Feminist movement - Essay Example

Feminist movement Main Characteristics of Transnational Social Movements The social movements in the modern day context are less concerned for having direct control of state power that was earlier handled by them. Meanwhile, the modern social movements are widely observed to be in search of protecting the culture as well as the civil society compared to its technological state. Additionally, the main aim of the social movements is related to the power inequalities, possession and income of different classes of people.

In the similar context, it also focuses on the formation of cultural and personal individualities. Different non-material needs have been stimulated through the main stages of life shifting only the human satisfaction of economic needs which have repeatedly been highlighted as the sole concerns of such movements. In today’s transnational social movements, demands for racial parity can be observed in contradiction with other social groups that have developed different movements which were based mainly on the classes of people.

The transnational as well as other social movements, while involving and assembling people for demonstrations, focuses principally on sustained activities through which, certain democratic features can be shared within the community that were left out previously. Nevertheless, the transnational as well as social movements nowadays comprises certain discrete and varied networks of individuals whose involvement is sustained through the collective framework possessed by them for making it fruitful (Cohen, 1998).

These characteristics can be apparently observed with reference to the transnational feminist movement which took place during the 1960s and 1970s (Freedman, 2001). This particular movement was focused on the subject of providing equal rights to women within the modern society, abolishing the traditional viewpoints of a male dominated social structure. Hence, this particular movement was much concerned of restructuring the society without any direct interest in the state power, even though the leaders of the movement were later identified to play a significant role in the political alterations causing due to the rebellion.

Furthermore, the aim of the feminist rebellion was to build power equalities within the society which can again be identified as a major feature of modern day transnational movement. The notion of the movement also replicated the differences observed within the modern day society in terms of racial discriminations and gender discriminations concerning the women populaces sharing a democratic feature (Moghadam, 2009). Ways through which social movements has changed in the global age During 1960s, the libertarian cultures that dominated in the Western Europe and Northern America, contrasted against the closed cultural and political environments of Eastern Europe and Soviet Union.

During that period, the official socialism of most West European Communist parties went through crisis situations in the context of libertarian and critical components of socialist thinking. However, as time went on, there was a transformation in relation to the social movements, which later became unsolidified and flexible with the intervention of political parties. The contemporary transnational social movements can be thus observed to be performed in different countries, not only in Western Europe including France and Germany where green parties commonly participated in the governmental affairs, but also in other parts of the world.

Moreover, the political parties can be observed as facing difficulties to interlink with social movements which are mostly practiced in non-coalition with governments confronting that it should take the responsibility to proceed further for the effective implementation of the policies that are required for the movement (Grant, n.d.). Technological innovations related to changes in social movements The movements related to the social context have changed drastically, where experts have often recommended such alterations to be due to technological innovations by a major extent as it facilitates gathering information from around the world.

Through technological interventions it has been possible to provide adequate and reliable information about social movements through social websites such as Facebook, Internet, and Twitter among others. This further facilitated the sharing of various information regarding civil rights such as those related to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) (Connexions, 2012; Gurses & Ozcan, 2010). This particular notion, related to contemporary transnational social movements, can be evidently observed with reference to the operations of Redstockings, an active group in the Feminist Movement of United States during the 1960s and 1970s.

In its operations, Redstockings strongly opposed to lesbian separatism observing interpersonal relationships as an important issue in the ground of feminist struggle, where the then communication channels, such as radio and news media played a significant role in obtaining the attention of a greater percentage of common public echoing their feminist ideas with an encouraging slogan, “sisterhood is powerful”. The group was against the issues relating to cultural feminism that viewed of a separate culture of women for political involvement.

The agenda of Redstockings was principally entitled towards the unification of women for achieving liberation from a male-dominated society owing to their repeated oppression. The group thereby demanded for an end to the exploitation provided by male dominated society over women populaces, especially those who considered themselves as lesbians (Krolokke, 2005). References Connexions, 2012. Levels of Social Movements. Retrieved from http://cnx.org/content/m42945/latest/?collection=col11407/latest Cohen, R. (1998). Transnational Social Movements: An Assessment.

Retrieved from http://www.transcomm.ox.ac.uk/working%20papers/cohen.pdf Freedman, J. (2001). Feminism. Retrieved from http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/openup/chapters/0335204155.pdf Gurses, K. & Ozcan, P. (2010). Social Movements, Political Battles, and New Market Emergence in Pay Television. Retrieved from http research://www.iese.edu/ /pdfs/DI-0881-E.pdf Grant, R. (n.d.). Informal Social Movements. Retrieved from http://www.eolss.net/Sample-Chapters/C14/E1-44-03-08.pdf Krolokke, 2005. Three Waves of Feminism.

Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/6236_Chapter_1_Krolokke_2nd_Rev_Final_Pdf.pdf Moghadam, V. M. (2009). Globalization and Social Movements: Islamism, Feminism, and the Global Justice Movement. Globalization Research Center at the University of Hawai.