History of Feminism

History of feminism refers to the chronological stories relating t the ideologies and movements whose aim was to ensure equal rights to all woman all over the world. The women around the world have differed in the intentions, goals and the causes in tandem with country and culture. The historians from the western feminist argue that that all the woman groups championing for equality should be asserted as feminist movements. Some historians limit the term feminist movement together with its progeny; they apply the term protofeminist in the explanation of the earlier movements.

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The modern Feminist history is divided into different time waves. Each period has slightly different objectives basing on their progress priority. The first wave was in 19th century and 20th centuries whose primary agenda was overturning the legal inequalities. It was also referred as the era of the woman suffrage. The second wave was between 1960 to 1980ss that was termed and marked by the debate that was in the inclusion of woman roles in the society, cultural inequalities, and the gender norms. The third-period feminism took between 1990s and 2000s. The era was marked by strains in the activities of feminism. The third wave feminism was viewed as a continuation of the third wave and as the answer to failures that had been perceived before in the second wave. The feminist history has been criticized since their concepts ignores the waves history by focusing on few popular events and figures.in the proto-feminist article, it argues that activists and people discussed the equality among women before the feminist movement existence are referred to as the proto-feminist. The term usage was however criticized by some scholars. The scholars argued that it diminished the essence of the contributions made earlier. Others argued that it feminism never had a single or linear history as the meaning is explained by term such as postfeminist.

According to Elaine Hoffman Baruch, he argued that for the sexual equality among women and political classes advocated the strictness and mandatory of them joining members of the highest class or those whose fight and rule. French writer by name Christine de Pizan, and author of the book City of ladies was cited by Simone as the first woman who denounced the misogyny and also wrote a book on the relationship between the sexes (Irons, G. 2015). In the 18th century, it was marked as enlightenment and, therefore, referred to as the age of the enlightenment. The enlightenment age was characterized by the secular intellectual flowering and reasoning n of the philosophical writing. Most of the enlightened philosophers went out to defend the women rights in the society. These philosophers included Maquis de Condorcet and most notable Mary Wollstonecraft. A classical liberal scholar by name Jeremy Bentham argued that it was due to the wrong positioning of women in the inferior positions that spearheaded him to being a reformist at a tender age of eleven. He advocated for equal rights for all the sexes including the active participation of government issues by both sexes. He was also opposed to asymmetrical sexual behavior levels between women and man. Bentheam condemns most countries for denying rights to women in claims that they have inferior minds.

The term feminism is also used in the description of economic, political and the cultural movement whose objective is to establish legal protection and equal rights for women. Feminism involves sociological theories, political and philosophies issues affecting gender. The term feminism did not become famous until late 1970sn when they started being used in public parlance. According to Maggie Humm, the history of the feminism is divisible into three waves. It is believed that the feminist theory originated from these movements. Feminist has altered the predominant issues in big trend within the western dominated society. The feminist activists have championed for the female legal rights like the voting rights and the contract rights for the feminine gender to right bodily autonomy and integrity for the reproduction rights and abortion rights (Irons, G. 2015). It also championed for the girls and woman protection against domestic harassment and violence. The activists also championed for women rights in the workplaces by pushing for rights such as the maternity leaves and equal salary. These rights were in the inclusion of misogyny and other forms of discrimination that are gender related.

During the feminist theory, most of the activists were from the western society ranging from the law to culture to law. Most of the feminist were western women from the middle-class families. After the speech by Sojourner, who revealed the truth in 1851 to the American feminists. The women from other races also came up with ideas and suggested for alternative feminisms. Postfeminist gives a description on the range of viewpoints relating to the feminism. The post-feminist have a believe that feminine have achieved the second wave was critical in the achievement of the third wave (Irons, G. 2015). The term third wave was first used in 1980 to explain and demonstrate on the backlash that was against the second wave of feminism. Some post-feminists argue that it is not important in the todays society. Amelia wrote post-feminist messages that later emerged in the 1980s and portrayed the second feminism as the monolithic entity.one of the modest and earliest uses of the term post feminism was found in the articles written by Bolotins in 1982. The reference to the article was interviews from different women who were in support of feminism.

In history the feminism exists in different forms.one of the forms includes the French feminism. The French feminism is a branch of the feminist who originated from a group of feminists in 1970s to 1990s in France.in comparison of French feminism and the Anglophone feminism, the main difference is the approach that is more literally and philosophical. The writings in the French feminism tend to be metaphorical as they are less concerned with doctrines in politics and, therefore, they are more focused on the theories of the body. The team is includes other writers who are not French but have substantially worked for France. In the 1970s a french feminist approached the feminism with a clear concept of the escritoire feminine which means the same as female(Irons, G. 2015).Helene Cixous argues that the philosophy and writing are phallocentric and also emphasizes it as being subversive exercise. The work done by philosopher and the psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva influenced the feminist theory criticism in precise.

The other category of feminism is the theoretical schools. The feminist theory is the extension of the feminism into philosophical fields and theoretical. It comprehends the work from different disciplines like the economics, anthropology and sociology. The main objective of the feminist theory is gearing the understanding of the gender inequalities and puts more emphasis on the power relations, gender politics and sexuality. While trying to give a critique of the political relations and the social, most of the feminist theory puts more emphasize on the in the promotion of women interests and rights (Shildrick, 2015). Some of the themes that are explored in the feminist theory include the objectification, discrimination, patriarchy, stereotyping and oppression. The American feminist by name Elaine Showier gives a description of the feminist development theory. At first, she calls the feminist critique in which the reader will have to examine the ideologies that are behind the phenomena of literary (Irons, G. 2015). The second one Showalter calls it gynocriticism that means that the woman is the producer of the textual meaning.in the last phase she calls it gender theory. In this phase the effects of literary and the ideological inscription are explored. The philosopher by the

Name Tori Moi gave disclaims against this model. He saw it as the deterministic and essentialist model towards the feminine subjectivity that does not take into account the situation of the females who are not from the west.

In the movement and the ideologies of the feminist ideology, there was the development of different sub movement of the feminist ideologies. Some of the feminist thoughts that do overlap includes the Anarchy Socialist and the Marxist, radical, liberal, black and the post-colonial in the third world. Anarcha feminism combines the feminism with the anarchism. It views the patriarchy as the manifestation of the involuntary hierarchy. The anarchy feminists have a believe that struggle against the patriarchy is essential division in the class struggle and therefore the anarchist endures the struggle against a state (Irons, 2015). In brief the scholars view the anarchist struggle as an important element of the feminist struggle and the vice versa. Some of the important anarchy feminist historians include Federica Montseny, Lucy Parsons and Emma Goldman. During the civil war in Spain, the anarchist feminist organization, Majors associated to Federation Anarquista defended both the feminist ideas and the anarchist ideas.

In the Marxist and the socialist feminism, there is connection between the women oppression and Marxist ideas concerning g labor, exploitation and the oppression. The socialist feminist believes that the unequal standing between domestic and the workplace oppresses women. The socialist feminists views the marriage, childcare, prostitution, and the domestic work as some of the ways in which women gets exploited through the patriarchal system which does devalue women on the individual basis (Shildrick, 2015). The social feminists emphasize on the issues that affect the society in general as opposed to individual basis. The socialist sees the need for cooperation by other groups. This is because they take the oppression of women as a bigger pattern that in the long run have adverse effects to the general society and the system of capitalism. Marx had instincts that if the class oppression would be overcome then the gender oppression as well would vanish. Some socialist feminist saw this as naivety mostly the gender oppression. Some of the facilitators of the socialist feminism have criticized the traditional Marxist ideologies since they have been silent on the gender oppression apart from subsuming the class of oppression that is usually underneath broader (Shildrick, 2015). During the late 19th century both the Eleanor Marx and Zetkin were opposed to the demonization males and opted to support the proletarian revolution that had capabilities of overcoming the male female inequalities as much as possible. The Marxist leaders counterpoised the Marxist against feminism, instead of trying to bring them together.

On the radical feminism, the male dominated capitalist hierarchy is considered. It is described as the sexist. In the radical feminism there is believe that woman can only free themselves from oppression when they first do away with inherent oppression and the system of dominance patriarchal (Shildrick, 2015). The radical feminist have the believe that there is strong based male supremacy and the power structure that accounts for the inequality and oppression. They argue that the society cannot reform as long as the society systems with its values are still intact. The radical feminists see suggest that there is no an alternative way out rather than reconstruction of the society as whole so as to attain their objectives.

Over the years, there has been an emergence of different sub types the radical feminism. These sub-types includes the separatist famish, anti-pornography and cultural feminism. Cultural famish refers to the ideology of the female essence which revalidates what is undervalued in the female attributes. It puts a...