What is Feminism?
Feminism is a set of political ideas and movements that seek equality between women and men. Britannica defines it as the belief in social, economic and political equality of the sexes. Feminists argue that women have faced unfair treatment in law, work, family life and politics, and that these patterns should change. Feminism is not a single party program. It includes people with very different views on the economy, religion and the role of the state, who share a focus on gender equality.
Core beliefs
- Women and men should have equal rights in law and politics.
- Women should have equal access to education, work and pay.
- Social norms about gender can limit people and can be changed.
- Women should have control over decisions about their own bodies.
- Violence and discrimination against women are public problems, not only private ones.
History
Arguments for women's equality appeared in earlier centuries, but Britannica notes that organized feminism grew with the Enlightenment, when women asked that ideas of liberty and natural rights apply to both sexes. Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792. In 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention in New York, led in part by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, demanded rights including the vote. The philosopher John Stuart Mill published The Subjection of Women in 1869. New Zealand became the first self-governing country to give women the vote in national elections in 1893. Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex in 1949 shaped later thought, and the writer bell hooks argued that feminism must address race and class as well as gender.
Variants
Historians often speak of waves. The first wave focused on legal rights and the vote. The second wave, from the 1960s and 1970s, addressed work, family, sexuality and reproductive rights. Later waves focused on diversity and differences among women. Liberal feminism seeks equal rights and opportunities within existing institutions. Socialist and Marxist feminism links women's position to economic structures. Radical feminism sees male dominance as a basic social structure. Intersectional feminism studies how gender combines with race, class and other identities. Some religious and conservative women describe themselves as feminist while keeping traditional views on family.
Criticisms
Critics on the right, including many social conservatives and religious groups, argue that some forms of feminism undervalue motherhood and traditional family roles, and they oppose positions such as legal abortion. Some libertarian critics argue that anti-discrimination laws and quotas limit freedom of contract and association. Critics on the left, including some Marxists, argue that mainstream feminism focuses on professional women and does not do enough for working class and poorer women. Debates within feminism are also strong, for example on sex work, pornography and the definition of womanhood.
In practice
Feminist movements helped win women the right to vote in most countries during the twentieth century. They influenced laws on equal pay, property rights for married women, divorce, access to contraception and protection against workplace discrimination and domestic violence. The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1979, which most countries have ratified. Some countries use gender quotas for parliaments or company boards, and many have paid parental leave policies shaped by feminist arguments.