theorists understand the experiences of women of colour much more clearly. While intersectionality has a very important role in the conversation and practice of feminism, there are certainly critiques of the concept that should be brought up. These critiques, however, can offer a way to improve the study of intersectionality.

“Simply put, feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” (1) This is the first line of Bell Hooks’ book, Feminism is for everybody. This sentence, a simple statement about the sense of feminism, has come into much debate in recent years. This is done by people claiming feminism is not a movement to end sexism- but rather a movement to give women superiority over men. Despite the literal definition of feminism being “an advocacy for the equal rights of the genders,” many people still claim that feminists are women who want to be of higher power than their male counterparts. Hooks acknowledges this by saying “and a huge majority of these folks think feminism is anti-male” (1). Like most aspects of today’s society,

White women who advocate white feminism often maintain their crusade of moral superiority over white men at the expense of non-white women (Sholock, 2012). bell hooks argues, “many white women who daily exercise race privilege lack awareness that they are doing so,” furthermore they “may not have conscious understanding of the ideology of white supremacy and the extent to which it shapes their behavior and attitudes towards women unlike themselves” (hooks,1984, p.56).

Feminism is a body of social theory and political movement primarily based on and motivated by the experiences of women. While generally providing a critique of social relations, many proponents of feminism also focus on analyzing gender inequality and the promotion of women's rights, interests, and issues.

In the Feminist Theory, bell hooks provide vivid examples and assertions on how mainstream feminism exclude the issues of women of color. Mainstream feminism in America pertains to the ideals of “white, middle-class privileged woman” as they “reinforce white supremacy by negating the issue of race and class amongst woman of color” (hooks, 2000, pg. ). Due to not fulfilling the attempt to gain equality, as they may claim to do, it also can be an organization that displays “narcissism, insensitivity, sentimentality, and self-indulgence” (hooks, 2000, pg. 3). As mainstream feminism shuns the needs and interests of African-American women, it allows current social issues and inequalities to persist.

While the oppressions and social injustices of a white woman can never compensate, compare to, or accurately reflect upon the experience of women of color, I use my privileged platform, experiences, and mindset as a white ‘looking’ woman to support the increase of these other oppressed women to power. Their acclamation is crucial in order to publicize, recognize, and legitimize their raw experiences to advocate for equitable change and empathy. I offer my listening ears in order to critically analyze their realities, my voice to speak out against this social maltreatment while contrasting my own oppressions and privileges, and my hand to help cease these imposing binaries and promote social equity. Similarly, it is also important to ackowledge that women of color scholars have also practiced ‘cultural social analysis’ to “critique the exclusion of experiences, needs, and perspectives from bother White, Eurocentric, middle-class conceptualizations of feminism and male dominated models of ethnic studies.” Because of this, I may not ever completely recognize the struggles and abuse women of color endure daily, because although we may share a similar gender, and for some a similar socioeconomic and

Consequently, as long as the relations of power are unequal between women and men, men will maintain control unless women have separate organizations to identify their needs and strengths; “unequals, treated superficially as equals, will remain unequal.” Every woman must therefore unite to combat the patriarchy by creating different organization where each cultural group is represented and the problems individual to them are addressed. Once these organizations can fight the patriarchy in individualized attacks while maintaining communication with each other, feminism will be able to efficiently deconstruct the plague of patriarchy whose symptoms are detrimental to all who encounter

Feminism is a sociological theory that analyzes the roles that women and men play in society. Feminism can be defined as the belief of unequal rights between men and women. Women are not always treated equally and this sparks many concerns in our society. There are 2 different theories that will be focused on in this paper, gender-inequality theory and gender oppression. The differences between these two still lead up to the way women are treated in a community or the way men have acted towards them throughout history. Gender-inequality focuses mainly on how social situations are unequal between men and women, thus that men are treated at a higher level than women in several different situations. There are many different reasons why men and women are treated differently. Traditionally, the women are expected to be the stay at home moms, who clean and cook for the family. While the men on the other hand work on a daily basis and bring income into the household. Thus saying that women are inferior to the man by not being able to make their own job decision. Men are looked to as smarter, masculine, better decision makers than women. For example, there has never been a female president of the United States. That is proof that women are unequal to men and to this day it is still a concern in our society. Women do not receive the same work opportunities as men, and are recognized by only needed to have children, stay at home, and simply clean and cook for the

From Evelyn Fox Keller with her book, A feeling for the Organism to Judith Butler with Gender Trouble and Sarah Harding with her revolutionary work on standpoint theory, the role of gender in science and society in general, has been poked and prodded over the years without any fruitful agreements across disciplines. For the most part, the theories proposed have contributed heavily to feminist epistemology. With oppression and marginalization at the center point of the issues concerning gender and science, in this paper, I will try to shift the conversation slightly to address trust and its epistemic role in science. By understanding the definitions provided by feminist scholars such as Harding and Haslanger, the relation between trust, gender

Feminist’s perspectives of the welfare state and women’s involvements have been used to contest gender inequalities. Conversely, there are numerous feminist approaches depending on each political ideology; this essay will identify various feminist viewpoints. In order to determine Feminisms impact on the welfare system, a comparison of pre- war and post- war ideology of how society viewed women’s role as within the political system. According to Pamela Abbott and Claire Wallace (1997) pre-war concept of men and women’s roles were grounded in the notion that ‘men were considered as providers, women were naturally the dependent of the husband’, ‘Women’s contribution was as a wife and mother, there was little expectation for women to contribute

Today's feminist movement is in jeopardy of losing a following unless the woman at the forefront begin to identify with the fact that not every feminist is white, middle class, and cis-gendered. The modern idea of feminism has a fault in the way that its main idea seems to be fighting for equality of white women, this factor neglects every other woman in the world. This sets a double standard within the grouping of women as a whole just as women are fighting to abolish double standards set in place against sexes. This idea of white feminism simultaneously neglects the different problems of women of all demographics, while also grouping women together as a whole as if the struggles white women face are the same struggles all women face.

The theory that this research explores is the feminist theory. It will explore the equality of women to men in the military as well as the hardships differentiated in the military but specifically upon whether or not women are most likely to be the victim rather than men. The Feminist Theory is a way of looking at the social world through the lens of gender inequality. The focus is on male and female power. Feminist theory addresses the roles women have in society and the ongoing battles women face. Most importantly, this way of thinking about the social world focuses on the rights of women, including: economic, sexual, reproductive, property, and voting rights. This theory is the most applicable for multiple reasons. First attitudes toward the role of women in the military require the reconciliation of two often conflicting beliefs: those toward the roles and rights of women and those toward the military. Second, sexual assaults are more so caused with women more so than with men causing it to be more of a feminist issue, as well as a gender role issue. Women have served in all the nation 's wars, but today make up a larger percentage of the service than in previous conflicts.

bell hooks’ second book, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, was published in 1984. It is one of her more widely known works, pushing her into the forefront as a leading voice between second and third-wave feminism. Third-wave feminism theory is inclusive of elements of anti-racism, lesbian theory, and women-of-color consciousness, brought upon as a criticism of the second-wave; which highlighted upper-middle class white women’s issues and projected them onto the whole mass without consideration of minority experiences. hooks’ novel is reflective of this and incorporates these subjects paying specific attention to the ethnic minority experience of feminism. She does this in order to raise awareness of groups marginalized within feminism, arguing that they should in fact be at the center of the movement.

The feminist theory takes the motion of the feminist equal rights movement and transforms it into a theoretical study. This rather new approach explores the status of females and equality activists as well as their role in society relating to others. The feminist theory explains what is relevant to women and the women 's movement as well as how definitions are changing over time, whether they are sociological, philosophical, or psychological (Grosz, 2010). As the gender gap closes in our society, equality becomes imperative to study and discuss freely. Many theorists have studied feminist theory, but one theorist in particular sticks out.

There is a misconception that Feminism is an Umbrella so to speak of all women. In reality, there are many subdivisions within the feminist spectrum, advocating for different things. The term feminism has been hyper- appropriated throughout history that it’s like a funnel used in rhetoric, that strains out the outliers in the feminist community. When people, or more so white