Analysis of the Concept of Feminism - Essay Example

Sociology Feminism Background Feminism is an assortment of ideologies and movements that purpose to establish, define and defend equal economic, political and social rights for women. This engrosses pursuing the establishment of equivalent opportunities for women in education and occupation. The feminist movements gave rise to the feminist theory, which purposes to apprehend the nature of gender disproportion by evaluating women’s social roles and experiences. Feminist activists champion for women rights such as voting and property rights while pushing for autonomy and women’s reproductive rights (Hannam 54). These feminist movements have transformed the societies by attaining gender neutrality and the right to own property and get jobs. Feminists have succeeded in protecting women from sexual assault and domestic violence and advocating for the rights of women. Feminism has developed in distinct fields rather than in one cohesive concept. The labels that delineate these fields have differed. The most common feminist theories include radical feminism, liberal feminism, lesbian feminism, Marxist feminism, socialist feminism and materialistic feminism (Tandon 45). Historical development of Feminism Historiographers of contemporary western feminist movements often speak of a first wave feminism and second wave feminism (Kolmar & Bartkowski 26). Though there is known differences in the periodization of feminisms in numerous western nation cultures, there is, however, a general concurrence regarding the periodization of the two large movements. The first wave took place between 1860’s to 1920’s while the second wave took place from 1960’s and prolongs to present-day. Both these movements assisted in advancement of feminist knowledge. However, since western feminist intellectuals, during the first wave, had not attained much access to higher learning institutions, production and conveyance of feminist knowledge is much more tangled to the second wave than the first wave. Therefore, the current accumulation of feminist theory cannot be detached form the unparalleled access to institutions and public spheres (Hesse-Biber 57-60). Feminist theory was founded by a sequence of literatures. Juliet Mitchell’s “Women’s Estate”, Shulamith Firestone’s “The Dialect of Sex” and Betty Frieddan’s “The Feminine Mystique” are among the ancient literatures that engross the tenet of classical feminist theory (Hesse-Biber 61). Inspired by Simone de Beauvoir’s renowned aphorism that women are not born but made, these literatures speedily attained a whole range of expressive, logical, and normative conceptions that have since become imperative for thoughtful feminist review. These leaned on delineations of women’s liberation, emancipation and oppression (Fisanick 68-72). The family constituted the chief object of review. Description of the structures of daily life in the contemporary world portrayed that the family as an institution ratifies a gendered division of work, as it downgrades women to the private scope and men to the public scope (Tandon 56). Feminist theorists discerningly reviewed the unjust effects for men and women resulting from the prescriptive of the private and public disparity. Provided that a woman’s natural social function comprised in reproducing the private scope of family, marriage and motherhood, her access to the public scope of making decisions, making law and taking part in politics remained limited (Fisanick 87). As a group, women did not enjoy equal parities, liberties and opportunities as their counterparts, the males. Feminists developed three primary research paradigms to contest the inequality among women and men and the monopoly of men in the public scope. These included the objective-deconstructive paradigm, constructive paradigm and objective deconstructive paradigm. Features of Feminism Some of the primary features of feminism are tied on the feminist approaches. The approaches to feminism are characterized as having a shared theoretical position. The three paradigms hold a common theoretical position that gender is constructed and changeable and that gender is a significant category of analysis. The constructive paradigm is the most productive paradigm in numerous fields of knowledge (Hannam 98). It shares with the subjective-deconstructive paradigm on the conception of gender that masculinity and feminity are socially constructed categories. While conventional gender theorists argue that because of constructness of gender, both women and men are considerably not free and without actual power in the societies, constructive paradigm theorists maintain a feminist stance on the matter of gender by stressing on uneven associations of authority between the sexes (Kolmar & Bartkowski 106-112). While depending on the conception of gender, explicitly that both women and men are socialized through languages, tastes, fantasies, and symbols, feminist theorists also assert that considerable distinctions existed between the sexes specifically because women occupy different bodies as compared to those of men, bodies which occupy distinct social locations. The objective-deconstructive paradigm tracks the ways in which women have been downgraded to inferior economic, social, political, and sexual status. This paradigm accounts women’s oppression and relegation in almost all areas of knowledge and all structures of life. For example, feminist theorists in the humanities replicated on the fact that, in principal texts, culture, history and philosophy, women were either denoted as a lesser sex. Theorists in these fields included Susan Gubar, Carolyn Heilbrun, Lilian Robinson, and Kate Millet (Hesse-Biber 74). Another development in the objective-deconstructive paradigm centered on the techniques in which the institution and depiction of knowledge constructed its classifications on the basis of feminine and masculine metaphors. In “The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and Scientific Revolution” Carolyn Merchant illustrated how the subsistence of a dominant masculinity metaphor of strength, rationality, technology and superiority was dependent on either assigning deteriorating values to feminine metaphors or on diminishing subsisting feminine standards all together (Fisanick 132). The objective-deconstructive paradigm produced copiousness of data on women’s underrepresentation and misrepresentation in western art, knowledge, organization, culture, knowledge production and research methods (Tandon 127-32). As a negative philosophy of kinds, it investigated the absence and fabrication of women’s thoughts, feelings and conduct in mainstream cultural and social contexts. For some theorists, women’s sexual distinction, grounded on the biological fact of women’s reproductive abilities and on cultural conducts of assigning innate distinctions to women grounded on their precise biological abilities, was responsible for the falsification of women (Hannam 154). Their sexual dissimilarity brought marginality, susceptibility, dependency and marked them for favoritism and subjugation in a male-controlled society. Another primary feature of feminism is that many feminist movements and ideologies have developed over the years. There have been political movements, materialistic ideologist, black and postcolonial ideologies, cultural movements and social constructionist ideologies (Kolmar & Bartkowski 143). Some sections of feminism go after political inclinations of the society such as conservatism and liberalism. Materialistic ideologies developed from the Western Marxist idea and have motivated numerous movements, which are tangled in a criticism of capitalist and center on ideology’s link to women (Hannam 127). Feminism has had multifaceted connections with the primary political movements of the 20th century (Hesse-Biber 162). Since the commencement of the twentieth century, some feminists have confederated with socialism, whereas others have critiqued the socialist philosophy for being unsatisfactorily interested with women’s rights. August Bebel is one of the activists who fought for the realization of equal rights for both sexes. In Britain, women movements had associated with the Labour Party (Fisanick 137). Feminisms had complex interactions with fascism too. Fascism has been ordained questionable positions on feminism by women groups and its practitioners. Feminism has also worked and influenced civil rights movements. Many Western feminists implemented the language and philosophies of black activism and illustrated similarities between the rights of non-white people and the rights of women. Feminism has brought a change in the Western society, including women’s right to vote, equitable pay with the male counterparts, access to education, right to own property and the right to make individual decisions regarding their spouses and pregnancy. For instance, discriminatory laws were phased out in EEC countries starting from 1960 (Tandon 176). Strengths and Weaknesses of Feminism Feminism has had one goal since it started equality among women and men. This is one of the strengths of this theory (Fisanick 27, Hannam 45). However, it has succeeded since no woman in her right senses would oppose the theory. Additionally, feminism has had plenty of well-organized paper-pushers. These are the radicals who proficiently bent the system to acquire what they desired. Feminism centers on bringing a change in both sexes by bringing equality between men and women. A primary contribution originates from multicultural and women movements that place immense significance to the negative impact of oppression and discrimination for both women and men (Tandon 51). The united feminist voice brought attention to societal issues such as incest, rape, child abuse and sexual harassment. However, this theory is criticized for its lack of agreement between the right wing feminists and the left wing feminists. Although feminism advances for equality between men and women, western theorists and feminists have a goal of women supremacy (Hannam 181). This has caused alarm and friction between the rest of the world and them. This theory also overstresses on power and gender. Application of Feminism Feminism can be used on both men and women with the aim of bringing about empowerment. It can be used in relationship counseling, community intervention, and family therapy. These are feminist therapies where most of the people seeking counseling are women. This therapy argues that women are in a deprived position in the world because of gender, sexuality, age and other factors. Feminist therapy aims to empower the clients who seek help from the therapists (Hesse-Biber 88). In this therapy, the client and the therapist act as equal. The therapist elucidates therapy from the onset to portray to the client that she is her own savior. The therapist realizes that every symptom of the client has strength. Feminist therapy is required to create a change and to address gender issues that may trigger psychological distress. Works Cited Fisanick, Christina. Feminism. Detroit [u.a.: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Print. Hannam, June. Feminism. Harlow, England: Pearson/Longman, 2007. Print. Hesse-Biber, S. (2002). Feminism and interdisciplinarity. In J. DiGeorgio-Lutz (Ed). Women in higher education. Westport, CT: Praeger. Kolmar, W.K., & Bartkowski, F. (2000). Feminist theory: A reader. Mt. View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company. Tandon, Neeru. Feminism: A Paradigm Shift. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2008. Print. Read More