I.

Introduction

Feminism, collective term for systems of belief and theories that pay special attention to women’s rights and women’s position in culture and society. The term tends to be used for the women’s rights movement, which began in the late 18th century and continues to campaign for complete political, social, and economic equality between women and men. This article deals specifically with the development of the ideas behind that movement and their influence and impact.

Feminists are united by the idea that women’s position in society is unequal to that of men, and that society is structured in such a way as to benefit men to the political, social, and economic detriment of women. However, feminists have used different theories to explain these inequalities and have advocated different ways of redressing inequalities, and there are marked geographic and historical variations in the nature of feminism.

Historically, feminist thought and activity can be divided into two waves. The first wave, which began in about 1800 and lasted until the 1930s, was largely concerned with gaining equal rights between women and men. The second wave, which began in the late 1960s, has continued to fight for equality but has also developed a range of theories and approaches that stress the difference between women and men and that draw attention to the specific needs of women.

II.

Traditional Ideas About Women

Archaeological evidence from Europe and the Middle East has suggested that Stone Age civilizations practiced goddess worship and were organized as matriarchies—social orders with women in charge. However, from the time of the earliest written records, these civilizations had been overtaken by patriarchal cultures that worshiped male gods and in which men were political, religious, and military leaders, and women were kept in subordination. In the time of the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans and in the early Christian era, women were excluded from public life and were made subordinate to men. For example, Greek philosopher Aristotle argued in his Politics that women were inferior to men and must be ruled by men. Saint Paul told Christian wives to obey their husbands and not to speak in church.

In most societies throughout most of the second millennium, women were deprived of property, education, and legal status. They were made the responsibility of their husbands if married, or of their fathers or other male relatives if not. However, there were examples of exceptional women who challenged patriarchal structures in their lives and writings. For example, a German abbess, Hildegard of Bingen, defied the authority of male church leaders; and an Italian writer and courtier, Christine de Pisan, defended women and wrote biblical commentaries that challenged the patriarchal ideas inherent in Christianity. By the end of the 17th century, a number of women writers, such as Mary Astell in England, were calling for improvements in women’s education.

III.

The First Wave

Although the word feminism was not used until the end of the 19th century, recognizably feminist beliefs began to emerge in the late 18th century. The earliest form of feminism was concerned with equal rights for women and men: this meant equal standing as citizens in public life and, to some extent, equal legal status within the home. These ideas emerged in response to the American Revolution (1775-1783) and the French Revolution (1789-1799), both of which advocated values of liberty and equality. Feminists in France argued that the revolution’s values of liberty, equality, and fraternity should apply to all, while women activists in America called for an extension of the principles of the American Declaration of Independence to women, including rights to citizenship and property.

In England, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). In this work she demanded equality and better education for women and made the first sustained critique of the social system that relegated women to an inferior position. In the early 19th century, a small group of middle-class women in Britain began to call for better education, improved legal rights (especially within marriage), employment opportunities, and the right to vote. Equal-rights feminism was given theoretical justification by philosopher John Stuart Mill, who wrote The Subjection of Women (1869), which was partly influenced by his wife, Harriet Taylor.

From the 1850s onward, the campaign for equal rights for women became focused on winning the right to vote, also known as woman suffrage. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton led the campaign for women’s suffrage in the United States. Suffrage movements also appeared in New Zealand, the Soviet Union, Germany, Poland, Austria, and Sweden.

Toward the end of the 19th century, another strand of feminist thinking appeared that questioned social attitudes toward women. These attitudes were expressed through representations of women in literature and other art forms and social rules for women’s behavior. By the turn of the 20th century, the media in North America and Europe became preoccupied with the image of the “new woman.” This woman challenged patriarchy not only by demanding equal civil rights but also by defying social conventions and choosing her own lifestyle and clothes.

By the 1920s, feminists began to turn their attention from questions of equality between women and men to issues that mainly concerned women. They called, for example, for improved welfare provisions for mothers and children (see Child Welfare). These issues would become stronger in the second wave of feminism.

IV.

The Second Wave

The original impetus for the so-called second wave of feminism came from the civil rights movement and antiwar protests that emerged in the 1960s in North America and from social protest movements in Europe and Australasia. The women’s liberation movement, which started in the United States, combined liberal, rights-based concerns for equality between women and men with demands for a woman’s right to determine her own identity and sexuality. These two strands of ideology were represented in the seven demands of the movement, established between 1970 and 1978. These were equal pay; equal education and equal opportunities in work; financial and legal independence; free 24-hour day care for children; free contraception (see Birth Control) and abortion on demand; a woman’s right to define her own sexuality and an end to discrimination against lesbians (see Homosexuality); and freedom from violence and sexual coercion (see Domestic Violence; Family Violence; and Rape).

Central to second-wave feminism is the notion that the personal is political—that is, individual women do not suffer oppression in isolation but as the result of wider social and political systems. This ideology was greatly influenced by the writings of French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir and American feminist Kate Millett, who drew attention to ways in which women were oppressed by the very structure of Western society. In The Second Sex (1949) de Beauvoir argued that Western culture regarded men as normal and women as an aberration (“the Other”), and she called for the recognition of the special nature of women. Kate Millett, in Sexual Politics (1970), drew attention to the pervasiveness of patriarchy and to the ways in which it was reenforced through the family and culture, notably in literature. The recognition of the rampant nature of patriarchy fueled the feminist idea of universal sisterhood—that women of all cultures and backgrounds can be united within their common oppression.

Second-wave feminism emphasized the physical and psychological differences between women and men. Some feminists criticized traditional psychoanalysis, notably the work of Sigmund Freud, for assuming that all people are, or should be, like men. They became concerned with ways in which women’s perceptions were determined by the particular nature of the female body and by the female roles in reproduction and childbearing (see Pregnancy and Childbirth). In France, feminist theorists Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray explored ways of creating knowledge from the viewpoint of the female body, including the idea of écriture féminine (women’s writing) that will look at history from a female point of view. This strand of feminism, which became known as cultural or radical feminism, focused on differences between women and men that they believed make women superior to men, and it advocated female forms of culture. It was regarded as a step backwards by many people who were working toward reducing the reproductive emphasis in women’s lives. Its opponents criticized it for being “essentialist”—that is, for reducing women to bodies and for assuming that all women are the same. Arguments continue over determinist ideas that women are always bound to be caring and nurturing and that men are naturally aggressive.

A powerful strand of feminism is concerned with the ways in which men have controlled and subordinated women’s bodies. For example, American scholar Mary Daly argued in Gyn/Ecology (1979) that patriarchy coerced women into heterosexuality, using violence to suppress women’s powers and sexuality. Feminists have argued that sexual and domestic violence are not isolated incidents but are central to the subordination of women by patriarchy. Feminists, notably American Andrea Dworkin, wrote powerfully against pornography as a means by which patriarchy exploits women’s bodies and incites violence against women. In response to these threats, feminists asserted women’s legal rights to their own bodies, including the importance of the right to choose motherhood. They have also looked at ways in which women might use motherhood as a source of strength and as a way of influencing future generations, rather than as a means of reproducing patriarchy. In particular, some feminists have advocated different forms of parenting, as single mothers or within lesbian relationships.

V.

Recent Developments

Feminism has often been criticized as Eurocentric—focused on European and North American culture—by black women and by women in the developing world. For example, Indian critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has accused Anglo-American feminist theorists of making women of the developing world “the Other” by imposing Western perspectives on them. However, women from non-Western cultures have taken up feminist ideas and accommodated them to their own situations. For example, some black feminists have developed a perspective which takes account of the fact that they are doubly marginalized, by race and by sex.

By contrast, some Asian, Caribbean, and African American feminists have developed politics which draw on their ethnic origins as a source of strength. Feminism in Latin America has looked at oppression across gender, class, and racial lines, although it has recently begun to focus more closely on women’s issues. In Islamic countries a secular, liberal feminism has developed that seeks to eliminate discrimination against women and to outlaw practices such as polygyny (multiple wives), purdah (seclusion in the home), and limitation of the right of divorce to the husband. In India, feminists have organized opposition to the dowry system and subsequent “dowry deaths,” where continuing demands of the groom’s family are not met and result in the murder of the bride.

Lesbian writers have argued that feminism has not paid attention to their specific needs. American poet Adrienne Rich has been influential in developing lesbian feminist theory by arguing that heterosexuality is a construct imposed upon women through which men control women’s role in reproduction and render lesbians invisible. Like some black feminists, Rich has argued for the political importance of asserting one’s own identity.

Another variety of feminist thought, particularly strong in the United Kingdom, is Marxist-feminist theory. This extends the theories of production expounded by German social theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to an examination of the economic and material exploitation of women, the sexual division of labor, especially in domestic work and childcare, and women’s inequality within the workplace. In the United States a similar position is taken up by materialist feminists, who argue that women as a class are oppressed by material conditions and social relations.

In recent years, feminist thinking has had to react against the concept of post-feminism, which argues that women have achieved full equality and that there is no need for further activism. It has also had to tackle the phenomenon of backlash, as identified by feminists such as American writer Susan Faludi. This backlash is seen as an attempt by men (and women) in American and British political life and other arenas to reverse the achievements of feminism, for example, by launching renewed moral crusades against abortion and the single-parent family.

VI.

Impact of Feminist Thought

Feminist thinking has succeeded in drawing public attention to inequality between women and men and to the structures within society that belittle and work against women. It has led to a reconsideration of women’s role in the workplace, resulting in policies that promote equal pay and equal opportunities. And it has identified and tackled the problem of sexual harassment at work. Feminism has also succeeded in challenging perceptions of women’s skills, with the result that some women are entering nontraditional areas of female employment such as the construction industry.

Feminism has influenced culture, resulting in greater coverage of women’s interests and concerns, particularly by the mass media. Feminist thinking has adapted and diversified to tackle new issues, including AIDS (see Acquired Immunodeficiency Disease Syndrome), homophobia (prejudice against homosexuals), technology, and warfare. Some feminists have combined feminist ideas with pacifist and environmental ideologies to condemn nuclear weapons and criticize new technologies. These include reproductive technologies (see In vitro fertilization) and surrogate motherhood, which are regarded as means by which men exert control over women’s bodies.

Feminist thinking has had a powerful influence upon many academic disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, psychology, literary criticism, history, theology, and the sciences. Feminist scholars are undertaking research that draws attention to neglected female concerns, and they are exposing the patriarchal assumptions that underlie traditional approaches to scholarship.