Global Feminism in the Early 20th Century - Literature review Example

Global Feminism in the Early 20th Century Women have been poorly represented in political venues in almost all societies of the world despite the fact that they represent a majority of the world’s population. They have historically played a small role in the hierarchal decision making processes of government, a legacy that lives on today. Unquestionably, women have contributed at least half to the building and maintaining of society but have been forced into a subordinate position thus precluding their participation in decision making processes in the political arena, the workplace and the home. Women’s historic omission from the political process is the result of the long-standing patriarchal social arrangement which only relatively recently has begun to soften somewhat. This discriminatory system that heavily favors men originated from both perpetual economic and rigid religious foundations that were present in the beginnings of mankind and strengthened throughout man’s development. However, with the advent of new technologies and working positions that ‘even women’ could perform in combination with shortages of necessary work forces particularly during times of war, women began to realize their true value to society on a global level. In England, Virginia Woolf became a spokeswoman for the concepts of educational and vocational opportunity for women through her writing and speaking engagements. Woolf tackles the subject of the female voice in her essay “A Room of One’s Own” (2000). The basic argument she presents here is not that women write according to a materialistic style or that women necessarily must pursue material possessions if they wish their voices to be heard. Instead, she makes a case that the only way in which women’s voices are going to be heard in literary circles is if they are freed of the daily grind of civilized living through the provision of a living income and a room in which they can work unmolested by children, maids, husbands and others who continually place demands on their time. In addition, she criticizes the female writers that have come before her for placing their own agendas in their works rather than allowing their characters to explore the various sides of the issues presented. She indicates that Charlotte Bronte, for instance, “will write of herself where she should write of her characters” (“A Room”, 2000). The written novel should reflect the ideas that are held, but should do so in keeping with the characters involved, their knowledge and their explorations as they are contrasted with the thoughts, actions and knowledge of the other characters. As she described in “Modern Fiction”, Woolf illustrates in “A Room of One’s Own” that the aim of the novelist is to present the real in all its shifting, unformed, subjective reality. More than simply calling into question the styles of writing of the past, Woolf seems to be indicating that the absence of the female voice in the process, until very recently, has led to an unnatural suppression of what the true goal and aim of writing should be. Recognizing that the modern world cannot be defined in simple terms, she illustrates through her creation of Judith Shakespeare, how the female voice has been suppressed and begins to question what other voices might have been suppressed in the general course of human history, in which only the wealthy white men have had the opportunity and the leisure to say what they wanted to say. Support for women’s voices was provided in America through Anna Howard Shaw, who answered President Roosevelt’s insistence that women who wished to pursue activities outside the home were selfish, cold and detrimental to the welfare of the nation. Her argument, like the arguments of many others, is based on the concept that “the kitchen is in politics; that the children’s physical, intellectual and moral well-being is controlled and regulated by law; that the real cause of race decadence is not the fact that fewer children are born, but to the more fearful fact that, of those born, so few live, not primarily because of the neglect of the mother, but because men themselves neglect their duty as citizens and public officials” (Shaw, 1905: 56). In other words, the men are so busy working on other issues that they are not spending the necessary time and resources to bettering the lives of the citizens, something that is a natural concern of the women. As a result, Shaw concludes women should be involved in politics as the only means of ensuring the health and welfare of the citizenry is maintained or perhaps even improved. In their concern for the welfare of their children, she argues, it is the mother’s place to be interested in the politics that govern what her children will learn in school. In her place as a homemaker, it is the woman’s concern that children have clean places in which to play and streets are not running with debris and disease. At the same time, Shaw argues that the presence of women in the workforce is nothing new, particularly in those fields to which they had been employed – sewing, weaving, producing materials for the home. The only difference being that this work had been moved out of the house and cottage and into the factories. Several of the ideas that were spreading in the Western nations regarding feminism and women’s rights were quick to spread into colonized areas and less developed countries eager to appear as modern and progressive as the capitalist systems. In Egypt, Malak Hifni Nasif, who wrote under the pen name Bahither al-Badiya, also spoke out about the need for more female voices in the social realms. Her argument starts somewhat differently from the arguments of the west, though, in that she begins with an examination into the faulty claims of men that educating women will put them out of work. She first illustrates how it was the men who first put women out of work by inventing machines that took over their chores, giving them nothing productive to do during half of their day except get an education and then discusses the various ways women in other areas of Egypt continue to work alongside the men without any detrimental effect on the society. “You have observed that women in the villages work as hard as the strongest men and we see that their children are strong and healthy” (al-Badiya, 1910: 53). She concludes this portion of her argument by criticizing men for first having enforced women to be weak and to allow their minds to atrophy and then criticizing women for these same qualities. She also does not fully accept the total equality demands of the Europeans, claiming Egyptian men are not ready for the full unveiling of Egyptian women, suggesting perhaps a greater sense of strength and power in the Egyptian woman than what was felt among the Europeans. However, she is in full support of educating women to the extent they wish to be educated and stresses the importance of providing women with work that they can do in the home rather than remaining idle. In China, one of the greatest rallying cries for feminism was a general protest against the common practice of foot binding, which was still widely observed throughout much of the country. While this practice was seen as barbarically cruel, forcing a young girl to live in absolute agony as her bones broke and reshaped themselves in abnormal shapes too small to truly support her and effectively crippling her for life, the life she was expected to live after reaching adulthood was equally cruel. “If the man is bad or he ill-treats her, she is told that her marriage is retribution for some sin committed in her previous existence. If she complains at all or tries to reason with her husband, he may get angry and beat her. When other people find out they will criticize, saying, ‘That woman is bad; she doesn’t know how to behave like a wife’” (Qiu, 1905: 59). Thus, women were seen as little more than slaves within the Chinese society. Rather than accusing the men of having enslaved women, though, Qiu charges that the women allowed themselves to be placed in slave chains because at first, it was easier to allow the men to take care of all the political issues, the learning and the other business of the country. Within this assertion is the implied imperative for women to pursue education. As she continues, Qiu encourages women to encourage their men to take part in benefiting society as well. “If your husbands want to open schools, don’t stop them; if your good sons want to study abroad, don’t hold them back … After your sons are born, send them to schools. You must do the same for your daughters and, whatever you do, don’t bind their feet” (Qiu, 1905: 59). Education is seen to be the key, not only education gained from studying books, but also education from observing what the rest of the world is doing. Qiu ends her argument with a call to women of all ages to encourage education, from the old who must recognize the need for women to become more involved in the welfare of the nation to the young who must attempt to educate themselves either by studying hard at school or doing what they can at home. Each one of these writers, from four different countries, illustrate the importance of providing women with an education as a means of bettering society as a whole. While Qiu from China does not provide much rationalization for educating women, she illustrates how a lack of education has not provided women with any benefits and has brought about great harm. In all other cases, though, educating women is seen as the only way to provide for the humanitarian needs of the nation. In each case, it is argued that it is women who see to the needs of the children, women who clean up messes to stop rampant disease and women whose responsibility it is to take care of the issues at home. This was true whether home meant the four-walled structure of an individual house or the dotted line on a map that indicated a nation’s boundaries. In addition, it was argued women should be allowed into business as a means of keeping them busy and productive citizens rather than idle half the time and uninteresting and uninvolved the rest of the time. As al-Badiya argued, when women are confined to the house and reduced to conversation only with other women who are also confined to the house and none are provided with education or involvement, they become petty and spendthrift, quickly losing the interest of the men of the country and causing them to look elsewhere for mates. Rather than adding work to a traditionally isolated gender, the argument holds that work has been taken from women and women have the right and responsibility to replace this work with something equally useful. This also illustrates the influence colonization and globalization has had on global women’s issues. While the most progressive isn’t necessarily considered to be desirable, neither is it desirable to be considered the most conservative. It is perhaps this reason above all others that feminism spread throughout the globe at roughly the same period in time as each nation, forced to trade with each other thanks to increased modes of travel and communication, began sharing ideas and comparing the role of women from one country to another. Those with the greatest wealth and power were also those leading the feminist movement, seen in the writing of Virginia Woolf in England and Anna Shaw in America. Those aspiring to wealth and power, such as Egypt, were quick to encourage progress within society within reasonable limits for their culture while still others, such as China, realized that baby steps would need to be taken before further progress could be made. Works Cited al-Badiya, Bahither. “A Lecture in the Club of the Umma Party, 1909.” The World in an Era of Transformation and Western Dominance. Qiu, Jin. “An Address to Two Hundred Million Fellow Countrywomen.” The World in an Era of Transformation and Western Dominance. Shaw, Anna Howard. “Presidential Addresses at the Conventions of National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1905, 1906.” The World in an Era of Transformation and Western Dominance. Woolf, Virginia. “A Room of One’s Own.” The Longman Anthology of Women’s Literature. Mary K. DeShazer (Ed.). New York: Longman, 2000, pp. 16-72. Read More