Wendy Kaminer identifies another conflict between forms of feminism: the conflict between, what she calls, "egalitarian" and "protectionist" feminism. She characterizes egalitarian feminism as 'promoting equality between women and men through the granting of equal rights;' whereas 'protectionist feminists prefer to focus on legal protections for women, such as employment laws and divorce laws that protect women, sometimes advocating restricting men's rights, such as free speech (specifically, the right to produce and consume pornography).' She identifies both protectionist and egalitarian currents within first-wave feminism and second-wave feminism.^[1] Kaminer's critics counter that, for a subordinated class, egalitarian claims cannot be advanced in the absence of legal protection and enforcement.

Some radical feminists, such as Mary Daly,Charlotte Bunch and Marilyn Frye, have advocated separatism (a complete separation of male and female in society and culture). Others question not only the relationship between men and women, but the very meaning of "man" and "woman" as well (see Queer theory). Some, such as Judith Butler and Mary Joe Frug, argue that gender roles, gender identity and sexuality are themselves social constructs (see also heteronormativity).

There are also male organizations sympathetic to the feminist view who believe the dominant model of manhood or masculinity is oppressive to women and limiting for men.^[2]

Relationship to other movements

Some feminists take a holistic approach to politics, following the concept expounded by Martin Luther King Jr., "A threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." In that belief, some self-identified feminists support other movements such as the civil rights movement and the gay rights movement. At the same time, many black feminists such as bell hooks criticize the movement for being dominated by white women. Feminist claims regarding disadvantages faced by women in Western society may be less relevant to the lives of black women, especially as compared to oppression they face which white women do not. This idea is the key in postcolonial feminism. Many black feminist women prefer the term womanism for their views.

Feminism is often linked with gay, lesbian and transgender studies and Psychoanalytic feminism places focus on psychosexual development. Some feminists are wary of the transgender movement because they view it as challenging the distinction between men and women. Transgender and transsexual individuals who identify as female are excluded from some "women-only" gatherings and events and are rejected by some feminists, who say that no one who was assigned as male at birth can fully understand the oppression that women face. This exclusion is criticized as "transphobic" by some feminists and transgender people, who assert that their political and social struggles are linked to those of feminists, and that discrimination against gender-variant people is a facet of the patriarchy. (See transfeminism and gender studies.)

In the 1800s the women's rights movement in the United States splintered over questions concerning the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution granting African American men the right to vote. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, among others, contended that black men should not be franchised unless similar rights were granted to all women. From 1868 to 1870, when the 15th Amendment was passed, this created division in the broader U.S. civil rights movement and, in 1869, caused a schism the women's suffrage movement, leading to the creation of the separate National Woman's Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman's Suffrage Association (AWSA) in the United States.^{[citation needed]}

Modern feminism

Most feminists believe discrimination against women still exists worldwide, but there is disagreement within the movement regarding the severity of current problems, what the problems are, and how to confront them.^{[citation needed]}

Extremes on the one hand include some radical feminists, such as Mary Daly, who argue that human society would be better off with dramatically fewer men. On the other hand, figures such as Christina Hoff Sommers and Camille Paglia identify themselves as feminist but accuse the movement of anti-male prejudice.

Many feminists question the use of the term feminist by groups or people who do not recognize a fundamental equality between the sexes. Some feminists, like Katha Pollitt (see her book Reasonable Creatures) or Nadine Strossen (President of the ACLU and author of Defending Pornography: a treatise on freedom of speech), consider feminism to hold simply that "women are people." Views that separate the sexes rather than unite them are considered by these writers to be sexist rather than feminist.

There are also debates between difference feminists such as Carol Gilligan, who believe that there are important differences between the sexes (which may or may not be inherent, but which cannot be ignored), and those who believe that there are no essential differences between the sexes, and that the roles observed in society are due to conditioning.

In Marilyn French's seminal works she defines patriarchy as a system that values power over life, control over pleasure and dominance over happiness. According to French, "it is not enough either to devise a morality that will allow the human race simply to survive. Survival is an evil when it entails existing in a state of wretchedness. Intrinsic to survival and continuation is felicity/pleasure. Pleasure has been much maligned, diminished by philosophers and conquerors as a value for the timid, the small-minded and the self-indulgent. 'Virtue' too often involves the renunciation of pleasure in the name of some higher purpose, a purpose that involves power (for men) or sacrifice (for women). Pleasure is described as shallow and frivolous in a world of high-minded, serious purpose. But pleasure does not exclude serious pursuits or intentions, indeed, it is found in them, and it is the only real reason for staying alive."^[3]

Issues in defining feminism

One of the difficulties in defining and circumscribing a complex and heterogeneous concept such as feminism^[4][5] is the extent to which women have rejected the term from a variety of semantic and political standpoints. Many women engaged in activities intimately grounded in feminism have not considered themselves feminists. Likewise, it is assumed that only women can be feminists. However, feminism is not grounded in the basis of one's gender, but in rejecting and refuting sexist oppression politically, socially, privately, linguistically, and otherwise. (Though there are people - both men and women - who claim feminism itself be biased in its approach to gender relations.) Redefining feminism in this way illustrates and reflects today's reality of both men and women openly supporting feminism and also openly adhering to sexist ideals.^[6] From a political vantage, the term "feminism" has been rejected both because of fears of labeling, and because of its innate ability to attract broad misogyny.^[7] Historically Virginia Woolf was one of the more prominent women to reject the term^[8] early in its history in 1938, although it would be easy to overstate Woolf's position,^[9] considering that she is regarded as an icon of feminism.^[10] However Betty Freidan would revisit this concern in 1981 in The Second Stage.

Nevertheless, defining ideas does not necessarily imply tagging the individual. Ann Taylor,^[11] for instance, offers the following definition, after Karen Offen:^[12] A person (male or female) who recognizes "the validity of women's own interpretation of their lived experiences and needs," protests against the institutionalized injustice perpetrated by men as a group against women as a group, and advocates the elimination of that injustice by challenging the various structures of authority or power that legitimate male prerogatives in a given society. Another way of expressing this is that one of the main goals is to correct androcentric bias.^[13]

Other attempts at definition have been made by the United Nations.^[14] However, one of feminism's unique characteristics, strengths and weaknesses is its persistent defiance of being confined by definition. Charlotte Witt observes that this reflects the "contested nature of the "us" of contemporary feminism...and is a part of, on-going debates within feminism over its identity and self-image..in the final analysis, the result of debate within feminist philosophy over what feminism is, and what its theoretical commitments should be, and what its core values are."^[15] This is the subject of one of the more lively debates in feminism, that which Nannerl Keohane has called the "perpetual oscillation between essentialism and nominalism (constructionism) in feminist theory."^[16] Briefly, "to essentialise is to reduce a complex idea or object to simplistic characteristics, thereby denying diversity, multiple meanings and alternative interpretations" in the words of Joan Marler, an opponent of essentialism in feminism.^[17]

Effects of feminism in the West

While a number of feminists argue that there are many battles for equity to be waged, others disagree and observe that many challenges have been overcome. For example, in developed nations, women now outnumber men in both high school graduation rates^[18] and university enrollment.^[19]

Effects on civil rights

Feminism has effected many changes in Western society, including women's suffrage, broad employment for women at more equitable wages, the right to initiate divorce proceedings and the introduction of "no fault" divorce, the right to obtain contraception and safe abortions, and the right to university education.

Effect on language

See article Gender-neutral language in English, Gender-neutrality in languages with grammatical gender and Gender-neutrality in languages without grammatical gender

Effect on heterosexual relationships

The entry of women into the workplace has affected gender roles and division of labor within households. Some men claim that de-emphasizing a focus on breadwinning damages their ability to attract mates. They argue that, while many women can try to "have it all," societal expectations placed upon men preclude them from devoting themselves fully to domestic activities and child-rearing. Some studies support the idea that although men are derided for not devoting enough time to childrearing and domestic tasks, few women seem attracted to men who engage in these activities to the detriment of their careers.^[20][21] Another argument is that men devote less time to household chores because they devote more time to work outside the home. According to the International Labour Organization, "the average American father works 51 hours a week, whereas those mothers of young children who do work full time (themselves in the minority) work a 41-hour week."^[22] It has also been argued that women often hold the power in a relationship because they direct the majority of purchases made by a household, whereas men direct the few large purchases.

Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild presented counter-evidence in books The Second Shift and The Time Bind. According to the studies she cites, in two-career couples, men and women on the average spend about equal amounts of time working, but women still spend more time on housework. Feminist critiques of men's contributions to child care and domestic labour are typically centred 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 also work outside the home. Several studies provide statistical evidence that married men contribute a smaller share of housework, regardless of whether or not they earn more than their wives.^[23][24] However, in general, in couples where one or both partners do not work outside the home, gender-based division of labour is less of a point of contention for feminists.

It should be noted that the preceding arguments mainly apply to middle-class women.

In her 1996 book Dubious Conceptions, Kristin Luker discusses the effect of feminism on teenage women's choices to bear a child, both in and out of wedlock. She argues that as childbearing without being married 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 reason to get married before having a child. Her explanation for this is that economic prospects for poor men are slim, and so poor women have a low chance of finding a husband who will be able to provide reliable financial support.

There have also been changes in attitudes towards sexual morality and behavior with the onset of second wave feminism and "the Pill." Women are more in control of their bodies, and are freer to experience sex with fewer repercussions. This sexual revolution was seen as positive (especially by sex-positive feminists) as it enabled women and men to experience sex in a more free and equal manner.

Evangelical (Christian) feminists sometimes argue that life-long monogamy ideally promotes egalitarianism in sex, especially when viewed in light of some other alternatives to monogamy (e.g., polygamy, swinging, open marriages, or infidelity). However, some feminists endorse cohabitation, open marriage and other forms of responsible non-monogamy as egalitarian lifestyles (see sex-positive feminism).

Friedrich Engels, in his essay The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State expresses his belief that monogamy was originally conceived as a way for men to control women.

Effect on religion

Main article: God and gender

Feminism has affected many aspects of religion. In liberal branches of Protestant Christianity (and, notably, in some theologically conservative dominations, such as Assemblies of God^[25]) women are ordained as clergy, and in Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism, women are ordained as rabbis and cantors. Within these Christian and Jewish groups, women have gradually obtained more positions of power; their perspectives now have greater influence in developing new statements of belief.

The leadership of women in religious matters has been resisted by many denominations, for example Roman Catholicism, which has historically excluded women from entering the priesthood and other clerical positions, limiting women to the roles of nuns or laypeople.

Feminism also has had an important role in spreading new forms of religion. Neopagan religions especially tend to emphasize the importance of Goddess spirituality, and question what they regard as traditional religion's hostility to women and the sacred feminine. In particular, Dianic Wicca's origins lie within radical feminism. Among traditional religions, feminism has led to self examination, with reclaimed positive Christian and Islamic views and ideals of Mary, Islamic views of Fatima Zahra, and especially the Catholic belief in the Coredemptrix.

Effect on Home Life

The emergence of two-worker households as the norm correlates with the rapid late-20th century rise of house prices, where both adults find they must continue to work in order to fund the greatest mortgage debt in history.^[26] In this analysis, women's entrance into the work force has had the unintended consequence of increasing the strain of family life; increased family income has led to more units of currency chasing a more slowly growing housing stock, and thus through supply-and-demand logic house prices have increased to the point that two incomes are required, meaning that neither parent is available for child care.^[27]

Worldwide statistics

The following is a sampling of statistics related to the relative status of women worldwide.

• According to studies cited by the United Nations,^[29] on average, women work more than men, when both paid employment and unpaid household tasks are accounted for. In rural areas of selected developing countries, women performed an average of 20% more work than men, or an additional 102 minutes per day. In the OECD countries surveyed, on average women performed 5% more work than men, or 20 minutes per day.
• In fact, UN statistics cited by the May 2001 Pan Pacific Southeast Asia Women's Association 21st International Conference,^[30] are even more specific, stating that "in the world as a whole, women comprise 51 percent of the population, do 66 percent of the work, receive 10 percent of the income and own less than one percent of the property."
• By population, women are underrepresented in all of the world's major legislative bodies.^[31] In 1985, Finland had the largest percentage of women in national legislature at approximately 32 percent (P. Norris, Women's Legislative Participation in Western Europe, West European Politics). Currently, Rwanda has the highest number of women at 49 percent. The United States has 14 percent. The world average is 9 percent. In contrast, half of the members of the recently established Welsh Assembly Government are women^{[citation needed]} and 40% of members of the Scottish Parliament are female.^{[citation needed]}

• In the US in 2003, for every $1 males earn, women earned 75.5 cents on average. The median income of men working full-time was $40,668, while the median income for women working full time was $30,724.^[32]

Contemporary criticisms of feminism

Criticisms of feminism as an ideology; criticisms of specific types of feminism; and criticisms of specific feminist concepts have been made by feminists, non-feminists, masculists, social conservatives and social progressives.

Postcolonial feminists criticize certain ideas of Western forms of feminism, notably radical feminism and its most basic assumption, universalisation of the female experience. They argue that this assumption cannot so easily be applied to women for whom gender oppression comes second to, for example, racial or class oppression.^{[citation needed]}

From the perspective of some strands of feminism, as well as the men's movement and queer theory, inequalities and stereotypes based on gender are detrimental to both men and women and both sexes suffer from the expectations of traditional gender roles.

Many who support masculism argue that because of both traditional gender roles and sexism infused into society by feminists, males are and have been oppressed.^{[citation needed]} Marriage rights advocates oppose feminist aspirations to replace the traditional family, as illustrated by statements made by a variety of feminist leaders such as Shelia Cronan's view that marriage constitutes slavery for women, and the women's movement must concentrate on attacking this institution and that freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage.^[33] Dr. Mary Jo Bane, associate director of Wellesley College's Center for Research on Woman suggested that to raise children with equality, they should be taken from families and communally raised.^{[citation needed]} Family and men's rights groups are also critical of feminist encouragement of lesbian agendas which undermine the traditional role of men in the family, such as Sheila Cronan's National NOW Times January 1988 interview declaring that every woman must be willing to be identified as a lesbian to be fully feminist.^{[citation needed]} Many critics of feminism are alarmed by the prevalence of lesbians such as Patricia Ireland, former head of NOW, in feminist leadership roles. Men's rights advocates view many contemporary feminist issues as "extremist" due to their perception that feminist demands such as equal rights have been achieved. They also claim that feminists - in their struggle for what they call equality - seem to be unwilling to pay any attention to areas where men may be discriminated against.^{[citation needed]} Laws such as the Violence Against Women Act are viewed as discriminatory against men. Father's rights advocates are critical of alleged feminist efforts to block shared parenting, or joint custody, after divorce.

Ann Widdecombe, a British Conservative politician and former leadership candidate, claimed that feminism slowly evolved into its antithesis.^[34] She argues that 1970s rhetoric emphasized equal rights and self-sufficiency, whereas 1990s rhetoric demanded special assistance for women and implied that women could not look after themselves. She identifies with the former variant, and describes the latter as "absolute tosh".

Paul Nathanson and Katherine K. Young's book Legalizing Misandry explores misandry and claims (what they call) "fascist" forms of feminism underly militant misandry, gynocentric, sexism against men and systemic discrimination against men in popular culture, law and society.^[35]

Nancy Lewis-Horne responds to Nathanson and Young saying that their work is "seriously flawed" due to its lack of theoretical connection, "especially in its use and misuse of feminist theory." She challenges the comment that "work on gender means work about women, there is an excellent literature examining the social construction of masculinity." She finds that the methodology used by Nathanson and Young is selective.^[36]

Scientific research into feminist issues

Some natural and social scientists have used scientific discourses to question theories of innate social or cognitive differences between men and women.

• Anne Fausto-Sterling's book Myths of Gender explores the assumptions embodied in scientific research that purports to support a biologically essentialist view of gender.

• Carol Tavris, in The Mismeasure of Woman (the title is a play on Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man), uses psychology, sociology, and analysis in a critique of theories that use biological reductionism to explain differences between men and women. She says that rather than 'using evidence of innate gender difference there is an over-changing hypothesis to justify inequality and perpetuate stereotypes.'^[37]

• Evelyn Fox Keller has argued that the rhetoric of science reflects a masculine perspective, and questions the idea of scientific objectivity. Primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy notes the prevalence of masculine-coined stereotypes and theories, such as the non-sexual female, despite "the accumulation of abundant openly available evidence contradicting it".^[38]

• Daphne Patai's and Noretta Koertge's studies of scholarship and indoctrination within Women's Studies argue this discipline is used 'a front for feminist indoctrination rather than an authentic discipline that engages in genuine scholarship.'^{[citation needed]} They argue that assaults on exact science, opposition to logic, and the denial of "well-established biological sex differences" in favor of what they call "feminist social constructs" within Women's Studies. They also argue there exists widespread and ongoing abuses of academic privilege for political "proselytizing" among the majority of Women's studies programs in the United States.^{[citation needed]}

Quotations about feminism

Nancy Cott: "Feminism asks for sexual equality that includes sexual difference. It aims for individual freedoms by mobilizing sex solidarity. It posits that women recognize their unity while it stands for diversity among women. It requires gender consciousness for its basis yet calls for the elimination of prescribed gender roles."^[39]

Estelle Freedman: "Feminism is a belief that women and men are inherently of equal worth. Because most societies privilege men as a group, social movements are necessary to achieve equality between women and men, with the understanding that gender always intersects with other social hierarchies."^[40]

Betty Friedan: “Man is not the enemy here, but the fellow victim. Men are not the enemy, but the fellow victims. The real enemy is women's denigration of themselves.”^[41]

Gloria Steinem: "In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: Either she's a feminist or a masochist."^{[citation needed]}

Naomi Wolf: "Here is our secret, that should be a feminist secret no longer: the male body is home to us, our rocket, our whirlpool."^[42]

Famous feminists

• See List of feminists
• See Famous Feminists
• See History of feminism - list of feminists

References

Further reading

• Lorenne M. G. Clark, "Liberalism and Pornography," in Michael J. Gorr and Sterling Harwood, eds., Crime and Punishment: Philosophic Explorations (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 2000, formerly Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 1996), pp. 176-187.
• Anne Fausto-Sterling, "Gender Benders: How Many Sexes Are There?," in Sterling Harwood, ed., Business as Ethical and Business as Usual (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1996), pp. 168-170.
• Joel Feinberg, "Pornography, Feminism and Liberalism," in Michael J. Gorr and Sterling Harwood, eds., Crime and Punishment: Philosophic Explorations (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 2000, formerly Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 1996), pp. 187-204.
• Cathryn Jo Rosen, "The Battered Woman's Defense," in Michael J. Gorr and Sterling Harwood, eds., Controversies in Criminal Law: Philosophical Essays on Responsibility and Procedure (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992), pp. 89-99.
• Lawrence Taylor and Katharina Dalton, "Premenstrual Syndrome: A New Criminal Defense?," in Michael J. Gorr and Sterling Harwood, eds., Controversies in Criminal Law: Philosophical Essays on Responsibility and Procedure (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992), pp. 163-179.
• Anita Silvers and Sterling Harwood, "Womb for Rent: Surrogate Motherhood and the Case of Baby M," in Sterling Harwood, ed., Business as Ethical and Business as Usual (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1996), pp. 190-193.

See also

• Anarcha-feminism
• Antifeminism
• Domestic violence
• Equal pay for women
• Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
• Feminazi
• Feminist history in the United States
• Feminist history in the United Kingdom
• Feminist history in Poland
• Feminist history in Latin America
• Feminist theology
• Gender studies
• Hate speech
• Teaching for social justice
• Gender-neutral language
• History of feminism
• Islamic feminism
• Lesbian feminism
• List of feminism topics
• List of notable feminists
• Masculism
• Misandry
• New feminism
• Radical feminism
• Radical Women
• Socialist feminism
• Suffragettes
• Women's cinema
• Women's Environment & Development Organization
• Women's music
• Sex/gender distinction

Books

Collections