StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

The Feminist Movement in Britain - Research Paper Example

Cite this document
Summary
This paper explores the feminism's traditions are and how they relate to one another or to other traditions. The feminist movement in Britain involves social, political, and intellectual factors which had a great impact on its development and growth…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER94.1% of users find it useful
The Feminist Movement in Britain
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "The Feminist Movement in Britain"

Feminism The feminist movement in Britain involves social, political, and intellectual factors which had a great impact on its development and growth. Given this complexity, it is not surprising that there is considerable confusion within the feminist movement, about what feminism's traditions are and how they relate to one another or to other traditions. Because feminism is a liberal movement that directly challenges existing institutional arrangements, those who feel threatened by it often respond by representing it in negative and often hostile ways. Such representations pervade the media and even the academy. Feminists have been cast as destroyers of families and other cherished institutions. They have been blamed for problems such as the delinquency of adolescents, the inability of qualified males to find jobs, and the erosion of standards in the professions, the schools, and the academy. If women would only embrace traditional roles, the argument seems to go, there would be far fewer societal problems. Before the feminist movement appeared, women were suppressed and limited their social and political life. In late Middle Age, at a particular social level, women shared models of thought and behaviour which set them apart as a group from men of the same social class. Whereas elite women have left a rich variety of writings, little has remained of the mental or material culture of ordinary women (Anderson 1987). The difficulties are increased by the fact that social distinction played less part in female culture than in early modern culture generally. Central to the female world was the woman with knowledge, the midwife who was herself a mother (Anderson 1987). The majority of women, from the poorest to the most aristocratic, shared direct experience of maternity. Even a woman of high social status who had not borne a child could find herself on the periphery of a key aspect of female culture (Smith, 2000). Given that women ideally belonged to the household, and men claimed public space as their own, both elite and popular cultures recognized that women as women had concerns of their own. If the household was the proper place for women, then the household could sometimes become a female space (Anderson 1987). Furthermore, critics show how society encouraged women to spend time with each other. Although, since women were perceived as sexually unstable, men regarded them as being at risk in mixed company, men were also suspicious of women in all female company, fearing their opportunities for gossip. Social distinction, age, and geographical location all played a part in shaping women's bonds. Nevertheless, across these divisions there were aspects of a common culture which women shared. Their cultures and values connected them to fundamental concerns: giving birth, childrearing, and sustaining life. From women's own perspective, they preserved a culture with important life-enhancing values (Anderson 1987). In comparison, men appeared to be preoccupied with politics, authority, and their masculine vanity and virility. Within their own culture, women shaped and enhanced the lives of both sexes, across all ages. Women shared a female consciousness (Smith, 2000). During Middle Ages, religion and spirituality played a dominant role in life of women determining their morals and values. Religious and neighbourly or charitable occasions also offered women opportunities to construct feminine spheres of social dominance. Visits to the sick and dying were women's special concern because of their nursing expertise. As records of testamentary disputes confirm, the deathbed was a 'feminized' locale. Church was another setting where women demarcated their own spatial and sociable terrain. Women's quarrels about 'place' were generally confined to their own sector of the church; only rarely did, they publicly question their segregation from men (Anderson 1987). Yet while worshipping in the established church, they did not passively accept the places appointed for them by the clergy and churchwardens. The Reformation eliminated most of the formal linkages between religious ritual, female collectivities, and the yearly cycle of village life which had been a feature of medieval fife (Anderson 1987). Although ceremonies such as hocktide survived well into the seventeenth century in attenuated form, nearly all the rites which called for women's collective religious organization had disappeared. Apart from informal settings--private gatherings for childbirth, prayers at each other's houses, and separate rooms at christenings--there were no female religious associations in England after the Reformation until the separate Quaker Women's Meetings of the 1670s. Catholic women who wished to join a convent were forced to go abroad, until a small group of women in Mary Ward's Institute returned to England in 1669 under the guise of a school (Anderson 1987; Morgan, 2002). Feminist movement in Great Britain took place during the 19th century and became a starting point for global feminism. This was the fist wave of feminism demanded the right of women's suffrage. Feminists have devoted considerable time and energy to refuting unfounded attacks and making clear that much work still needs to be done if women are to achieve equality (Anderson 1987). Feminist responses to the problems of misunderstanding and negative representations of its traditions, however, have sometimes been problematic. At times, feminists have seen strategic value in representing feminism to a resistant audience as a unified movement with clearly identifiable goals. Presenting feminism as a unified ideology, though, oversimplifies a complex movement and reinforces the modernist idea that its traditions and goals must be consistent and without contradiction. Secondly, evidence about women's activism during this period tends to be obscured by its informal nature. Many women formed political associations outside the family group, but their opposition to particular religious regimes still tended to take unofficial forms (Anderson 1987). Although women's activities had vital consequences for contemporaries, yet their modes of resistance cannot be measured statistically, in contrast to male activities such as voting or office-holding which were formally recorded. Since votes even of males were recorded only in the case of a dispute, it is remarkable that critics have some accounts of women's attempts to vote in several seventeenth-century parliamentary elections. The women's votes were noted only to be challenged and rejected, but such instances serve to warn people that their knowledge of the limits of female political behaviour is very fragmentary (Anderson 1987; Morgan, 2002). During the 19th century, not all women accepted their exclusion from the public political sphere at the end of the century, any more than they had accepted the earlier view that all women belonged to the household under male goverance. Furthermore, some had a sophisticated understanding of the implications of new theories of political power (Anderson 1987). A comparatively small group of women, most of whom were of aristocratic birth, exercised political influence as the wives, mistresses, mothers, daughters, kin, or friends of the monarch and of men who held political power. Political influence was diffuse in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. While the apex was the sovereign, who was the fount of the patronage system, there were numerous points along the pyramid where power was distributed. At all levels, success depended on knowledge of the dispositions of those above (Anderson 1987). To obtain their objectives, people needed to know how best to recommend themselves to a patron, and what considerations would move their patron to grant favours or petitions. Although women were not so directly involved in political matters as men were, nevertheless they were aware of changes in government and religion in a similar fashion to men of the same social rank (Anderson 1987). Their sources of information may have been no different from men's. Yet they were expected to respond differently to public and political events. Various stereotypes were available to categorize their involvement. Women were seen as weak and fearful, fainting or miscarrying at news of disasters; or they were portrayed as viragos, fighting and unnatural. But whatever the stereotypes, many individual women had political views, and expressed their ideas in ways which were influenced by their social level as well as their gender. The right to voted was granted in 1918 to some social classes and in 1928 to all women in spite of the origin (Bolt 1993). The nineteenth-century Woman Movement was made up of different movements whose support overlapped, each of which had a different ideological background-service and social action (supported by Evangelical Protestantism), woman's rights (supported by Enlightenment rationalism and bourgeois individualism), and woman's emancipation. There was an active group of women who called themselves feminists in the 1920s and 1930s. They had become aware of their status as women and were concerned with personal and artistic freedom, keeping their own identities and careers after marriage, using their newly won vote to better the world in amorphous ways, and often proselytizing for birth control. Some of these feminists were agitating for utopian schemes like communal housekeeping for professional women, but the economics of the times were such that household help was fairly generally available for those with even moderate means: concerns about child care for working mothers and sharing housework didn't exist in its current form. Domestic service was so low paid that in many parts of the country most American mothers had hired help to care for their children and households at least some of the time (Bolt 1993). In the nineteenth century, modern feminism continued to be universalistic, to emphasize equal rights between men and women (now referred to as universal suffrage), to fight discrimination against women despite abilities that are the same as those of men, and to champion the importance of education for women, Later-nineteenth-century manifestations of liberal feminism often reflect the influences of Marx and of Charles Darwin (Bolt 1993). Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Women and Economics is a vivid example of feminist ideas and problems. Gilman's perspective is also liberal or modern feminist in its attention to the potential symmetry between the sexes despite women's thwarted development. According to Gilman, although they have the ability to be equal to men, women have been deprived of opportunities afforded men to develop their capacities and become independent (Bolt 1993). This situation of dependency results in stifled development so that women become incapable of working outside the home and achieving economic independence. Gilman explains that women's incapacities are not a result of "inherent disability" but of the situation in which they find themselves. She also insists, "Women work longer and harder than most men, and not solely in maternal duties" (20), but, unfortunately, her hard work does not improve her economic status (Smith, 2000). Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, exemplifies the modern feminist approach. She states that "women would be better mothers if they were allowed to become rational creatures and free citizens" (Wollstonecraft 54 cited Smith, 2000, p. 61). According to Wollstonecraft, "women would be able to pursue a "plan of conduct" if there were an interval between the birth of each child. Their children should not prevent them from reading literature, studying science, or practicing one of the arts" (282 cited Smith, 2000, p. 61). Presumably, too, their children would not prevent them from writing. Nonfictional works by Virginia Woolf is in some ways modern feminist in her rejection of patriarchal institutions and her delineation of the characteristics of women's culture. Woolf worked within modernist contexts but resisted them, often by opposing them. Woolf elevated the status of the common reader and the common writer and identified a female literary tradition (Smith, 2000). In her work on reading and in her actual reading, Woolf draws on seemingly conflicting traditions, a female-inflected version of modernism as well as radical and cultural feminisms (Bolt 1993). She respects professional literary critics but is wary of professional reviewers and identifies strongly with outsiders who have not had the advantages of an education. Woolf's approach to reading is both respectful of certain canonical critics and critical of canonical reading. Radical and cultural feminisms provided Woolf a critical, egalitarian, and ethical perspective. At the same time, she recognizes the value of reading traditions developed over centuries by professional critics. She sees reading both as an important professional endeavor as well as a source of pleasure for nonprofessionals. It is not enough to say that Woolf merely modified the perspectives of her male counterparts on the activity of reading. She did so, but she also directly challenged those perspectives in radical ways and in so doing created an opening for a more highly politicized conception of reading, one in which the reader's gender and active role are crucial. Woolf's radical feminism is especially pronounced in A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas. In both, Woolf denounces patriarchal institutions and explores ways in which women can defend against them. In A Room of One's Own, Woolf focuses directly on the activity of reading, especially in her critiques of male-dominated universities, which excluded women, and the male-dominated literary canon. She speaks of libraries that house books written by men and of the situation of women who were often poor and excluded from writing and literature because of the responsibilities of childrearing. "If women are to counter the effects of patriarchy within the literary realm, they must create a countertradition by thinking back through their mothers" (Schein 1997, p. 65). They must also have a room of their own and money to be productive (Schneir, 1994). The second way of feminism took place during 1960s -1980s. The main slogans of women were cultural and political equality, social rights and freedom of choice. Modern feminists were committed to equal opportunities and equal rights for women and focused on ways in which women, despite having capacities equal to men, had been discriminated against and excluded from the public sphere and from opportunities to develop their intellects. Modern feminism tends to be universalistic and to see hope for women's liberation in scientific and technological development (Bolt 1993). "A self-consciously new feminism emerged, which demonstrated a renewed interest in improving the position of women" (Dixon 2001, p. 209). In feminist literary studies, modern feminism was especially pronounced in the early 1970s at the beginnings of the contemporary feminist movement and has taken the form of examinations of images of women in literature. According to the images-of-women approach, reading necessitates a repudiation of stereotypical and therefore oppressive representations of what it means to be a woman or a man and a celebration of portrayals of women that demonstrate that women and men are equal. A number of essays in Susan Koppelman Cornillon's Images of Women in Fiction, for instance, address the stereotypical treatment of women in literature from a variety of historical periods. The predominant mode, though, is liberal feminist (Schneir, 1994). Within feminist rhetoric and composition, work expressing a liberal feminist perspective focuses on eliminating sexist language and sexist practices in composition classrooms and on examining the status of teachers of composition as a feminized, marginalized group. In the early 1970s, there was a strong commitment on the part of leaders within the National Council of Teachers of English and the Conference on College Composition and Communication to eliminate sexist language, and this commitment was an essentially modern-feminist impulse (Schneir, 1994). The goal of eliminating sexist language and promoting gender neutral language was related to eliminating barriers to the achievement of equal rights for women. The first anthology to provide a discussion of composition from a feminist perspective had a modern-feminist emphasis. Cynthia L. Caywood and Gillian R. Overing's Teaching Writing: Pedagogy, Gender, and Equity includes essays that focus on teachers of composition as marginalized and discriminated against within the academy, women students as discriminated against in composition classes (Barnes), and bias in writing classes such as inequality in classroom interaction, sex segregation, and differences in feedback male and female students receive from teachers (Schneir, 1994). Theresa Enos's Gender Roles and Faculty Lives in Rhetoric and Composition focuses on equity issues for faculty in rhetoric and composition, including discrimination and sexual harassment and provides considerable and graphic evidence that many women in rhetoric and composition have been treated unfairly by male colleagues and male-centered departments and universities (Smith, 2000). They wanted to have it all, these feminists, to be sexually and professionally liberated. They married for love; they divorced more easily than they had ever done before. Some were lesbians, and it was acknowledged privately that lesbians existed, although they were hardly out of the closet. Instead of being women in the Woman Movement, the feminists encouraged everyone to call them "girls," because they thought of themselves as eternally young. Women had made a lot more progress by the 1950s than appeared on the surface (Smith, 2000). Although many social institutions had conjoined in sending most (but not all) women back to the home after their explosive entry into the work force during World War II, these institutions were not all completely closed to women; they merely didn't expect very many women to be interested in anything outside the home. The Army and state universities and law and medical schools had quotas for women, but at least that meant that some women were able to get in (Smith, 2000). Employers generally didn't expect women to be serious about their jobs, but there were always some exceptions. Also, it made a difference that the United States was an industrialized, capitalistic economy in which the customer was always right. Where there was a strong demand, sooner or later someone would supply it. So when, as a result of social and economic changes, large numbers of women decided to change their lives in the sixties and early seventies, it was relatively easy for them to make a social revolution. Entry level jobs opened up for educated articulate women willing to work for little more than what they needed for child care and carfare. Training courses became available for women whose education had been interrupted by marriage. Peripheral household services became more available as less time was spent at home by the lady of the house (Smith, 2000). If people believe things that are not so about their lives, sooner or later reality will make at least partial converts of them. When a woman's well-being was defined by her being a mother, that was an incentive for her to have a number of children so that she could continue in that occupation over the years. A woman on the frontier found having many children was also an economic asset-they helped bring in the crops and do the many tasks of the household. The entire family was a productive economic unit (Smith, 2000). The third wave of feminism began in 1990s. This way creates a new ideology of sexuality and gender, and rejects a dominant position of white middle class women. Today, it is possible to distinguish several trends in feminist movement. Liberal feminists focus on providing women economic, social, and political equality with men. The Suffrage Movement arose out of liberal feminist commitments to democratic principles and sought to provide women a voice in democratic political structures. Marxist feminists focus on the economic exploitation of women as workers within and outside the home and call for the elimination of oppressive working conditions (Schneir, 1994). Psychoanalytic feminists focus on imbalances in familial and interpersonal relationships and call for equality with men in the home and in relationships. Later-twentieth-century manifestations of liberal feminism are Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, Eleanor Emmons Maccoby and Carol Nagy Jacklin's The Psychology of Sex Differences, the guiding principles of the National Organization of Women, Cynthia Fuchs Epstein's Deceptive Distinctions, Drucilla Cornell's At the Heart of Freedom, Susan Hartmann's The Other Feminists: Activists in the Liberal Establishment, Martha Nussbaum's Sex and Social Justice, and Seyla Benhabib's "Sexual Difference and Collective Identities: The New Global Constellation. " Friedan explores the oppressive situation of middle-class, suburban housewives who have been denied opportunities to fulfill themselves through meaningful work outside the home. The National Organization of Women focuses especially on creating equality between women and men. In Deceptive Distinctions, Epstein takes issue with recent work in sociology and psychology arising out of the cultural feminist tradition that emphasizes the differences between women and men; she argues, instead, that critics are emphasizing that women and men have similar abilities and should therefore be afforded an equal place in the world of work (Bolt 1993). In At the Heart of Freedom, Cornell, drawing on the work of Kant and John Rawls, provides a feminist reinterpretation of liberal feminist commitments to equality and rights. Hartmann in The Other Feminists documents the considerable achievements of liberal feminists in improving the situation of workers, in litigating feminist principles, and in establishing feminism's moral authority. Feminist philosophers Martha Nussbaum and Seyla Benhabib take a modernist stance in defending universalism and coherence in the face of postmodern emphases on local contexts and decentered selves (Schneir, 1994; Bolt 1993). A modern-feminist perspective does not adequately account for differences between men and women. Nor does it always allow for women's different history and different societal roles and for the effects these differences may have had in the shaping of consciousness. It also tends to ignore differences within the category woman that result from different racial, class, and sexual positioning. It can contribute to rather than mitigate the oppression of women of color in colonizing and colonized countries. Too often it does not question the oppressive nature of patriarchal structures of power. The goal becomes the elimination of discriminatory practices rather than the transformation of society (Bolt 1993). "In their insistence on equality, independence, and women's emancipation, both women transgressed in ways that are specific to both feminism and modernity" (Smith 2000, p. 250). Mary Daly's work tends to be radical feminist in emphasis. Ecology, for instance, is a radical feminist exploration of the ways in which all-pervasive androcentric thinking and patriarchal thinking are damaging to women; it is also a call for a program for healing and renewal. Daly focuses especially on spirituality and on religious ritual. She suggests, though, that the "disease" she speaks of cannot be escaped (Dixon, 2001). The journey she charts involves both discovery and creation of a world other than patriarchy. Daly invites her readers to join with her in an otherworld journey that involves exorcism of the internalized godfather in his various manifestations (Bolt 1993). Daly's journey is a spiritual one that necessitates breaking through a maze/haze of deception into free space, what Daly calls an "amazing" process. The feminist hero/reader who undertakes Daly's journey moves through the stages of demystifying patriarchal myth, encountering misogynistic institutions and structures such as genital mutilation and witch burning, and finally spinning new space and time through processes of escaping, female bonding, and moving through and beyond the realm of multiply split consciousness (386 cited Smith 2000, p 43). Daly's book is antimodern in that it identifies modernist institutions and methods with patriarchy and repudiates them. She uses Romantic language such as the "Self's own integrity" (387 cited Smith 2000, p 43), or "inner reality" that invaders yearn to destroy but cannot even find (386 cited Smith 2000, p 43). Radical feminist Dale Spender argues in Man Made Language that language has been made by men and supports a male-dominated social structure. A semantic rule that results from male domination is "male-as-norm Hence our fundamental classification scheme is one which divides humanity not into two equal parts but into those who are plus male and those who are minus male" (Spender 1980, p. 3). Spender speaks of sexism in language and of the semantic derogation of women. She argues, too, that "a masculinist bias has been implanted in the very methods of inquiry" (Spender 1980, p. 60). Women, if they speak at all, must speak the language of the group that has oppressed them, language that is inflected in such a way that words such as spinster are pejorative whereas its counterpart, bachelor, is not. Spender argues, further, that women have been silenced but should be encouraged to write, to read, to speak, and to enter into linguistic exchange (Dixon, 2001). Language itself must be transformed so that it no longer reflects the domination of men. Although radical feminists emphasize differences in the situations of men and women, seeing men as victimizers and women as victims, those differences are not necessarily biological but may result from environmental conditioning (Dixon, 2001). Gender roles are often seen not as innate characteristics but as learned through socialization into institutions that are harmful to women. Those roles have considerable tenacity, though, and are relatively unchanging over time and space. Constructing gender roles as binary opposites as radical feminists tend to do can have powerful therapeutic and transformative effects. Consciousness raising whereby women get together and share their experiences with others arises out of radical feminism. Such talk becomes a way of dealing with the frustrations that result from being a member of an oppressed group and of gaining a feeling of empowerment in the face of feelings of powerlessness. Radical feminists are "antimodern in that they tend to reject traditional intellectual and social traditions and institutions" (Dixon 2001, p. 41). Often they reject science, technology, and the perspectives of male intellectuals such as Marx and Freud. Freud's work is often singled out as supporting the domination of men over women, as supporting traditional roles for women, and as presenting women very unfavorable (Dixon, 2001). Whereas radical feminism emphasizes the problems that have resulted from male domination, cultural feminism emphasizes the positive characteristics of women's culture such as cooperation and an ability to collaborate effectively. Male culture is identified as the problem and female culture as the solution (Siegel & Baumgardber 2007). Like radical feminists, cultural feminists implicitly privilege subjective experience over objective analysis. Women are seen as intuitive, emotional, and connected to one another, whereas men are seen as abstract, rational, and hierarchical in their thinking. Cultural feminists emphasize that although men often see themselves as having objective perceptions, in fact they are highly subjective, a result of their gender conditioning that blinds them to other perspectives. They also emphasize that women and men constitute two distinctly different cultures and hence have different interpretive processes and ways of developing and behaving (Siegel & Baumgardber 2007). For cultural feminists, fighting for equality within such a social order, which is the liberal feminist solution, is unacceptable. The exclusion of women from dominant man-made institutions has resulted in women's different and better ways of perceiving reality and of behaving. Like radical feminists, cultural feminists tend to see these differences as relatively enduring; hence gender identity becomes a fairly stable concept (Dixon, 2001). Usually cultural feminists speak of centuries of acculturation that have resulted in strongly demarcated roles and differential status. Gender differences may have originally been historically constructed, but the result has been the development of a gendered consciousness that resists change. Men and women have had different roles and so have different attitudes, ways of learning, and ways of interacting with others (Dixon, 2001). Women's experience is seen as different from men's and as preferable to it. Mothering is valued highly and held up as an alternative to masculine activities such as warfare. Sara Ruddick in Maternal Thinking: Toward a Politics of Peace promotes the activity of maternal thinking as a way of bringing about world peace. Carol Gilligan in In a Different Voice values the relationality and connectedness of women's approaches to moral reasoning, and the Women's Ways of Knowing collective values connected knowing and cooperative learning. Nel Noddings in Caring affirms the value of caring within modern educational institutions, an activity she sees as closely akin to women's nurturing of children (Siegel & Baumgardber 2007; Freedman, 2002). A number of articles in rhetoric and composition are also cultural feminist in orientation in that they emphasize that women and men have different ways of writing or arguing and tend to valorize women's ways. Catherine Lamb's "Beyond Argument in Feminist Composition" for instance, demonstrates that cultural feminist theory is helpful in developing a mode of argument that privileges negotiation rather than contention. Andrea Lunsford and Lisa Ede's essay, "Rhetoric in a New Key: Women and Collaboration, " makes a connection between cultural feminist theory and collaborative writing. David Bleich's "Genders of Writing" argues for interpersonal, collaborative writing in writing classes, seeing such writing as gendered feminine (Freedman, 2002). Linda H. Peterson, in "Gender and the Autobiographical Essay: Research Perspectives, Pedagogical Practices, " asks us to reexamine modern pedagogical practices because the genre of autobiography has frequently been associated with women; and my own essay, "Composing as a Woman, " suggests that women's ways of writing may be different from those of men. A problem with radical and cultural feminist perspectives is that they tend toward essentialism, toward too rigid a conception of gender identity, one resistant to the influences of history or language. Also, antimodern feminists do not always adequately take into consideration differences within the category woman and too often ignore the effects of race and class on gender-identity formation. They tend, too, to place so much emphasis on difference that they ignore similarities between the genders. And in reacting so vehemently against modern institutions and structures, feminists sometimes overlook the ways in which those structures can be reclaimed to accomplish feminist goals (Siegel & Baumgardber 2007). In sum, women must be provided opportunities to become educated and have the same legal rights and the same opportunities as men within the workplace and the home. Laws must be changed so that abortion becomes legal for all women, even those who conceive out of wedlock. Educational institutions must provide information about birth control to all girls of childbearing age, and the government must provide support for unwed mothers and their children. The help of international organizations such as UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, an organization that is mentioned in the story, should be enlisted (Freedman, 2002). If women are resistant to coming to terms with themselves, men are even more so. Many feminists suppose that men, even more than women, are fettered to gender roles. Women are more likely to break out of "bondage". This equal liberty must be the province of women as well as men. Bibliography 1. Anderson, Nancy F. 1987, Woman Against Woman in Victorian England: A Life of Eliza Lynn Linton. 2. Bolt, Christine. 1993, The Women's Movements in the United States and Britain from the 1790s to the 1920s. Univ. of Massachusetts Press. 3. Dixon, J. 2001, Divine Feminine: Theosophy and Feminism in England. Johns Hopkins University Press. 4. Freedman, E. 2002, No Turning Back : The History of Feminism and the Future of Women. Ballantine Books; 1 edition. 5. Morgan, S. 2002, Women, Religion and Feminism in Britain, 1750-1900. Palgrave Macmillan. 6. Reccintelli, L., Miles, A., McFadden, M. 2005, Feminist Politics, Activism and Vision: Local and Global Challenges. Zed Books. 7. Schneir, M. 1994, Feminism in Our Time: The Essential Writings, World War II to the Present. Vintage; 1 edition. 8. Siegel, D., Baumgardber, J. 2007, Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild. Palgrave Macmillan. 9. Smith, B. 2000, Global Feminisms Since 1945: A Survey of Issues and Controversies. Routledge; 1 edition. 10. Spender, Dale. 1980, Man Made Language. London: Routledge. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“The Feminist Movement in Britain Research Paper”, n.d.)
The Feminist Movement in Britain Research Paper. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/social-science/1513096-feminism-bachelor-essay
(The Feminist Movement in Britain Research Paper)
The Feminist Movement in Britain Research Paper. https://studentshare.org/social-science/1513096-feminism-bachelor-essay.
“The Feminist Movement in Britain Research Paper”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/social-science/1513096-feminism-bachelor-essay.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF The Feminist Movement in Britain

Feminist Movement in England

This essay provides with contrasting views on the feminist movement in England of different authors.... According to the essay "feminist movement in England" findings, in England, the movement of feminists has been quite successful to an extent.... The twenty years of the movement of feminism in britain has greatly influenced the whole system.... … Feminism is a movement derived from the west in the early 20th century....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

WHAT IS FEMINISM AND HOW MIGHT IT INFORM POLITICAL ANALYSIS

With feminism, the advocates, through grass root mobilization intend to cross boundaries that are based on social status, race culture and religion, with the definition of an effective feminist movement as one that deals with issues which are universally recognized as detrimental to the women folk consisting of rape, prostitution and incest while at the same time addressing issues which may not be obtainable everywhere at the same time like Bureaucracies that seeks to impede the advancement of women beyond certain levels in the corporate world, as it obtains in the west, female "circumcision" otherwise known as female genital mutilation observable in parts of Africa, and the middle-east....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Welfare Feminism in Britain

Welfare Feminism in britain.... If we analyse woman in the light of sociological perspective, we would come to know the ways in which she has survived throughout the history of the welfare state in britain, all those ways has always kept her in a limited sphere, and that sphere is the family.... A welfare state has enabled us to define feminism while remaining in the boundaries of welfare policies, where we can see feminist in the form of wife, sister and daughter and above all a mother....
10 Pages (2500 words) Essay

Class Privilege and British Feminism

The eventual success and spread of feminist ideals at the turn of the 20th century in britain happened in spite of feminism organizations, and not because of them.... At the turn of the 20th century, women who believed in feminist principles could be found across all social classes in britain.... The working class feminists were more vocal than those in other classes because they combined feminist objectives with trade-unionism, and so had a larger platform on which to address the need to recognise women rights....
5 Pages (1250 words) Research Proposal

In Which Ways Do Feminists Take Relations Between Men And Women To Be Uequal

… The radical feminist is very critical regarding the private and public divide.... Socialist feminist, on the other hand, has a high view regarding the public and private divide.... In conclusion, it can be stated that several feminist have worked hard by publishing articles, books, and other journals to argue their cases regarding unequal treatment of women because of their gender....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

The Third Wave of Feminism

Radical Feminism has proven to be the more effective choice of action since it promotes a greater, positive dialogue and initiates a course of action in support of feminist ideals.... Furthermore, to support the above-mentioned claims, cases in which radical feminist movements in the past have been more effective from relatively passive movements in the incidence of Women's Suffrage, will be identified....
13 Pages (3250 words) Essay

Globalization and modern britain

The third wave, as it is currently called, begun in the early 1990s, seeks to challenge or avoid the second waves tendency to define femininity and its focus on the educated professional woman, thus applying the feminist movement to a wider swath of women.... The more “passive” feminist movement of the Victorian Era (Brown, 2003) has evolved into a cultural insistence on gender equality.... The 1970s saw the so-called “second wave” feminist movement motivated by the determination to abolish all sexism wherever they found it....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Feminist Contribution to Welfare

A movement arose in the eighteenth century that addressed women's equality to men in the spheres of education, politics, and society: this was the feminist movement).... The author of the paper "feminist Contribution to Welfare" states that the belittling and subjection of women to the rules and laws of others has existed even before Christ.... Australian feminist, however, disputes that this was as a result of equality between men and women in Australia....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us