FEMINISM

What is it?
According to the oxford dictionary’s definition of feminism it is the advocacy of women’s
rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.

When did it start?

The history of feminism can be divided into three waves, according to Maggie Humm and
Rebecca Walker. The first wave being in the 19th century and the 20th century. Originally it
focused on equal rights for women around property, their children and the ownership of
married women by their husbands. In 1839 in the UK the custody of infants act was passed
allowing women to have custody of their children for the first time. Additionally in 1870 the
married women’s property act was passed. In Britain the suffragettes campaigned for the
women’s vote and in 1918 the Representation of the people act was passed, which was
extended in 1928 to allow all women over 21 to have the right to vote.
So originally the feminist movement focused more on women gaining political power.

What are its core beliefs?

Its core beliefs include how women are not treated equally to men, and that women are
disadvantaged in comparison to them. Equally it revolves around how culture can be and
should be different in ideals. It advocates that there should be a change.

Who are the key thinkers and activists within this movement?
SAROJINI NAIDU
She was the first female president of the Indian national congress and was a poet and feminist
thinker in India. She helped found the Women’s India Association. Naidu is renowned for her
fierce commitment to activism and was even imprisoned for 21 months of her life.
ANNE FAUSTO-STERLING
She is a biologist and geneticist that challenged our very notions of biological sex. Her
research demonstrates that there are in fact five biological sexes. When intersex babies are
born doctors assign the baby a gender. Anne then explains that babies learn gender and
behaviour after being born therefore gender is not a biological idea but a social one.
BELL HOOKS
She is a postmodern feminist thinker and writer whose work focuses on issues of capitalism,
race, and gender. She asserts that these three factors are the driving forces of oppression
within society. She also discusses the way that mainstream feminism lacks diversity which
has caused a new wave of feminism to take form.
Emmeline Pankhurst
She was a British and political activist and leader of the British
suffragette movement. Her work is recognised as a crucial
element in achieving women’s suffrage in the UK. She
founded the Women’s Social and Political Union. They were
known for their physical confrontations: the members smashed
windows and assaulted police officers. Some members staged
hunger strikes, leading to them being force fed, and received
repeated prison sentences. Pankhurst continued to violate the
law and when imprisoned she too starved herself in protest.
She was arrested multiple times but often release a few days
later due to her ill health. When the first world war came along
they halted their protests to support Britain. They urged
women to aid industrial production and encouraged young
men to fight, becoming prominent figures in the white feathers
movement. In 1918 the Representation of the People Act
granted votes to all men over the age of 21 and women over
the age of 30.

Millicent Fawcett
She was a leading Suffragist and Campaigner for equal
rights for women. She led the biggest suffrage
organisation from 1890 to 1919.She was president of the
National Union of Women’s Suffrage Society. They
played a key role in women gaining the right to vote. She
distanced herself from the violent activities of the
suffragettes as she believed their actions were in fact
harming the chances of getting the right to vote .In 1913
Fawcett’s NUWSS had 50,000 members in comparison to
the Women’s Social and Political Union who had 2,000
members. Millicent supported many campaigns some of
which included raising the age of consent, criminalizing
incest and prevent child marriage. She also campaigned
for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts. It required prostitutes to be examined for
sexually transmitted disease and if they had passed any on to their clients they were to be
imprisoned as well as women could be arrested on suspicion of being a prostitute. She wanted
to change these double standards.
Fawcett is considered to have been extremely helpful in gaining the vote for six million
British women over 30 in 1918.
Eleanor Roosevelt
She was an American political figure and activist. She
served as the First Lady of the United States from March
1933 to April 1945 during her husband’s President
Franklin Roosevelts four terms in office. She was a
controversial First Lady at the time, she held press
conferences, wrote a daily newspaper column and publicly
disagreed with her husband’s policies. She advocated for
expanded roles for women in the workplace, the Civil
rights of African Americans and Asian Americans and the
rights of World War Two refugees.

Nina Simone
She was an American singer songwriter and activist in the civil
rights movement. On her debut album she openly addressed the
racial inequality that was in the United States. In an auto
biography she wrote she said that she regarded all races as equal.
She was also known for her temper though. In 1985 she fired a
gun at a record company executive and also inn 1995 shot and
wounded her neighbour’s son after the boy’s laughter disturbed
her concentration.

Germaine Greer
She is an Australian writer and is regarded as one of the main vices in
the second wave feminist movement. Her ideas have created
controversy ever since her first book The Female Eunuch in 1970. In
her book she deconstructed ideas such as femininity and womanhood.
She is a liberation feminist rather than an equality feminist. Her goal is
not equality with men nut women’s liberation.

Laura Mulvey
She is a British feminist film theorist. She is best known for her essay
‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ which she wrote in 1973.
She argues that the only way to get rid of the patriarchal Hollywood
system is to radically challenge and re shape the strategies of classical
Hollywood with alternative feminist methods.

Liesbet van Zoonen

She believes that the media portray images of stereotypical woman,
which reinforces people and society’s view on the matter. The media
does this because it reflects what people already believe in and that
male producers are influenced by that. The media is a patriarchy- a
society ran by men- that oppresses women.
The Abortion Act 1967
In 1967 the abortion act was passed. It legalised abortions through registered practitioners in
all of Great Britain excluding Northern Ireland, for up to 28 weeks after conception. Changes
to the Abortion Act 1967 were introduced in Parliament through the Human Fertilisation and
Embryology Act in 1990, were the time limits were lowered from 28 weeks to 24. The
abortion act limited the number of backstreet abortions women were having.