Feminism (redirected from Womens' rights)

feminism, movement for the political, social, and educational equality of women with men; the movement has occurred mainly in Europe and the United States. It has its roots in the humanism of the 18th cent. and in the Industrial Revolution. Feminist issues range from access to employment, education, child care, contraception, and abortion, to equality in the workplace, changing family roles, redress for sexual harassment in the workplace, and the need for equal political representation.

For the political aspects of feminism, see woman suffrage.

History

Women traditionally had been regarded as inferior to men physically and intellectually. Both law and theology had ordered their subjection. Women could not possess property in their own names, engage in business, or control the disposal of their children or even of their own persons. Although Mary Astell and others had pleaded earlier for larger opportunities for women, the first feminist document was Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792). In the French Revolution, women's republican clubs demanded that liberty, equality, and fraternity be applied regardless of sex, but this movement was extinguished for the time by the Code Napoléon.

In North America, although Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis Warren pressed for the inclusion of women's emancipation in the Constitution, the feminist movement really dates from 1848, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Coffin Mott, and others, in a women's convention at Seneca Falls, N.Y., issued a declaration of independence for women, demanding full legal equality, full educational and commercial opportunity, equal compensation, the right to collect wages, and the right to vote. Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan Brownell Anthony, the movement spread rapidly and soon extended to Europe.

Little by little, women's demands for higher education, entrance into trades and professions, married women's rights to property, and the right to vote were conceded. In the United States after woman suffrage was won in 1920, women were divided on the question of equal standing with men (advocated by the National Woman's party) versus some protective legislation; various forms of protective legislation had been enacted in the 19th cent., e.g., limiting the number of hours women could work per week and excluding women from certain high-risk occupations.

In 1946 the UN Commission on the Status of Women was established to secure equal political rights, economic rights, and educational opportunities for women throughout the world. In the 1960s feminism experienced a rebirth, especially in the United States. The National Organization for Women (NOW), formed in 1966, had over 400 local chapters by the early 1970s. NOW, the National Women's Political Caucus, and other groups pressed for such changes as abortion rights, federally supported child care centers, equal pay for women, the occupational upgrading of women, the removal of all legal and social barriers to education, political influence, and economic power for women.

With the leadership of women such as Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan, and Gloria Steinem, the Equal Rights Amendment was pushed through Congress in 1972, but by 1982 it fell short of ratification. While Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibited discrimination based on sex, the Roe v. Wade court decision, legalizing abortion, energized an antiabortion, antifeminist backlash. Nevertheless, the movement begun in the 1960s resulted in a large number of women moving into the workplace (59.8% of civilian women over age 16 were working in 1997, compared to 37.7% in 1960) and in broad changes in society.

Bibliography

See J. S. Mill, The Subjection of Women (1867); S. de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (tr. 1952, repr. 1968); B. Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963); G. Greer, The Female Eunuch (1970); K. Millett, Sexual Politics (1970); J. Hole and E. Levine, Rebirth of Feminism (1971); E. Janeway, Man's World, Woman's Place (1971); J. B. Elshtain, The Family in Political Thought (1982); D. Spender, ed., Feminist Theorists (1984); J. S. Chafetz and A. B. Dworkin, Female Revolt (1986); A. C. Rich, Of Woman Born (1986); H. L. Moore, Feminism and Anthropology (1988); B. Aptheker, Tapestries of Life: Women's Work, Women's Consciousness (1989); N. F. Cott, Grounding of Modern Feminism (1989); A. Ferguson, Blood at the Root (1989); W. L. O'Neill, Feminism in America (1989); D. E. Smith, The Everyday World as Problematic (1989); S. L. Bartky, Femininity and Domination (1990); M. Jacobs et al. Body/Politics: Women and the Discourses of Science (1990); S. Ganew, A Reader in Feminist Knowledge (1991); E. Cunningham, The Return of The Goddess: A Divine Comedy (1992); B. S. Anderson, Joyous Greetings: The First International Women's Movement, 1830–1860 (2000); R. Rosen, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America (2000).

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feminism

Social movement that seeks equal rights for women. Widespread concern for women's rights dates from the Enlightenment; its first important expression was Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). The 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, convened by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and others, called for full legal equality with men, including full educational opportunity and equal compensation; thereafter the woman suffrage movement began to gather momentum. From America the movement spread to Europe. American women gained the right to vote by constitutional amendment in 1920, but their participation in the workplace remained limited, and prevailing notions tended to confine women to the home. Milestones in the rise of modern feminism included Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex (1949) and Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963) and the founding in 1966 of the National Organization for Women. See also Equal Rights Amendment; women's liberation movement.

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feminism

a doctrine or movement that advocates equal rights for women

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Feminism

See also Equality.

Alving, Mrs.

feminist; unconventional widow. [Nor. Lit.: Ghosts]

Bates, Belinda

intellectual and amiable advocate of women’s rights. [Br. Lit.: “The Haunted House” in Fyfe, 16]

Bloomer, Amelia

(1818–1894) dress reformer; designed bloomers. [Am. Hist.: Flexner, 391]

blue-stocking

female intellectual; advocates nontraditional feminine talents. [Western Folklore: Brewer Dictionary, 127]

Bostonians, The

suffragists for lost causes, vulnerable to romance. [Am. Lit.: The Bostonians]

Chancellor, Olive

devotes her life to preaching women’s rights. [Am. Lit: Henry James The Bostonians]

Doll’s House, A

drama on the theme of women’s rights. [Nor. Lit.: A Doll’s House]

Equal Rights Amendment

forbids discrimination against women. [Am. Hist.: Flexner, 397]

Findlay, Maude

militant, outspoken women’s libber. [TV: “Maude” in Terrace, II, 79–80]

Lucy Stoners

league of feminists. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 2628]

Lysistrata

Athenian exhorts fellow women to continence for peace. [Gk. Lit.: Lysistrata]

Ms.

the magazine for the liberated woman. [Am. Culture: Misc.]

NOW

feminist group working for social and political change. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1886]

Nora

rebellious heroine; leaves stultifying marriage. [Nor. Lit.: A Doll’s House]

Peel, Emma

early media manifestation of self-sufficient woman. [TV: “The Avengers” in Terrace, I, 71–73]

Virginia Slims

cigarette trademark marketed to “independent women.” “You’ve come a long way, baby,” as slogan. [Trademarks: Crowley Trade, 630]

Wisk, Miss

lady with a mission. [Br. Lit.: Bleak House]

Women’s Liberation Movement

appellation of modern day women’s rights advocacy. [Am. Hist.: Flexner, 396]

Wonder Woman

female comic strip heroine to offset Superman; she does everything a man can do and more. [Comics: Horn, 480]

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Feminism 

a women’s movement to obtain equal rights with men within bourgeois society. It arose in the 18th century, first in North America during the War of Independence (1775–83) and then in France during the French Revolution. Feminist organizations appeared in several countries in the second half of the 19th century and in the early 20th century. In 1888 the International Council of Women was created, and in 1904, the International Women Suffrage Alliance (now the International Alliance of Women—Equal Rights—Equal Responsibilities). The All-Russian Union for Women’s Equality (founded 1905) subsequently joined the International Women Suffrage Alliance.

During World War I (1914–18) feminists everywhere ceased their activities, resuming them after the war. The Joint Standing Committee of Women’s International Organizations was founded in 1925 (renamed the Liaison Committee of Women’s International Organisations in 1934). In the 1920’s the movement for equal rights for women spread to a number of Asian countries, including Turkey and China. During World War II (1939–45) many feminist organizations ceased to exist and did not become reestablished until 1946 or later. After the war, national feminist organizations appeared in Africa as well.

Feminist organizations generally do not concern themselves with pressing problems of the day, limiting their efforts to women’s emancipation. Since World War II they have been increasingly concerned with the implementation of laws dealing with women’s right to vote and other political rights, as well as with the elimination of existing discrimination. Some feminist groups do concern themselves with general social problems. The aim of the Women’s International Democratic Federation and its national branches is to work together with all women’s organizations, including the feminist ones, that seek to protect the rights of women and children and eliminate the threat of war, fascism, and reaction.