Feminist movement
The feminist movement refers to a series of political campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment, and sexual violence, all of which fall under the label of feminism and the feminist movement. The movement's priorities vary among nations and communities, and range from opposition to female genital mutilation in one country, to opposition to the glass ceiling in another.
Feminism in parts of the Western world has gone through three waves. First-wave feminism was oriented around the station of middle- or upper-class white women and involved suffrage and political equality. Second-wave feminism attempted to further combat social and cultural inequalities. Although the first wave of feminism involved mainly middle class white women, the second wave brought in women of color and women from other developing nations that were seeking solidarity. Third-wave feminism is continuing to address the financial, social and cultural inequalities and includes renewed campaigning for greater influence of women in politics and media. In reaction to political activism, feminists have also had to maintain focus on women's reproductive rights, such as the right to abortion. Fourth-wave feminism examines the interlocking systems of power that contribute to the stratification of traditionally marginalized groups.
Feminism in China started in the 20th century with the Chinese Revolution in 1911. In China, Feminism has a strong association with socialism and class issues. Some commentators believe that this close association is damaging to Chinese feminism and argue that the interests of party are placed before those of women.
History
Feminist movement in Western society
Feminism in the United States, Canada and a number of countries in western Europe has been divided into three waves by feminist scholars: first, second and third-wave feminism. Recent research suggests there may be a fourth wave characterized, in part, by new media platforms.The women's movement became more popular in May 1968 when women began to read again, more widely, the book The Second Sex, written in 1949 by a defender of women's rights, Simone de Beauvoir. De Beauvoir's writing explained why it was difficult for talented women to become successful. The obstacles de Beauvoir enumerates include women's inability to make as much money as men do in the same profession, women's domestic responsibilities, society's lack of support towards talented women, and women's fear that success will lead to an annoyed husband or prevent them from even finding a husband at all. De Beauvoir also argues that women lack ambition because of how they are raised, noting that girls are told to follow the duties of their mothers, whereas boys are told to exceed the accomplishments of their fathers. Along with other influences, Simone de Beauvoir's work helped the feminist movement to erupt, causing the formation of Le Mouvement de Libération des Femmes. Contributors to The Women's Liberation Movement include Simone de Beauvoir, Christiane Rochefort, Christine Delphy and Anne Tristan. Through this movement, women gained equal rights such as a right to an education, a right to work, and a right to vote. One of the most important issues that The Women's Liberation movement faced was the banning of abortion and contraception, which the group saw as a violation of women's rights. Thus, they made a declaration known as Le Manifeste de 343 which held signatures from 343 women admitting to having had an illegal abortion. The declaration was published in two French newspapers, Le Nouvel Observateur and Le Monde, on 5 April 1971. The group gained support upon the publication. Women received the right to abort with the passing of the Veil Law in 1975.
The Women's movement effected change in Western society, including women's suffrage, the right to initiate divorce proceedings and "no fault" divorce, the right of women to make individual decisions regarding pregnancy, and the right to own property. It has also led to broad employment for women at more equitable wages, and access to university education.
In 1918 Crystal Eastman wrote an article published in the Birth Control Review, she contended that birth control is a fundamental right for women and must be available as an alternative if they are to participate fully in the modern world. “In short, if feminism, conscious and bold and intelligent, leads the demand, it will be supported by the secret eagerness of all women to control the size of their families, and a suffrage state should make short work of repealing these old laws that stand in the way of birth control.” She stated “I don’t believe there is one woman within the confines of this state who does not believe in birth control!”
The United Nations Human Development Report 2004 estimated that when both paid employment and unpaid household tasks are accounted for, on average women work more than men. In rural areas of selected developing countries women performed an average of 20% more work than men, or 120% of men's total work, an additional 102 minutes per day. In the OECD countries surveyed, on average women performed 5% more work than men, or 105% of men's total work—an additional 20 minutes per day. However, men did up to 19 minutes more work per day than women in five out of the eighteen OECD countries surveyed: Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Israel, and The Netherlands. According to UN Women, "Women perform 66 percent of the world's work, produce 50 percent of the food, but earn 10 percent of the income and own 1 percent of the property."
The feminist movement's agenda includes acting as a counter to the putatively patriarchal strands in the dominant culture. While differing during the progression of waves, it is a movement that has sought to challenge the political structure, power holders, and cultural beliefs or practices.
Although antecedents to feminism may be found far back before the 18th century, the seeds of the modern feminist movement were planted during the late part of that century. Christine de Pizan, a late medieval writer, was possibly the earliest feminist in the western tradition. She is believed to be the first woman to make a living out of writing. Feminist thought began to take a more substantial shape during the Enlightenment with such thinkers as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the Marquis de Condorcet championing women's education. The first scientific society for women was founded in Middelburg, a city in the south of the Dutch republic, in 1785. Journals for women that focused on issues like science became popular during this period as well.
The women who made the first efforts towards women's suffrage came from more stable and privileged backgrounds, and were able to dedicate time and energy into making change. Initial developments for women, therefore, mainly benefited white women in the middle and upper classes.
Feminism in China
Prior to the 20th century, women in China were considered essentially different from men.In the patriarchal society, the struggle for women's emancipation means to enact laws that guarantee women's full equality of race, sex, property and freedom of marriage. In order to further eliminate the legacy of the class society of patriarchal women, discrimination, play, mutilate women's traditional prejudice and habitual forces on the basis of the development of productive forces, it is gradually needful on achieving gender in politics, economy, social and family aspects of equality.
Before the westernization movement and the reform movement, women had set off a wave of their own strength in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. However, there are too many women from the bottom identities in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It is difficult to get rid of the fate of being used. Until the end of the Qing Dynasty, women with more knowledges took the initiative in the fight for women's rights and that is where feminism basically started.
The term 'feminism' was first transmitted to China in 1791 which was proposed by Olympe de Gouges and promoted the 'women's liberation'. The feminist movement in China was mainly kickstarted and driven by male feminists prior to female feminists.
Key male feminists in China in the 19th to 20th century included Liang Qichao, Ma Junwu and Jin Tianhe. In 1897, Liang Qichao proposed banning of foot-binding and encouraged women to engage in the workforce, political environment and education. The foot-binding costume had long been established in China which was an act to display the beauty and social status of women by binding their feet into an extremely small shoe with good decorations and ornaments. Liang Qichao proposed the abolishment of this act due to concern the health of female being a supportive wives and caring mothers. He also proposed to reduce the number of female dependents in family and encouraged women to receive the rights of education and enter the workforce to be economic independent from men and finally help the nation to reach higher wealth and prosperity. For feminist Ma Junwu and Jin Tianhe, they both supported the equality between husbands and wives, women enjoy legitimate and equal rights and also rights to enter the political sphere. A key assertion from Jin Tianhe was women as the mother of the nation. These views from male feminists in early feminism in China represented the image of ideal women in the imagination of men.
Key female feminists in China in the 19th to 20th century included Lin Zongsu, He Zhen, Chen Xiefen and Qiu Jin. The female feminists in early China focused more on the methods or ways that women should behave and liberate themselves to achieve equal and deserved rights and independence. He Zhen expressed her opinion that women's liberation was not correlated to the interest of the nation and she analysed three reasons behind the male feminists included: following the Western trend, to alleviate their financial burdens and high quality of reproduction. Besides, Li Zongsu proposed that women should strive for their legitimate rights which includes broader aspects than the male feminists: call for their own right over men, the Qing Court and in an international extent.
In the Qing Dynasty, the discussion on feminism had two dimensions including the sex differences between men and women such as maternal role and duties of women and social difference between genders; the other dimension was the aim of liberation of women. The view of the feminists were diverse: some believed feminism was benefiting the nation and some believed feminism was associated with the individual development of female in improving their rights and welfare.
In the 1970s, the Marxist philosophy about female and feminism was transmitted to China and became the guiding principle of feminism movement in China by introducing class struggle theories to address gender quality. In the 1990s, more female scholars were adapted to feminism in Western countries, and they promoted feminism and equal rights for women by publishing, translating and carrying out research on global feminism and made feminism in China as one part of their study to raise more concern and awareness for gender equality issues.
Language
Feminists are sometimes, though not exclusively, proponents of using non-sexist language, such as using "Ms." to refer to both married and unmarried women. Feminists are also often proponents of using gender-inclusive language, such as "humanity" instead of "mankind", or "they" in place of "he" where the gender is unknown.Gender-neutral language is language usage which is aimed at minimizing assumptions regarding the gender of human referents. The advocacy of gender-neutral language reflects, at least, two different agendas: one aims to clarify the inclusion of both sexes or genders ; the other proposes that gender, as a category, is rarely worth marking in language. Gender-neutral language is sometimes described as non-sexist language by advocates and politically correct language by opponents.
Not only has the movement come to change the language into gender neutral but the feminist movement has brought up how people use language. Emily Martin describes the concept of how metaphors are gendered and ingrained into everyday life. Metaphors are used in everyday language and have become a way that people describe the world. Martin explains that these metaphors structure how people think and in regards to science can shape what questions are being asked. If the right questions are not being asked then the answers are not going to be the right either. For example, the aggressive sperm and passive egg is a metaphor that felt 'natural' to people in history but as scientists have reexamined this phenomenon they have come up with a new answer. "The sperm tries to pull its getaway act even on the egg itself, but is held down against its struggles by molecules on the surface of the egg that hook together with counterparts on the sperm's surface, fastening the sperm until the egg can absorb it." This is a goal in feminism to see these gendered metaphors and bring it to the public's attention. The outcome of looking at things in a new perspective can produce new information.
Heterosexual relationships
The increased entry of women into the workplace beginning in the 20th century has affected gender roles and the division of labor within households. Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild in The Second Shift and The Time Bind presents evidence that in two-career couples, men and women, on average, spend about equal amounts of time working, but women still spend more time on housework. Feminist writer Cathy Young responds to Hochschild's assertions by arguing that, in some cases, women may prevent the equal participation of men in housework and parenting. Economists Mark Aguiar and Erik Hurst calculate that the amount of time spent on housework by women since the 1960s has dropped considerably. Leisure for both men and women has risen significantly and by about the same amount for both sexes. Jeremy Greenwood, Ananth Seshadri and Mehmet Yorukoglu argue that the introduction of modern appliances into the home has allowed women to enter the work force.Feminist criticisms of men's contributions to child care and domestic labor in the Western middle class are typically centered around the idea that it is unfair for women to be expected to perform more than half of a household's domestic work and child care when both members of the relationship perform an equal share of work outside the home. Several studies provide statistical evidence that the financial income of married men does not affect their rate of attending to household duties.
In Dubious Conceptions, Kristin Luker discusses the effect of feminism on teenage women's choices to bear children, both in and out of wedlock. She says that as childbearing out of wedlock has become more socially acceptable, young women, especially poor young women, while not bearing children at a higher rate than in the 1950s, now see less of a reason to get married before having a child. Her explanation for this is that the economic prospects for poor men are slim, hence poor women have a low chance of finding a husband who will be able to provide reliable financial support due to the rise of unemployment from more workers on the market, from just men to women and men.
Some studies have suggested that both men and women perceive feminism as being incompatible with romance. However, a recent survey of U.S. undergraduates and older adults found that feminism actually has a positive impact on relationship health for women and sexual satisfaction for men, and found no support for negative stereotypes of feminists.
Virginia Satir said the need for relationship education emerged from shifting gender roles as women gained greater rights and freedoms during the 20th century:
Religion
is a movement that reconsiders the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of religions from a feminist perspective. Some of the goals of feminist theology include increasing the role of women among the clergy and religious authorities, reinterpreting male-dominated imagery and language about God, determining the place of women in relation to career and motherhood, and studying images of women in the religion's sacred texts.The feminist movement has affected religion and theology in profound ways. In liberal branches of Protestant Christianity, women are now allowed to be ordained as clergy, and in Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism, women are now allowed to be ordained as rabbis and cantors. In some of these groups, some women are gradually obtaining positions of power that were formerly only held by men, and their perspectives are now sought out in developing new statements of belief. These trends, however, have been resisted within most sects of Islam, Roman Catholicism, and Orthodox Christianity. Within Roman Catholicism, most women understand that, through the dogma of the faith, they are to hold, within the family, a place of love and focus on the family. They also understand the need to rise above that doesn't necessarily constitute a woman to be considered less than, but in fact equal to, that of her husband who is called to be the patriarch of the family and provide love and guidance to his family as well.
Christian feminism is a branch of feminist theology which seeks to reinterpret and understand Christianity in light of the equality of women and men. While there is no standard set of beliefs among Christian feminists, most agree that God does not discriminate on the basis of biologically determined characteristics such as sex.
Early feminists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton concentrated almost solely on "making women equal to men." However, the Christian feminist movement chose to concentrate on the language of religion because they viewed the historic gendering of God as male as a result of the pervasive influence of patriarchy. Rosemary Radford Ruether provided a systematic critique of Christian theology from a feminist and theist point of view. Stanton was an agnostic and Reuther is an agnostic who was born to Catholic parents but no longer practices the faith.
Islamic feminism is concerned with the role of women in Islam and aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Although rooted in Islam, the movement's pioneers have also utilized secular and Western feminist discourses. Advocates of the movement seek to highlight the deeply rooted teachings of equality in the Quran and encourage a questioning of the patriarchal interpretation of Islamic teaching through the Quran, hadith, and sharia towards the creation of a more equal and just society.
Jewish feminism seeks to improve the religious, legal, and social status of women within Judaism and to open up new opportunities for religious experience and leadership for Jewish women. In its modern form, the movement can be traced to the early 1970s in the United States. According to Judith Plaskow, who has focused on feminism in Reform Judaism, the main issues for early Jewish feminists in these movements were the exclusion from the all-male prayer group or minyan, the exemption from positive time-bound mitzvot, and women's inability to function as witnesses and to initiate divorce.