Women's Liberation Movement Evolution - Coursework Example

Womens Liberation Movement Evolution The voyage to accomplishment of women’s rights has come a long way and is evidently felt everywhere in society today. Nonetheless, when considered widely, the ideal for this movement is all about role and place of women in society. In the mid of the current century, women from all over the world have rose to liberate themselves in terms of independence and recognition. Women are no longer at ease with just being trapped into a predestined social motherliness and homemakers’ roles of just making choices within the family setting. These changes in thinking and endeavor on more roles and recognition led to the formation of a faction that has come to be known women Liberation movement. This movement has challenged the customary notion that women were hypothetically meant to spend their total lives occupied in housework and upbringing children. It stipulated a demand for equal reimburse for both women and men in the workplaces or any other place that the effort is required, save for birth giving. Through these movements, women have realized number positive outcomes such as a birth control approval which meant that women had a chance to give their input as to when to have children and how many of them. Such is one of the many achievements that have come with the women movements. Notwithstanding these achievements, some of the challenges are still prevalent either because society has not accepted the change or because these movements evolved negatively. Negative evolution means that women in these movements did not set particular priority, thus any other new challenge against women has added to the baggage. In this informative paper, the focus is on the waves of the movements, inspirational women, realization, the backlash, political impacts, and change of men’s role. Final section I propose some of the alternative that include renewing unity, organizational spirit, avoiding repeat of past mistakes. Inspirational authors to the movement The dimensions taken by women movements included works by famous philosophers, authors, and pioneer ambassadors. Two of the most acknowledged famous women are Wollstonecraft and de Beauvoir, each of who amassed a colossal portfolio of achievements for their time; most remarkably in the philosophy field (Kerry43, 2012). As with Wollstonecraft, she vehemently held that women ought to regard as equals to men, and some feminine traits portrayed weakness in that gender. She is considered to be a woman who throughout her life led by example. She did not conform to conventional norms about how women ought to be; she consistently held her grounds and never conformed (Kerry43, 2012). Contrary to Wollstonecraft, de Beauvoir held that women estranged themselves from being seen as equal to men, for they live as how people contemplate women should (Kerry43, 2012). Even though she held that the society is to blame, Beauvoir’s insisted that women are in a way responsible for their own unfortunate situations. In the contemporary, we do not apparently come across such characters as Wollstonecraft and de Beauvoir, for they had immense courage to be outspoken during these ages. They further inspired the upcoming feminists. The first, second and third Feminism Women fight for liberation is often categorized into three waves: the first, second and third, all aimed to end inequality. The first wave emerged early 18th century whose focal intention was to achieve women’s suffrage. Women dismantling traditional norms and rules compulsorily imposed on them characterized this wave, and it was, therefore, redefining the stigma linked to the discernment of what women should or ought to be (Ritzer and Ryan). As an upshot of the first wave, the second wave of women liberation movements followed in around 1970s, which is holistically characterized by a new front of the fight. The fight that women employed authorship of materials books and extensive articles aimed at sensitizing women of the need to keep on (Ritzer and Ryan, 225). It also included a number of triumphs such sexism in freedom to have an abortion and the education. Finally, is the third wave whose mandate was influenced by the first two waves. The wave has changed beyond expectation and has continued through the current century. Most women in this wave are enjoying the fruits of the struggle by the early women, and the generation more equipped and understanding about feminism. Women Liberation Movement’s Realizations For the last thirty years, women movements have fought for working-class necessities such equal pay, high child care, and abortion rights, and they have gained vast support of several women. Through the liberation movements, women have made an entry of into the labor force on a mass scale, which has had a remarkable impact on American society. Currently, there are a large number of women in most middle-class experts say doctors, engineers and lawyers, all taking pleasure in what their grandmothers had no clue or dreamed of. Some elite women have even made bold steps by entering the mostly male top ranks of management (Womens liberation movement, 2002). One will find them initiating partnerships in law firms; they have made profound presence in the Congress and even further appearance in White House foreign policy shaping (Roesch, 2004). The question about childcare is no longer a burden because these are women with the affordability of hiring helpers to handle various arduous child care and housework chores. The negative side of the liberation evolution amid these growths and achievement is that it has brought new subjugation against fellow women. For instance, the most outstanding legacies of the women federation movement are the emergent class divide among women. The result has lead to category of few privileged women whose perception about liberation has become a subject of individual choice and another class of a vast majority who have observed their way of living decline and individual opportunities tighten. This is the result of unsustainable priorities of the women movements. Many women movements only struggled for legal equality with men but never prioritized any strategy for combating the jam-packed social and economic equality (Roesch, 2004). The backlash of women liberation’s evolution Similarly, despite the fact the women’s way of living has transformed in an enduring and profound recently, the same lack of clear priority among them is continually oppressing them. In the US today, the capitalism prerequisite of privatizing families has continued to shape and justify women’s new era of oppression (Roesch, 2004). This is capitalism in the sense that, women can literally “privatize” family chores or operations by employing house helps as substitutes for their initial housework. Whilst women are running away from the past oppressive and “cruel” roles, they have invited a new set of burdens; chauvinism and women’s subjugation have brought new forms of suppression (Roesch, 2004). It will never be enough to fight only for legal equality as opposed social and economic reforms. Cause why womens liberation movements have evolved negatively. To attain full liberation, women must build movements that challenge the legal, social, and economic systems collectively. Nonetheless, these post-liberation ideas are often perceived as being set against the current reality of women’s way of living. This is because post-feminists have argued that the oppression of women as a thing of the past because currently the fight is of personal choice and accomplishment. According to Jen Roesch’s in line with this scenario, the utmost challenges faced by women today are not a reward of inequality, or child care deterrence, but the price of triumph paid by professional women (Roesch, 2004). The idea of the backlash entirely is a consequence of society capitalizing on an agitation and turns it against the agitators. Political movement effects on women’s movements In the whole journey of liberation, women’s intentions were not to neglect family, but to be given a chance as their male counterparts to explore their careers. While they have struggled to keep their families intact, new government policies have been either intentionally or coincidentally crafted to make it easier in enchanting mothers away from their children. One such legislation, is the Clinton’s 1997 signing of the Adoption and Safe Family act that stipulated the parenthood rights termination of women whose children have for fifteen out of twenty-two months been in a foster care (Pantazis, 2011). The policy is disastrous, for example, with women who are recovering from say drug addiction, for they risk losing parental rights if they are not able to gain custody within the fifteen months. Despite these policies being in support of children, they dodge any actual legal responsibility for guaranteeing that these women and their children are capable of sustaining their needs). Consequently, the policies have influenced the female prisoners. For instance, statistics has shown that from early 1986, female imprisonment has increased by over 400% and particularly 800% for women of African-American origin. The prison populace has gone up to over 200,000 in prisons and over a million in the systems of criminal justice. According Roesch, more than 75% of these populations are women with dependent children and over 50 percent of those in jail never have a glimpse their children during the incarceration (Roesch, 2004). With the same irrational policies, from 2000 through 2002, the single mothers’ unemployment rate rose by 2%. Despite 50% of those who left welfare obtaining employment in 1999’s stronger US economy, only 42% of those who left welfare in 2002, were able to get jobs (). What did the government do? Instead of prompting a reconsideration of the catastrophic cost of well-being alteration, the Bush government went on to eliminate further the child care subsidies and rising work regulations. Bush’s projected plan envisaged that women should to have to labor 40 hours per week in order to receive reimbursement (Carter, 2009). Effect of Men’s Change of Role Even with the negative evolution of women’s liberation and backlashes, women are not going to head home anytime soon, due to one very crucial and simple reason. The cause is the fact that men are no longer the initially perceived family breadwinners. This heavy burden has been transferred to women, for the reason that they have become more empowered and understood to be making more monies than men are. Therefore, far from the notion that women seeking work outside their homes for wages is a matter of personal fondness, these women are working because they have to. In a period of escalating job uncertainty and economic instability, 30% of female workers contribute all or generally all of their family’s expenses. Consequently, 60 percent of them earn more of their family’s proceeds (Pantazis, 2011). Therefore, Women’s earnings have become more and more crucial to families’ aptitude to stay buoyant. What this means is that traditional family crusaders may perhaps long for a homecoming to the conventional family. Alternatives to the negative evolution Before recommending any alternative on how the womens movements should be run, it is important to remark that there can never be an absolute alternative to the challenges facing women today. This is simply because; even the resolutions that have led to these new challenges were once alternatives to the old way of treating women. Nonetheless, the bus stops with the women movements’ set of priorities. First, as proposed by the union of Chicago women federation, for the women to realize full dreams of a hard fought freedom all women must be team players and therefore organizations will be necessary (Park et al.). Through such organization with a common goal, they can set priorities not only about legal equalities, but also about social and economic fronts. The strength of an organization enables them to win power and give them the sense of their own power (Park et al.). Currently, disunity among women is prevalent as movements are split into insignificant groupings that are hard to find and hard to join. Even with victories won, there is no recognition for Womens liberation because there is no organized front to articulate their successes (Park et al.). Such has left gaps for backlash views to dominate. The best alternatives are for women to realize how the past women organized themselves, and therefore employ even better strategies to fight the new form of oppression. They also have to reflect on early movements, and try to comprehend why early feminists died out, lost out, or sold out in history (Park et al.). While considering, their strength women must be careful not to repeat their mistakes. Conclusively, without failing to note a remarkable journey for women liberation movements, which has come with victories that have given a modern woman a place in society, the evolution journey is exciting. Apparently, the liberation objectives have transformed entirely to a new set of need for modern liberation. Most women have achieved what they sternly fought for, with an equal if not more than men in vital positions in societal dealings did. However, they are now presented new challenges for men shifting breadwinner role, government subjugation, and the overall backlash on women in terms of work and family. For women to fight against these new front of challenges, they have to restructure themselves, reimburse unity, set their priorities right and remember not to repeat the same mistakes done by early women movements. Ultimately, the negative evolution of women liberation movements is like basic human needs, whose demand seems not to end. Works Cited Carter, P. George W. Bush and the war on women. Turning back the clock on progress. Studies in Continuing Education, 31(1) (2009): 77-80. Kerry43. Female Philosophers and Womens Rights Advocates - Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvoir. Web. 2012. Available at: http://kerry43.hubpages.com/hub/Female-Philosophers-Mary-Wollstonecraft-and-Simone-de-Beauvoir Pantazis, C. Women and the Coalition government: turning back the clock? Criminal Justice Matters, 85(1) (2011): 10-12. Park, H. and Booth, H. Socialist Feminism: A Strategy for the Womens Movement. Web. n.d. Historyisaweapon.com. Available at: http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/chisocfem.html [Accessed 6 Dec. 2014]. Rampton, M. The three waves of feminism. The Magazine of Pacific University, 41(2), (2008): 1. Roesch, J. International Socialist Review. Web. 2004. Available at: http://www.isreview.org/issues/38/women_family.shtml [Accessed 6 Dec. 2014]. Womens liberation movement. Women Stud Abstr, 31(4) (2002): 59-59. Read More