Historical Feminism Resistance - Essay Example

Feminism has a long history dating back to some centuries ago. Women have always been fighting for equality with men as they have a perception that they are not getting all that they deserve. Because of this, women have taken their anger to the streets, formed movements and organized forums and conferences as well as sponsoring policies to survive in the male-dominated society. Although feminism began some decades ago, it is still strong up to date with more and more women taking part and expanding their social space. Similarly, whatever these feminist groups advocates for keeps on changing as the society also changes. This means that whatever the issues that women in early 1800s had are not the same as with contemporary feminists advocates. Therefore, there are differences about what feminism advocate. Despite the continuous struggle of feminism, there is a resistance on what the public believes constitutes feminism. The rest of this essay will compare the historical feminism resistance with the contemporary resistance of feminism.

One of the historical oppositions that have been witnessed from the historical perspective is the feminist’s beliefs and movements (Keggerries, 2015). Europe and the US are among the continents that developed feminist movements because women in these areas were given freedom to express themselves and were more educated than those from other regions were. Their primary goal was to promote justice among women. Thus, feminism in Europe and the US rooted for the mobilization of women suffrage that would ensure women were dignified for their position in the society. Hence, feminism was organized into waves to deliver what was expected. The first wave aimed at achieving political rights and this led to the passage of Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 (Gamble, 2001). The second wave entailed push for equality across the board regarding education, workplace and at home (Rajan, 2000). However, there was resistance to the term feminism from the third wave feminism who believed that the second wave lacked attention to differences among women (Rajan, 2000). These differences came in because of race, nationality, religion, ethnicity, and class among other issues. Thus, they criticized that feminism was incomplete without considering the diversity of women about their social backgrounds.

The definition of feminism has changed today, and it is more specific to one’s locality, race, ethnic, class among others (Tasker & Negra, 2005). Today, feminism no longer fights for political and social participation but are very specific in what they want since the political and social space expanded. It is defined by the extent in which they pressure the government to initiate legislations such as affirmative action towards the minority group. In some nations, feminism is defined by promoting or enhancing equity between the genders. Feminists are seeking equal representation in the political and social space since they have what it takes to get what they want. Because of this, their definition of feminism tends to be straightforward and specific as opposed to earlier developers who coined the term. Earlier perspectives were more general and not specific to the scope.

The second resistance of feminism is about normative and descriptive components (Rajan, 2000). The normative components are concerned by how women ought or not ought to be viewed and treated and on the moral position of women. On the other hand, descriptive components are concerned about how women are treated by alleging that they are not treated according to the expected standards of justice. In this regard, it is evident that historical feminism was of the view that men and women should be entitled to equal rights and respects and that women were discriminated about rights and respect as compared to men. Despite all these, there is a resistance and disagreements on what counts as justice or injustice for women. This means that there is no clear borderline on what counts to equality, oppression and disadvantage as well as the rights that everyone should enjoy. Similarly, it does not clearly define the type of injustices that women suffer through elaborating the current situation and the unjust (Tasker & Negra, 2005). Hence, these misunderstanding and lack of clearly defined terms associated with historical feminism definition bring resistance when adopting the meaning of feminism. Moreover, resistance to the term may involve the explanation of injustice because what other women consider as injustice is a just practice to another woman. Thus, there are different meanings that are portrayed as to what constitutes a justice according to women because people have different perceptions concerning issues that they experience.

Contemporary feminists are specific to the definition of feminism when it comes to injustices, and this makes them overcome resistance. Their view is different because they believe there are specific injustices that target women, and they are willing to point them (Gill, 2007). For instance, the modern feminism points at rape, violence targeting women during campaign and discrimination at workplace among others as some of the injustices currently witnessed in the society against women. In their advocacy, they are specific on what they want to be changed and this eases the policy formulation towards addressing their need. Thus, there is no resistance in definition compared to historical feminism that encounters obstacles and hiccups on their definition of what constitutes feminism justice.

The third aspect that defines feminism is the diversity of women. The core mandate of feminism is to eliminate the oppression that is geared towards women (Gill, 2007). In the past days, women were subjected to different forms of oppression such as classism, ageism, racism among others and they relay disadvantaged women. Similarly, feminism links these oppressions to sexism and believes that all these targets them (Keggerries, 2015). Because of all these, feminist have a broader category of oppressions that they consider to work against women and victimize their sexism. However, there are many questions that may be asked on the issue of feminism oppression such as what makes a certain oppression sexists? Different oppressions in the society harm everyone and do not spare one’s gender. Hence, it is difficult to distinguish the feminism perspective when they argue that they want to get rid of oppression, which cuts across the board. For instance, racial oppression is oppression to specific women and not all (Tasker & Negra, 2005). It may be geared towards women, color, or others but it does not cut across the board. Thus, it has been difficult to distinguish sexist oppression from other forms because no one is targeted.

It is true that oppression exists in the society, and they are different in their nature. What one considers as an oppressive is a just practice to the other. The historical perspective of feminism was that it advocated for the elimination of oppressions such as those against women. However, the contemporary feminism reminds them that feminism is approached from the individual’s social diversity, which is very different from one another (Rajan, 2000). In this regard, sexist oppression is not uniform and cannot be generalized to mean that all women undergo this in the society. Thus, contemporary escapes racism by pointing at rape as some of the sexism oppression that the society suffers and oppression that affects most women.

Lastly, feminisms were concerned about sexism, and they advocated against it among women in the society (Tasker & Negra, 2005). Feminism was more concerned with the injustices that were geared towards women and targeted them in the society. For instance, they have deprived education and this promoted illiteracy among women leading to subsequent consequences. Similarly, there is time they were denied the rights of voting, and this worked against them as they were oppressed. Thus, the role of gender as a manifestation to injustices in evident here as women are oppressed because of their gender. Despite all these definitions, questions remains that sometimes leads to the resistance of definition of feminism. For instance, it is unclear on what it means to say that women are subjected to injustices because they are female. In this perspective, there is two issue that comes out: causal justification and justification (Hogeland, 2000). Therefore, one might be the target of oppression with a justifiable reason. Similarly, there must be an explanation as to why someone might be oppressed because of being a woman. Additionally, some of these sex oppressions might be justifiable only that they are subject to misinterpretations that end up distorting the intended meaning.

The issue of gender oppression has been an issue that modern feminism has been putting much focus on because it influences many women. For instance, women have been discriminated at workplace simply because they are female but not their incapacity to perform. Although historical feminism perspective was more concerned with general workplace discrimination, modern feminism is specific to the inclusion of women in the top management of the organization and equal succession in the organization (Hogeland, 2000).

In conclusion, feminism is an umbrella term used to describe many injustices and oppression that women are subjected to in the society. Feminism has historical, and contemporary perspectives and their issues or concerns stem from the dynamics of the society. Whereas the historical feminism was more concerned about the general issues that affected women, the modern or contemporary feminism are concerned about the specific issue that concern feminism. Thus, the nature of injustices that concerns women are different in the historical perspective as well as in the modern perspective. The commitment to bring social change and to end injustices is a common characteristic between the histological and modern definition of feminism.