The Contribution Made to the Rights Project by Feminists - Coursework Example

Critically assess the contribution made to the rights project by feminists A right is, in Western ‘systems of jurisprudence and law’, a ‘legal or moral entitlement to do or refrain from doing something or to obtain or refrain from obtaining an action, thing or recognition in civil society.’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right). It is only in the modern societies that equal rights are accorded to all citizens universally. In antiquity, rights were unequal and hierarchical. For example, the monarch was held to have a divine right to rule with absolute power over his/her subjects. Parents had greater power over their children and the children had little or none. Married women were regarded as no more than chattels belonging to their husbands. Until long-standing matriarchal and matrilineal societies were discovered in remote parts of the world by anthropologists in the 18th century, it was thought entirely natural for the male to have total dominance over the female in patriarchal societies of the West. Rights are developed over time, and societies differ in the legal instruments and structures they adopt in determining what these are. One historical example where people held differing views about property rights is the case where European settlers in the New World ‘bought’ land from Native Americans who had no idea that land could be parcelled out, owned and disposed of in this way. Even in the modern industrialized nations of the West, there had been ‘an inherent historical and traditional bias against the exercise of rights by women.’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women’s_rights ). The movement that came to be known as ‘feminism’ in the mid-20th century came into being as a reaction against the persistence of this bias. However, precursors to this movement can be traced as far back as the end of the 18th century. The Englishwoman, Mary Wollstonecraft is identified as one of the founding daughters (mothers?) of feminism. In 1792 she wrote the philosophical treatise ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’. Roughly about the same time, ‘Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht was writing in Sweden, and what is thought to be the first scientific society for women was founded in Middelburg, in the north of Holland in 1785’ (op. cit.). In the 19th century, women began to agitate for the right to vote alongside men who had fought for universal suffrage. The slogan ‘one man one vote’ came to include ‘one woman one vote’ too. Milicent Fawcett and Emmeline Pankhurst were two British leaders of this movement, while in the US, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B.Anthony led the fight for Women’s suffrage. ‘Seneca Falls, New York, was the location of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s 1848 speech, “A Declaration of the Rights of Women”, which called for full political and social rights for women’ (http://www.enotes.com/topics/feminism). By the way, it is important to remember that the American activists were also campaigners against slavery. In the USA, ‘national women’s suffrage did not come until the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in 1920’ (Wheeler 1995)’ while in ‘1918 the British Parliament finally passed a bill allowing women over the age of 30 to vote. In 1928 the age limit was lowered to 21.’ (Phillips 2004). Until long after the abolition of slavery in the mid-19th century, the US constitutional declaration that ‘all men are born equal’ did not extend to the ‘black population of the country. Note the reference to ‘men’, although of course the statement was not deliberately meant to exclude women. Such biased terminology did not escape the criticism of feminists in later years. In comparison, Australia excluded their Aboriginal people from the franchise until the late 1960s. The historical ‘divine right of kings’ was curtailed by the Magna Carta (1215) where the king of England was required to be bound by the law of the land although the monarch cannot be tried in his/her courts. This is enshrined in the principle the king/queen can do no wrong. In 1689, the Bill of Rights, again in England, declared the supremacy of the Parliament granting the citizens inalienable civil and political rights. In France following the French Revolution (‘liberte, egalite, fraternite’), Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789) spelled out individual and collective rights of the citizen. An equivalent United States Bill of Rights was enshrined in the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution (1789/1791). We would not have an equivalent document until after the Second World War when the United Nations ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). This is an ‘over-arching set of standards by which Governments, organisations and individuals would measure their behaviour towards each other. The preamble declares that the “… recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world …” (http://en.wkipewdia.org/wiki/Right ). The Random House Dictionary defines feminism as 1) The doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men. 2) An ongoing movement for the attainment of such rights for women. (1987: 708). As someone writing on the topic in 1992 stated: The demand for equality between the sexes is a demand for justice. Essentially this means that the rights of women must be protected with the same vigor that is expended on the rights of men. Whatever benefits and opportunities accrue to males must also be extended to females. In the economic institution this translates into equal pay and promotional opportunities. In the realm of politics it means equal treatment before the law as well as appointment, or election to all positions of authority. (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0SOR/is_n4_v57/ai_19178609/pg_1). In the USA, the National Organization for Women (NOW) inaugurated in 1966, with its Political Action Committee (PAC) has campaigned for womens rights to include affirmative action and reproductive rights of young women. They put forward candidates for the House of Representatives and the Senate on the feminist agenda Defying conventional political advice telling them to stick to safe subjects like education and social security NOW/PAC candidates won with strong positions on abortion rights, hate crimes, violence against women, health care and lesbian and gay rights. Even so, success in gaining seats in Congress was hard to come by. In 1998, women gained a net of only two seats in the House, for a total of 58 out of 435 House members, and stayed even in the Senate at nine out of 100. (http://www.now.org/nnt/winter-99/electns/html). An important piece of legislation that NOW has fought for, but has not been made law yet, is the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Essentially it states that equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Womens_rights). There have been problems about the interpretation of this piece of proposed legislation. Roughly, the history of feminism has been identified over a period separated into three waves. The first wave during the 19th and early 20th centuries in the UK and the US, concentrated on claiming equality in property rights and in opposition to chattel marriage and the ownership of women and children. Towards the end of this period efforts were concentrated on gaining political power (suffrage), but also sexual, reproductive and economic rights. The second wave concentrated more on social and structural equality and gained anti-discrimination measures through legislation. This phase was begun in the 1960s and gave rise to a wave of identification with cognate problems stemming from race, class and economic inequality. Carol Hanischs famous slogan The Personal is Political belongs to this period. bell hooks (2000) is another well-known representative exponent of such an extension of the feminist creed. To me feminism is not simply a struggle to end male chauvinism or a movement to ensure that women will have equal rights with men; it is a commitment to eradicating the ideology of domination that permeates Western culture on various levels.- sex, race, and class to name a few - and a commitment to reorganizing U.S. scoiety so that the self-development of people can take precedence over imperialism, economic expansion, and material desires ... I choose to re-appropriate the term "feminism" to focus on the fact that to be "feminist" in any authentic sense of the term is to want all people, female and male, liberation from sexist role patterns, domination and oppression. (hooks & Shapiro 2000). The third wave of feminism is said to have begun in the 1990s as a response to the backlash against initiatives taken during the second wave and is continuing apace. References Hanisch, Carol. (1978) Fight on sisters: And other songs for liberation . s.n. hooks, bell & Shapiro, Ellen, P. (2000) Feminist Theory, From Margin to Center. South End Press Phillips, Melanie. (2004) The Ascent of Woman: A History of the Suffragette Movement Abacus The Random House Dictionary, (1987) 2nd Revised Edition Wheeler, Marjorie Spruill. (Ed.) (1995) One Woman One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement New Sage Press < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right > 08/03/2008 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women’s_Rights > 06/03/2008 < http://www.enotes.com/topics/feminism > 06/03/2008 < http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0SOR/is_n4_v57/ai_19178609/pg_1 > 08/03/2008 < http://www.now.org/nnt/winter-99/electns.html > 08/03/2008 Read More