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Feminism (view source)

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trying to remove too-obvious bias (some bias is ok, but I think too much just damages CP)
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{{redirect|Feminists|a list of feminists|List of feminists}}
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'''Feminism''' originally was an expression used by [[suffragettes]] - who were predominantly [[pro-life]]<ref>[http://www.godlessprolifers.org/library/wallace4.html ''Susan B. Anthony opposed abortion'']</ref><ref>''"There is no question that she deplored the practice of abortion, as did every one of her colleagues in the suffrage movement."'' [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/opinion/13schiff.html?_r=1&oref=slogin ''Desperately Seeking Susan''] [[New York Times]] (13 October 2006)</ref><ref>[http://www.feministsforlife.org/history/foremoth.htm ''Voices of our Feminist Foremothers''] Feminists for Life</ref> - to obtain the right for women to vote in the early 1900s in the [[United States]] and the [[United Kingdom]].  By the 1970s, however, [[liberals]] had changed the meaning to represent people who favored [[abortion]] and identical roles or quotas for women in the military and in society as a whole. 
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[[Image:8marchrallydhaka (55).JPG|thumb|300px|[[International Women's Day]] rally in Dhaka, Bangladesh, organized by the National Women Workers Trade Union Centre on March 8, 2005.]]
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{{Feminism sidebar |expanded=all}}
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Specifically, a modern feminist tends to:
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'''Feminism''' is defined as the belief of the political, social, and economic equality of women. It is a discourse that involves various movements, [[Theory|theories]], and [[philosophies]] which are concerned with the issue of [[gender difference]], advocate equality for women, and campaign for [[women's rights]] and interests.<ref name=Cornell/><ref name=Humm2>{{cite book |author=Humm, Maggie |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Modern feminisms: Political, Literary, Cultural |year=1992 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-231-08072-7 |pages=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author= |title=Collins Dictionary and Thesaurus |year=2006 |publisher=Collins |location=London |isbn=0-00-722405-2 }}</ref><ref name=Humm/><ref>{{cite book |author=Agnes, Michael |title=Webster's New World College Dictionary |year=2007 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |location= |isbn=0-7645-7125-7 }}</ref> According to some, the history of feminism can be divided into three waves.<ref name=Humm> {{cite book |author=Humm, Maggie |title=The dictionary of feminist theory |year=1990 |publisher=Ohio State University Press |location=Columbus |isbn=0-8142-0506-2 |pages=278}}</ref><ref name=Walker1992> {{citation |last=Walker |first=Rebecca |title=Becoming the Third Wave |journal=Ms |issue=January/February, 1992 |pages=39–41 |year=1992}}</ref> The first wave was in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the second was in the 1960s and 1970s and the third extends from the 1990s to the present.<ref name="Suffragettes to Grrls"/> [[Feminist theory]] emerged from these feminist movements.<ref name=Chodorow1989/><ref name=gilligan1977/> It is manifest in a variety of disciplines such as [[feminist geography]], [[feminist history]] and [[feminist literary criticism]].
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* believe that there are no inherent differences between men and women and that all inequality is the result of men oppressing women<ref>The most significant belief underlying contemporary feminism is that there are no sex differences; therefore advocacy for equal rights must be extended to advocacy for equal results or outcomes. [http://www.endeavourforum.org.au/frauds1.htm]</ref>
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Feminism has altered predominant perspectives in a wide range of areas within Western society, ranging from culture to law. Feminist activists have campaigned for women's legal rights (rights of contract, property rights, voting rights); for women's right to bodily integrity and autonomy, for abortion rights, and for reproductive rights (including access to contraception and quality prenatal care); for protection from domestic violence, sexual harassment and rape;<ref name=Echols>{{cite book |author=Echols, Alice |authorlink=Alice Echols |title=Daring to be bad: radical feminism in America, 1967-1975 |year=1989 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis |isbn=0-8166-1787-2 |pages=416}}</ref><ref name=Cornell>{{cite book |author=Cornell, Drucilla |authorlink=Drucilla Cornell|title=At the heart of freedom: feminism, sex, and equality |year=1998 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, N.J. |isbn=978-0-691-02896-5 }}
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* oppose [[chivalry]] and even feign insult at harmless displays of it
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</ref> for workplace rights, including [[maternity leave]] and equal pay; and against other forms of discrimination.<ref name=shildrick>{{cite book |author=Price, Janet |coauthors=Shildrick, Margrit |title=Feminist theory and the body: a reader |year=1999 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=0-415-92566-5 |pages=487}}</ref><ref name=Butler2/><ref name=Messer-Davidow/>
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* view traditional [[marriage]] as unacceptably patriarchal
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* shirk traditional gender activities, like baking<ref>"But sometime between the Ides of March and Canada Day, I remembered that I'd given up baking cookies as a political act in 1975. ... No self-respecting feminist could be found in the company of cookie dough." [http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/arts/story.html?k=60432&id=3b3c71f6-0d7d-4e1a-b8fb-cf8d5b1af478]</ref>
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During much of its history, most feminist movements and theories had leaders who were predominantly middle-class white women from Western Europe and North America.<ref name=Walker/><ref name=BFT/><ref name=Narayan/> However, at least since [[Sojourner Truth|Sojourner Truth's]] 1851 speech to American feminists, [[multiracial feminism|women of other races]] have proposed alternative feminisms.<ref name=BFT/> This trend accelerated in the 1960s with the Civil Rights movement in the United States and the collapse of European colonialism in Africa, the Caribbean, parts of Latin America and Southeast Asia. Since that time, women in former European colonies and the [[Third World]] have proposed "Post-colonial" and "Third World" feminisms.<ref name=Narayan/> Some [[postcolonial feminism|Postcolonial feminists]], such as [[Chandra Talpade Mohanty]], are critical of Western feminism for being [[ethnocentric]].<ref name=Mohanty/> [[Black feminism|Black feminists]], such as [[Angela Davis]] and [[Alice Walker]], share this view.<ref name=Walker/>''
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* support [[affirmative action]] for women
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* detest women who are happy in traditional roles, such as housewife,<ref> "Being a [[housewife]] is an illegitimate profession... The choice to serve and be protected and plan towards being a family-maker is a choice that shouldn't be. The heart of  [[radical feminism]] is to change that." - Vivian Gornick, University of Illinois, "The Daily Illini," April 25, 1981. [http://www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com/artman/publish/LAF_Theme_Articles_13/You_Don_t_Know_Feminism_744100744.shtml        "You Don't Know Feminism"] </ref> and especially dislike those who defend such roles
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Since the 1980s [[Standpoint feminism|Standpoint feminists]] argued that feminism should examine how women's experience of inequality relates to that of [[racism]], [[homophobia]], [[classism]] and [[colonization]].<ref name=BFT>Hill Collins, P. (2000): ''Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment'' (New York: Routledge)</ref><ref name=Harding2003>{{cite book |author=Harding, Sandra |title=The feminist standpoint theory reader: intellectual and political controversies |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-0-415-94501-1}}</ref> In the late 1980s and 1990s postmodern feminists argued that [[gender roles]] are [[social construction|socially constructed]],<ref name=debeauvoir1973/><ref name=Butler/><ref name=West&Zimmerman>{{citation |last=West |first=Candace | last2 = Zimmerman | first2 = Don H. |title=Doing Gender |journal=Gender and Society |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=26 |date=June, 1987 |url=http://gas.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/1/2/125 |doi=10.1177/0891243287001002002}}</ref> and that it is impossible to generalize women's experiences across cultures and histories.<ref name=Benhabib>{{citation |last=Benhabib |first=Seyla |title=From Identity Politics to Social Feminism: A Plea for the Nineties |journal=Philosophy of Education |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=14 |year=1995}}</ref>
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* prefer that women wear pants rather than dresses, presumably because men do<ref>"[T]he wearing of pantsuits is often a useful feminism signifier, depending on the culture of the law firm." [http://feministlawprofs.law.sc.edu/?p=2640]</ref><ref>"I was part of a growing tribe of pesky women called feminists by friends and enemies alike.  We women stormed out the door in our imitation men's suits ...." [http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/arts/story.html?k=60432&id=3b3c71f6-0d7d-4e1a-b8fb-cf8d5b1af478]</ref>
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* seek women in combat in the military just like men, and coed submarines
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* refuse to take her husband's last name when marrying<ref>"(Almost half the married women in the Harvard-Radcliffe class of 1990 kept or hyphenated their names.) If you read the New York Times wedding pages, and shut up, you do, the phrase 'the bride, who is keeping her name' seems like the norm, unless his name is Rockefeller. http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2003/10/16/names/index.html]</ref>
      
==History==
 
==History==
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Roots of the movement in the United States and the United Kingdom include the [[Women's Suffrage]] movement of the early 1900's and the [[Women's Liberation]] (or "Second Wave Feminist") movement of the 1960's and 1970's.
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[[Image:8marta.jpg|thumb|A 1932 Soviet poster for [[International Women's Day]].]]
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{{main|History of feminism}}
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{{see also|Protofeminist}}
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Feminists and scholars have divided the movement's history into three "waves". The [[First-wave feminism|first wave]] refers mainly to [[women's suffrage]] movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (mainly concerned with women's right to vote). The [[Second-wave feminism|second wave]] refers to the ideas and actions associated with the women's liberation movement beginning in the 1960s (which campaigned for legal and social equality for women). The [[Third-wave feminism|third wave]] refers to a continuation of, and a reaction to, the perceived failures of, second-wave feminism, beginning in the 1990s.<ref name="Suffragettes to Grrls">{{cite book|last=Krolokke|first=Charlotte|coauthors=Anne Scott Sorensen|title=Gender Communication Theories and Analyses:From Silence to Performance|year=2005|publisher=Sage|isbn=0761929185|pages=24|chapter=Three Waves of Feminism: From Suffragettes to Grrls}}</ref>
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===First wave===
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{{main|First-wave feminism}}
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First-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century in the [[United Kingdom]] and the [[United States]]. Originally it focused on the promotion of equal contract and property rights for women and the opposition to chattel marriage and ownership of married women (and their children) by their husbands. However, by the end of the nineteenth century, activism focused primarily on gaining political power, particularly the right of women's [[suffrage]]. Yet, feminists such as [[Voltairine de Cleyre]] and [[Margaret Sanger]] were still active in campaigning for women's sexual, [[reproductive rights|reproductive]], and economic rights at this time.<ref name=Freedman>{{cite book |author=Freedman, Estelle B. |title=No Turning Back : The History of Feminism and the Future of Women |year=2003 |publisher=Ballantine Books |location= |isbn=0-345-45053-1 |pages=464}}</ref>
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In [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]] the [[Suffragette]]s campaigned for the women's vote. In 1918 the [[Representation of the People Act 1918]] was passed granting the vote to women over the age of 30 who owned houses. In 1928 this was extended to all women over eighteen.<ref name=Phillips>{{cite book |author=Phillips, Melanie |title=The ascent of woman: a history of the suffragette movement and the ideas behind it |year=2004 |publisher=Abacus |location=London |isbn=978-0-349-11660-0}}</ref> In the [[United States]] leaders of this movement included [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]] and [[Susan B. Anthony]], who each campaigned for the abolition of slavery prior to championing women's right to vote. Other important leaders include [[Lucy Stone]], [[Olympia Brown]], and [[Helen Pitts]]. American first-wave feminism involved a wide range of women, some belonging to conservative Christian groups (such as [[Frances Willard (suffragist)|Frances Willard]] and the [[Woman's Christian Temperance Union]]), others resembling the diversity and radicalism of much of [[second-wave feminism]] (such as [[Matilda Joslyn Gage]] and the [[National Woman Suffrage Association]]). In the [[United States]] first-wave feminism is considered to have ended with the passage of the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]] (1919), granting women the right to vote in all states.The term ''first wave'', was coined retrospectively after the term ''[[second-wave feminism]]'' began to be used to describe a newer feminist movement that focused as much on fighting social and cultural inequalities as political inequalities.<ref name=Freedman> {{cite book |author=Freedman, Estelle B. |title=No Turning Back : The History of Feminism and the Future of Women |publisher=Ballantine Books |isbn=0-345-45053-1 |pages=464}}</ref><ref name= DuBois> {{cite book |author=DuBois, Ellen Carol |title=Harriot Stanton Blatch and the winning of woman suffrage |year=1997 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven, Conn. |isbn=978-0-300-06562-0}}</ref><ref name=Flexner> Flexner, Eleanor, ''Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States'' (The Belknap Press, 1996), ISBN 9780674106539</ref><ref name= Wheeler>{{cite book |author=Wheeler, Marjorie W. |title=One woman, one vote: rediscovering the woman suffrage movement |year=1995 |publisher=NewSage Press |location=Troutdale, OR |isbn=978-0-939165-26-0 }}</ref><ref name=Stevens>{{cite book |author=Stevens, Doris |authorlink= |coauthors=O'Hare, Carol |title=Jailed for freedom: American women win the vote |year=1995 |publisher=NewSage Press |location=Troutdale, OR |isbn=978-0-939165-25-2 }}</ref>
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The first wave of feminists, in contrast to the second wave, was hostile to abortion. <ref>Elizabeth Cady Stanton (October 16, 1873) in a letter to Julia Ward Howe recorded in Howe's diary at Harvard University Library: “when we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit”-.</ref> <ref>"Anthony,Susan B.(August 8, 1869) The Revolution: "All the articles on this subject that I have read have been from men. They denounce women as alone guilty, and never include man in any plans for the remedy. . . Guilty? Yes. No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed [abortion]. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime!"</ref>
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===Second wave===
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{{main|Second-wave feminism}}
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[[Image:Mystique.jpg|thumb|right|Original paperback cover from [[Betty Friedan|Betty Friedan's]] ''[[The Feminine Mystique]]'' (1963)]]
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''[[Second-wave feminism]]'' refers to a period of feminist activity beginning in the early 1960s and lasting through the late 1980s. The scholar Imelda Whelehan suggests that the second wave was a continuation of the earlier phase of feminism involving the suffragettes in the UK and USA.<ref name=Whelehan>{{cite book |author=Whelehan, Imelda |title=Modern feminist thought: from the second wave to "post-feminism" |year=1995 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=978-0-7486-0621-4}}</ref> Second-wave feminism has continued to exist since that time and coexists with what is termed ''[[third-wave feminism]]''. The scholar Estelle Freedman compares first and second-wave feminism saying that the first wave focused on rights such as suffrage, whereas the second wave was largely concerned with other issues of equality, such as ending discrimination.<ref name=Freedman/>
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The [[Equal Rights Amendment]], which proponents claimed would address the inadequacies of the [[Fourteenth Amendment]] concerning women and citizenship, was proposed in the US in 1923. The amendment passed Congress in 1972 but was ultimately defeated, falling just three states short of the required three-quarters majority on June 30, 1982. Some conservatives, particularly [[Phyllis Schlafly]], felt that its passage would entail several consequences, including making girls subject to the military draft, requiring taxpayer-funded [[abortion]] the end of single-sex schools and classes, requiring the issuance of homosexual marriage licenses, and the revocation of laws that protect women in dangerous jobs, such as factory or mining work.  Indeed, in states that passed their own state versions of ERA, several of these results were subsequently ordered by courts.<ref>For example, the [[Hawaii]] and [[Massachusetts]] Supreme Courts ordered the issuance of homosexual marriage licenses based in part on their on their state ERAs, and the [[New Mexico]] Supreme Court ordered taxpayer-funded [[abortion]] based on its state ERA.</ref>
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The feminist activist and author [[Carol Hanisch]] coined the slogan "The Personal is Political" which became synonymous with the second wave.<ref name=Echols/><ref name=Hanisch>{{cite web |url=http://scholar.alexanderstreet.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=2259 |title=Hanisch, New Intro to "The Personal is Political" - Second Wave and Beyond |accessdate=2008-06-08 |last=Hanisch |first=Carol |date=2006-01-01 |work=The Personal Is Political}}</ref> Second-wave feminists saw women's cultural and political inequalities as inextricably linked and encouraged women to understand aspects of their personal lives as deeply politicized and as reflecting [[sexism|sexist]] power structures.
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The feminist movement in the West evolved in the 1980s with the rise of so-called [[Post-Feminism]] (also called "[[Third-Wave]]" feminism), which stresses that women have many rights that go unrecognized, often by women themselves, in everyday life, and in the American legal structure. Most members of the feminist movement support reproductive rights currently guaranteed by American law, including the legal right to [[abortion]]. This stance is opposed by many conservatives, leading political commentator [[Rush Limbaugh]] to coin the term "Femi-nazis" to refer to extreme feminist activists.
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====Women's Liberation in the USA====
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The phrase "Women’s Liberation" was first used in the United States in 1964 and first appeared in print in 1966.<ref name="sarachild">{{cite book |last=Sarachild |first=Kathie |editor=Sarachild, K. |others=Hanisch, C., Levine, F., Leon, B., Price, C. |title=Feminist Revolution |year=1978 |publisher=Random House |location=New York  |isbn=0394408217 |doi= |pages=6 |chapter=Consciousness-Raising: A Radical Weapon}}.</ref><ref name=Mitchell> {{citation |last=Mitchell |first=Juliet |title=Women: The longest revolution |journal=New Left review |issue=Nov-Dec |pages=26 |year=1966}}</ref> By 1968, although the term ''Women’s Liberation Front'' appeared in the magazine ''[[Ramparts (magazine)|Ramparts]]'', it was starting to refer to the whole women’s movement.<ref name=Hinckle>{{citation |last=Hinckle |first=Warren | coauthor=Marianne Hinckle |title=Women Powe |journal=Ramparts |issue=February |pages=8 |year=1968}}</ref> [[History of brassieres#Feminist protests, Miss America and "Bra burning"|Bra-burning]] also became associated with the movement.<ref name=Jo_Freeman>{{cite book |author=Freeman, Jo |title=The politics of women's liberation: a case study of an emerging social movement and its relation to the policy process |year=1975 |publisher=McKay |location=New York |isbn=0-582-28009-5 |pages=268}}</ref> One of the most vocal critics of the women's liberation movement has been the African American feminist and intellectual Gloria Jean Watkins (who uses the pseudonym "[[bell hooks]]") who argues that this movement glossed over race and class and thus failed to address "the issues that divided women". She highlighted the lack of minority voices in the women's movement in her book ''Feminist theory from margin to center'' (1984).<ref name=hooks1984>{{cite book |author=Hooks, Bell |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Feminist theory: from margin to center |year=2000 |publisher=South End Press |location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=0-89608-614-3 |pages=}}</ref>
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During the administration of [[Bill Clinton]], feminism made a partial resurgence, but feminist leadership largely failed to criticize President Clinton's [[sexist]] behavior toward female employees as both Arkansas Governor and U.S. President.<ref>Odone, Christina [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article528875.ece ''Left-wing misogyny is alive and well: The party’s feminist agenda allows Labour men to get away with sexist behaviour''] (2 June 2005) [[The Times]]</ref><ref>Jackson, Candice E. ''"Their Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine"'' (World Ahead Publishing; 2005) ISBN 0-9746-7013-8</ref>
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====The Feminine Mystique====
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{{main|The Feminine Mystique}}
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[[Betty Friedan|Betty Friedan's]] ''[[The Feminine Mystique]]'' (1963) criticized the idea that women could only find fulfillment through childrearing and [[homemaker|homemaking]]. According to Friedan's obituary in the ''[[The New York Times]]'', ''The Feminine Mystique'' “ignited the contemporary women's movement in 1963 and as a result permanently transformed the social fabric of the United States and countries around the world” and “is widely regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.”<ref name=NYTimes>{{citation |last=Fox |first=Margalit |title=Betty Friedan, Who Ignited Cause in 'Feminine Mystique,' Dies at 85' | newspaper = New York times |date=February 5, 2006}}</ref> In the book Friedan hypothesizes that women are victims of a false belief system that requires them to find identity and meaning in their lives through their husbands and children. Such a system causes women to completely lose their identity in that of their family. Friedan specifically locates this system among post-[[World War II]] [[middle-class]] [[suburban]] communities. At the same time, America's post-war economic boom had led to the development of new technologies that were supposed to make household work less difficult, but that often had the result of making women's work less meaningful and valuable.<ref name=Friedan>{{cite book |author=Friedan, Betty |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Feminine Mystique |date= |publisher=W W Norton & Co Inc |isbn=978-0-393-08436-1}}
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</ref>
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==Quotations==  
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===Third wave===
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{{main|Third-wave feminism}}
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[[Third-wave feminism]] began in the early 1990s, arising as a response to perceived failures of the second wave and also as a response to the backlash against initiatives and movements created by the second wave. Third-wave feminism seeks to challenge or avoid what it deems the second wave's [[Essentialism|essentialist]] definitions of [[femininity]], which (according to them) over-emphasize the experiences of upper middle-class white women.
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===[[Robin Morgan]]===
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A [[post-structuralism|post-structuralist]] interpretation of gender and sexuality is central to much of the third wave's ideology. Third-wave feminists often focus on "micro-politics" and challenge the second wave's paradigm as to what is, or is not, good for females.<ref name=Freedman/><ref name=Henry>{{cite book |author=Henry, Astrid |title=Not my mother's sister: generational conflict and third-wave feminism |year=2004 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |isbn=978-0-253-21713-4}}
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</ref><ref name=Gillis>{{cite book |author=Gillis, Stacy |coauthors=Howie, Gillian; Munford, Rebecca |title=Third wave feminism: a critical exploration |year=2007 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Basingstoke |isbn=978-0-230-52174-2}}</ref><ref name=Faludi>{{cite book |author=Faludi, Susan |authorlink=Susan Faludi |title=Backlash: the undeclared war against women |year=1992 |publisher=Vintage |location=London |isbn=978-0-09-922271-2}}</ref> The third wave has its origins in the mid-1980s. Feminist leaders rooted in the second wave like [[Gloria Anzaldua]], [[bell hooks]], Chela Sandoval, [[Cherrie Moraga]], [[Audre Lorde]], [[Maxine Hong Kingston]], and many other black feminists, sought to negotiate a space within feminist thought for consideration of race-related subjectivities.<ref name=Gillis/><ref name=Walker/><ref name=Heywood>{{cite book |author=Leslie, Heywood; Drake, Jennifer |title=Third wave agenda: being feminist, doing feminism |year=1997 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis |isbn=978-0-8166-3005-4}}</ref>
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*"I feel that 'man-hating' is an honourable and viable political act, that the oppressed have a right to class-hatred against the class that is oppressing them."<ref>[http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/LGB.asp From] "Sisterhood is Powerful"(1970)</ref>
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Third-wave feminism also contains internal debates between [[difference feminism|difference feminists]] such as the psychologist [[Carol Gilligan]] (who believes that there are important differences between the sexes) and those who believe that there are no inherent differences between the sexes and contend that gender roles are due to [[social conditioning]].<ref name=Gilligan>{{cite book |author=Gilligan, Carol |authorlink=Carol Gilligan |title=In a different voice: psychological theory and women's development |year=1993 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Mass. |isbn=0-674-44544-9 |pages=184}}</ref>
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*"I haven't the faintest notion what possible revolutionary role white hetero-sexual men could fulfill, since they are the very embodiment of reactionary-vested-interest-power. But then, I have great difficulty examining what men in general could possibly do about all this. In addition to doing the sh*twork that women have been doing for generations, possibly not exist? No, I really don't mean that. Yes, I really do."<ref>[http://circuitous.org/scraps/combahee.html From] her introduction to "Sisterhood is Powerful"</ref><ref>http://www.feministcampus.org/network/chat/morgan04232003.asp</ref>
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===Post-feminism===
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{{details|Third-wave_feminism#Post-feminism}}
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''Post-feminism'' describes a range of viewpoints reacting to feminism. The term was first used in the 1980s to describe a backlash against [[second-wave feminism]]. It is now a label for a wide range of theories that take critical approaches to previous feminist discourses and includes challenges to the second wave's ideas.<ref name=Wright2000>{{cite book |author=Wright, Elizabeth |title=Lacan and Postfeminism (Postmodern Encounters) |year=2000 |publisher=Totem Books |location= |isbn=978-1-84046-182-9}}
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</ref> Other post-feminists say that feminism is no longer relevant to today's society.<ref>{{cite book |author=Modleski, Tania |title=Feminism without women: culture and criticism in a "postfeminist" age |year=1991 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=0-415-90416-1 |pages=188}}</ref> Amelia Jones has written that the post-feminist texts which emerged in the 1980s and 1990s portrayed second-wave feminism as a monolithic entity and criticized it using generalizations.<ref> Jones, Amelia. “Postfeminism, Feminist Pleasures, and Embodied Theories of Art,” in ''New Feminist Criticism: Art, Identity, Action'', ed. by Joana Frueh, Cassandra L. Langer and Arlene Raven. New York: HarperCollins, 1994. 16-41, 20. </ref>
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*"We can't destroy the inequities between men and women until we destroy marriage."<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_/ai_n9357217 From] "Sisterhood is Powerful"</ref>
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One of the earliest uses of the term was in Susan Bolotin's 1982 article "Voices of the Post-Feminist Generation," published in ''[[New York Times Magazine]]''. This article was based on a number of interviews with women who largely agreed with the goals of feminism, but did not identify as feminists.<ref>{{cite book |author=Rosen, Ruth |title=The world split open: how the modern women's movement changed America |year=2001 |publisher=Penguin |location=New York, N.Y. |isbn=0-14-009719-8 |pages=444}}</ref>
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*"I claim that rape exists any time sexual intercourse occurs when it has not been initiated by the woman, out of her own genuine affection and desire."<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_199903/ai_n8831317 From] "Theory and Practice: Pornography and Rape"</ref>
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Some contemporary feminists, such as [[Katha Pollitt]] or [[Nadine Strossen]], consider feminism to hold simply that "women are people". Views that separate the sexes rather than unite them are considered by these writers to be ''sexist'' rather than ''feminist''.<ref name=Pollitt>{{cite book |author=Pollitt, Katha |authorlink=Katha Pollitt |title=Reasonable creatures: essays on women and feminism |year=1995 |publisher=Vintage Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-679-76278-2 }}</ref><ref name=Strossen>{{cite book |author=Strossen, Nadine |authorlink=Nadine Strossen |title=Defending pornography: free speech, sex, and the fight for women's rights |year=1995 |publisher=Scribner |location=New York, N.Y. |isbn=978-0-684-19749-4}}</ref>
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===[[Andrea Dworkin]]===
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In her book ''[[Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women]]'', [[Susan Faludi]] argues that a backlash against second wave feminism in the 1980s has successfully re-defined feminism through its terms. She argues that it constructed the women's liberation movement as the source of many of the problems alleged to be plaguing women in the late 1980s. She also argues that many of these problems are illusory, constructed by the media without reliable evidence. According to her, this type of backlash is a historical trend, recurring when it appears that women have made substantial gains in their efforts to obtain equal rights.<ref name=Faludi_Backlash>{{cite book |author=Faludi, Susan |authorlink=Susan Faludi |title=Backlash: the undeclared war against American women |year=1991 |publisher=Crown |location=New York |isbn=0-517-57698-8 |pages=552}}</ref>
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*"Marriage as an institution developed from rape as a practice."<ref name="LfaWZ">[http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/LGB.asp From] her book "Letters from a War Zone"</ref>
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Angela McRobbie argues that adding the prefix post to feminism undermines the strides that feminism has made in achieving equality for everyone, including women. Post-feminism gives the impression that equality has been achieved and that feminists can now focus on something else entirely. McRobbie believes that post-feminism is most clearly seen on so-called feminist media products, such as [[Bridget Jones's Diary]], [[Sex and the City]], and [[Ally McBeal]]. Female characters like Bridget Jones and Carrie Bradshaw claim to be liberated and clearly enjoy their sexuality, but what they are constantly searching for is the one man who will make everything worthwhile. <ref>McRobbie, Angela (2004). ''Post-feminism and popular culture.'' Feminist Media Studies,4:3,255 — 264.</ref>
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*"Heterosexual intercourse is the pure, formalized expression of contempt for women's bodies."<ref name="LfaWZ"/>
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===French feminism===
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[[French feminism]] refers to a branch of feminist thinking from a group of [[feminists in France]] from the 1970s to the 1990s. French feminism, compared to Anglophone feminism, is distinguished by an approach which is more philosophical and literary. Its writings tend to be effusive and metaphorical being less concerned with political doctrine and generally focused on theories of "the body".<ref name=Moi> {{cite book |author=Moi, T. |authorlink= |title=French feminist thought: a reader |year=1987 |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=978-0-631-14973-6}}</ref> The term includes writers who are not French, but who have worked substantially in France and the French tradition<ref name=Spivak1981>{{citation
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|last=Spivak
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|first=Gayatri Chakravorty
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|author-link = Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
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|year=1981
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|title=French Feminism in an International Frame
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|series = Feminist Readings: French Texts/American Contexts
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|journal=Yale French Studies
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|issue=62
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|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]
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|pages=154–184
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|url=http://www.jstor.org/pss/2929898
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|issn = 00440078
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|doi=
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|accessdate=2008-06-08
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}}</ref> such as [[Julia Kristeva]].
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*"In my own life, I don't have intercourse. That is my choice."<ref>Andrea Dworkin: [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4024585,00.html "'They took my body from me and used it'"] (Guardian Unlimited)</ref>
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The French author and philosopher [[Simone de Beauvoir]] wrote novels; monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues; essays, biographies, and an autobiography. She is now best known for her metaphysical novels, including ''She Came to Stay'' and ''[[The Mandarins]]'', and for her 1949 treatise ''[[The Second Sex]]'', a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism. It sets out a [[feminist existentialism]] which prescribes a moral revolution. As an [[existentialist]], she accepted [[Jean-Paul Sartre|Jean-Paul Sartre's]] precept that ''[[existence precedes essence]]''; hence "one is not born a woman, but becomes one". Her analysis focuses on the social construction of Woman as [[Other|the Other]], this de Beauvoir identifies as fundamental to women's oppression.<ref name=debeauvoir1973> {{cite book |author=Beauvoir, Simone de; Parshley, H. M. |title=The second sex |year=1997 |publisher=Vintage |location=London |isbn=978-0-09-974421-4}}</ref> She argues that women have historically been considered deviant and abnormal, and contends that even [[Mary Wollstonecraft]] considered men to be the ideal toward which women should aspire. De Beauvoir argues that for feminism to move forward, this attitude must be set aside.<ref name=debeauvoir1973/>
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*Q: People think you are very hostile to men. A: "I am."<ref>[http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/WarZoneChaptIID.html "Nervous Interview"], 1978 (Background: "Norman Mailer managed to publish lots of interviews with himself, none of which made much sense, all of which were taken seriously by literati of various stripes. So this is half parody of him and his chosen form and half parody of myself and my chosen movement.")</ref>
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In the 1970s french feminists approached feminism with the concept of ''[[écriture féminine]]'' (which translates as female, or feminine writing).<ref name=Wright2000/> [[Helene Cixous]] argues that writing and philosophy are ''[[Wikt:phallocentric|phallocentric]]'' and along with other French feminists such as [[Luce Irigaray]] emphasize "writing from the body" as a subversive exercise.<ref name=Wright2000/> The work of the feminist psychoanalyst and philosopher, [[Julia Kristeva]], has influenced feminist theory in general and [[feminist literary criticism]] in particular. However, as the scholar Elizabeth Wright points out, "none of these French feminists align themselves with the feminist movement as it appeared in the [[Anglophone]] world".<ref name=Wright2000/><ref name=Moi1986>{{cite book |author=Kristeva, Julia; Moi, Toril |authorlink=Toril Moi |title=The Kristeva reader |year=1986 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-231-06325-3 |pages=328}}
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</ref>
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*"Men use the night to erase us."<ref name="TNaD">[http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/WarZoneChaptIb.html The Night and Danger]</ref>
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==Theoretical schools==
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{{main|Feminist theory}}
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*"The annihilation of a woman's personality, individuality, will, character, is prerequisite to male sexuality."<ref name="TNaD"/>
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[[Feminist theory]] is an extension of feminism into theoretical or philosophical fields. It encompasses work in a variety of disciplines, including [[feminist anthropology|anthropology]], [[feminist sociology|sociology]], [[feminist economics|economics]], [[women's studies]], [[feminist literary criticism|literary criticism]],<ref name=Zajko>{{cite book |author=Zajko, Vanda |coauthors=Leonard, Miriam |title=Laughing with Medusa: classical myth and feminist thought |year=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0-19-927438-X |pages=445}}
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</ref><ref name=Howe>{{cite book |author=Howe, Mica; Aguiar, Sarah Appleton |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=He said, she says: an RSVP to the male text |year=2001 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press |location=Madison [[N.J.]] |isbn=0-8386-3915-1 |pages=292}}
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</ref> [[Art_history#Psychoanalytic_art_history|art history]],<ref>Griselda Pollock, ''Encounters in the Virtual Feminist Museum: Time, Space and the Archive''. Routledge, 2007.</ref> [[Feminist_theory#Feminist_psychoanalysis|psychoanalysis]]<ref name=matrixial_borderspace>{{cite book |author=Ettinger, Bracha |authorlink=Bracha Ettinger |coauthors=Judith Butler, Brian Massumi, Griselda Pollock |title=The matrixial borderspace |year=2006 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis |isbn=0-8166-3587-0 |pages=245}}
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</ref> and [[feminist philosophy|philosophy]].<ref>Brabeck, M. and Brown, L. (With Christian, L., Espin, O., Hare-Mustin, R., Kaplan, A., Kaschak, E., Miller, D., Phillips, E., Ferns, T., and Van Ormer, A.). (1997). Feminist theory and psychological practice. In J. Worell and N. Johnson (Eds.) Shaping the future of feminist psychology: Education, research, and practice) (pp.15-35). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.</ref><ref name=Florence>{{cite book |author=Florence, Penny |coauthors=Foster, Nicola |title=Differential aesthetics: art practices, philosophy and feminist understandings |year=2001 |publisher=Ashgate |location=Aldershot, Hants, England |isbn=0-7546-1493-X |pages=360}}</ref> Feminist theory aims to understand [[gender inequality]] and focuses on gender politics, power relations, and sexuality. While providing a critique of these social and political relations, much of feminist theory also focuses on the promotion of women's rights and interests. Themes explored in feminist theory include [[discrimination]], [[stereotyping]], [[objectification]] (especially [[sexual objectification]]), [[oppression]], and [[patriarchy]].<ref name=gilligan1977>
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{{citation
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|last=Gilligan
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|first=Carol
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|date=1977-00-00
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|title='In a Different Voice: Women's Conceptions of Self and Morality'
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|journal=Harvard Educational Review
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|volume=47
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|issue=4
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|pages=481–517
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|url=http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ174986&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ174986
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|doi=
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|oclc =
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|accessdate=2008-06-08
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}} (1977)</ref><ref name=Chodorow1989>{{cite book |author=Chodorow, Nancy |title=Feminism and psychoanalytic theory |year=1989 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven, Conn. |isbn=978-0-300-05116-2}}</ref>
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===[[Marilyn French]]===
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The American literary critic and feminist [[Elaine Showalter]] describes the phased development of feminist theory. The first she calls "feminist critique", in which the feminist reader examines the ideologies behind literary phenomena. The second Showalter calls "[[gynocriticism]]", in which the "woman is producer of textual meaning" including "the psychodynamics of female creativity; linguistics and the problem of a female language; the trajectory of the individual or collective female literary career and literary history". The last phase she calls "gender theory", in which the "ideological inscription and the literary effects of the sex/gender system" are explored".<ref name=showalter1979> {{cite book |author=Showalter, Elaine |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=The New feminist criticism: essays on women, literature, and theory |year=1985 |publisher=Pantheon |location=New York |isbn=978-0-394-72647-2 |pages=}}</ref> This model has been criticized by the scholar [[Toril Moi]] who sees it as an [[essentialism|essentialist]] and [[determinism|deterministic]] model for female subjectivity and for failing to account for the situation of women outside the West.<ref name=Moi>{{cite book |author=Moi, Toril |title=Sexual/textual politics: feminist literary theory |year=2002 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-0-415-28012-9}}
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[[Image:Marilyn French.gif|left]]
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</ref>
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*"As long as some men use physical force to subjugate females, all men need not. The knowledge that some men do suffices to threaten all women. He can beat or kill the woman he claims to love; he can rape women ... he can sexually molest his daughters ... THE VAST MAJORITY OF MEN IN THE WORLD DO ONE OR MORE OF THE ABOVE" - ''The War Against Women'', p. 182 (her emphasis)<ref>http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/034538248X/ref=sib_dp_pt#</ref>
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*"All patriarchists exalt the home and family as sacred, demanding it remain inviolate from prying eyes. Men want privacy for their violations of women ... All women learn in childhood that women as a sex are men's prey" - ''The War Against Women'', p. 186 <ref>http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/034538248X/ref=sib_dp_pt#</ref>
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==Movements and ideologies==
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[[Image:Betty Friedan 1960.jpg|thumb|[[Betty Friedan]] in 1960]]
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Several submovements of feminist [[ideology]] have developed over the years; some of the major subtypes are listed below. These movements often overlap, and some feminists identify themselves with several types of feminist thought.
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*"The media treat male assaults on women like rape, beating, and murder of wives and female lovers, or male incest with children, as individual aberrations ... obscuring the fact that all male violence toward women is part of a concerted campaign" - ''The War Against Women'', p. 21 <ref>http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/034538248X/ref=sib_dp_pt#</ref>
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===Liberal feminism===
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{{main|Liberal feminism}}
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[[Liberal feminism]] asserts the equality of men and women through political and legal reform. It is an individualistic form of feminism, which focuses on women’s ability to show and maintain their equality through their own actions and choices. Liberal feminism uses the personal interactions between men and women as the place from which to transform society. According to liberal feminists, all women are capable of asserting their ability to achieve equality, therefore it is possible for change to happen without altering the structure of society. Issues important to liberal feminists include reproductive and abortion rights, sexual harassment, voting, education, "equal pay for equal work", affordable childcare, affordable health care, and bringing to light the frequency of sexual and domestic violence against women.<ref>hooks, bell. "Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center" Cambridge, MA: South End Press 1984</ref>
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====In fiction authored by [[Marilyn French]]====
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===Radical feminism===
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{{main|Radical feminism}}
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{{related|[[Anti-pornography feminism]],<br />[[Cultural feminism]],<br />[[Lesbian feminism]],<br />[[Separatist feminism]],<br />[[Sex-positive feminism]]}}
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[[Radical feminism]] considers the [[capitalism|capitalist]] hierarchy, which it describes as sexist, as the defining feature of women’s oppression. Radical feminists believe that women can free themselves only when they have done away with what they consider an inherently oppressive and dominating system. Radical feminists feel that there is a male-based authority and power structure and that it is responsible for oppression and inequality, and that as long as the system and its values are in place, society will not be able to be reformed in any significant way. Some radical feminists see no alternatives other than the total uprooting and reconstruction of society in order to achieve their goals.<ref name=Echols/>
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*My feelings about men are the result of my experience. I have little sympathy for them. Like a Jew just released from Dachau, I watch the handsome young Nazi soldier fall writhing to the ground with a bullet in his stomach and I look briefly and walk on. I don't even need to shrug. I simply don't care. What he was, as a person, I mean, what his shames and yearnings were, simply don't matter" - ''The Women's Room''
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Over time a number of sub-types of Radical feminism have emerged, such as [[Cultural feminism]], [[Separatist feminism]] and [[Anti-pornography feminism]]. Cultural feminism is the ideology of a "female nature" or "female essence" that attempts to revalidate what they consider undervalued female attributes.<ref name=Alcoff_1998>{{cite journal |author=Alcoff, Linda |journal=Signs |volume=13 | number= 3 |date=Spring, 1998 |pages=32 |title=Cultural Feminism Versus Post-Structuralism: the Identity Crisis in Feminist Theory |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0097-9740%28198821%2913%3A3%3C405%3ACFVPTI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V |month=September |year=1988 |issue=3 |doi=10.1086/494426}}</ref> It emphasizes the difference between women and men but considers that difference to be psychological, and to be culturally constructed rather than biologically innate.<ref name=Kramarae>{{cite book |author=Kramarae, Cheris |coauthors=Spender, Dale |title=Routledge international encyclopedia of women: global women's issues and knowledge |year=2000 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=:0415920906 |pages=746}}</ref> Its critics assert that because it is based on an [[essentialist]] view of the differences between women and men and advocates independence and institution building, it has led feminists to retreat from politics to “life-style”<ref name=Verta/> Once such critic, [[Alice Echols]] (a feminist historian and cultural theorist), credits [[Redstockings]] member Brooke Williams with introducing the term cultural feminism in 1975 to describe the depoliticisation of [[radical feminism]].<ref name=Verta>{{cite journal |author=Taylor, Verta | co-author=Rupp, Leila J. |journal=Signs |volume=19 | number= 1 |date=Autumn, 1993 |pages=30 |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0097-9740%28199323%2919%3A1%3C32%3AWCALFA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D |title=# Women's Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: A Reconsideration of Cultural Feminism |month=November |issue=1 |doi=10.1086/494861}}</ref>
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*"All men are rapists and that's all they are" - The character Mia in her novel ''The Women's Room'', p. 462<ref>http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0345353617/ref=sib_dp_pt#</ref>
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Separatist feminism is a form of radical feminism that does not support [[heterosexual]] relationships. Its proponents argue that the [[sexism|sexual disparities]] between men and women are unresolvable. Separatist feminists generally do not feel that men can make positive contributions to the feminist movement and that even well-intentioned men replicate [[patriarchal]] dynamics.<ref name=Hoagland>{{cite book |author=Hoagland, Sarah |authorlink=Sarah Hoagland |title=Lesbian Ethics |year=1997 |publisher=LE publications |location=Venice, CA}}</ref> Author [[Marilyn Frye]] describes separatist feminism as "separation of various sorts or modes from men and from institutions, relationships, roles and activities that are male-defined, male-dominated, and operating for the benefit of males and the maintenance of male privilege{{ndash}} this separation being initiated or maintained, at will, ''by women''".<ref>{{cite book |editor=Meyers, Diana T. |author=Frye, Marilyn |chapter=Some Reflections on Separatism and Power |title=Feminist social thought: a reader |year=1997 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York  |isbn=0-415-91537-6}}</ref>
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===Other===
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===Black feminism===
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[[Image:Angela-Davis-Mar-28-2006.jpg|thumb|[[Angela Davis]] speaking at the University of Alberta on 28 March 2006]]
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{{main|Black feminism|Womanism}}
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Black feminism argues that [[sexism]], class oppression, and [[racism]] are inextricably bound together.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.feministezine.com/feminist/modern/Defining-Black-Feminist-Thought.html|title=Defining Black Feminist Thought|accessmonthday=May 31|accessyear=2007}}</ref> Forms of feminism that strive to overcome sexism and [[Social class|class]] oppression but ignore race can discriminate against many people, including women, through racial bias. The [[Combahee River Collective]] argued in 1974 that the liberation of black women entails freedom for all people, since it would require the end of racism, sexism, and class oppression.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.feministezine.com/feminist/modern/Black-Feminist-Statement.html|title=Combahee River Collective: A Black Feminist Statement - 1974|accessmonthday=May 31|accessyear=2007}}</ref> One of the theories that evolved out of this movement was [[Alice Walker|Alice Walker's]] [[Womanism]].
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It emerged after the early feminist movements that were led specifically by white women who advocated social changes such as woman’s suffrage. These movements were largely white middle-class movements and had generally ignored oppression based on racism and classism. Alice Walker and other Womanists pointed out that black women experienced a different and more intense kind of oppression from that of white women.<ref name=Walker>{{cite book |author=Walker, Alice |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=In search of our mothers' gardens: womanist prose |year=1983 |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |location=San Diego |isbn=0-15-144525-7 |pages=397}}</ref>
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*"The nuclear family must be destroyed ... Whatever its ultimate meaning, the break-up of families now is an objectively revolutionary process" - Linda Gordon
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[[Angela Davis]] was one of the first people who articulated an argument centered around the intersection of race, gender, and class in her book, ''Women, Race, and Class''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.feministezine.com/feminist/blackwomen.html|title=List of Books written by Black Feminists|accessmonthday=May 31|accessyear=2007}}</ref> [[Kimberle Crenshaw]], a prominent feminist law theorist, gave the idea the name [[Intersectionality]] while discussing [[identity politics]] in her essay, "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics and Violence Against Women of Color".
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*"Marriage has existed for the benefit of men; and has been a legally sanctioned method of control over women ... We must work to destroy it. The end of the institution of marriage is a necessary condition for the liberation of women. Therefore it is important for us to encourage women to leave their husbands and not to live individually with men ... All of history must be re-written in terms of oppression of women. We must go back to ancient female religions like witchcraft" (from "The Declaration of Feminism" November, 1971)
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===Postcolonial feminism and third-world feminism===
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{{main|Postcolonial feminism}}
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{{related|[[Orientalism]],<br />[[Postcolonialism]],<br />[[Transnational feminism]]}}
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[[Postcolonial feminism|Postcolonial feminists]] argue that oppression relating to the [[colonialism|colonial]] experience, particularly racial, class, and ethnic oppression, has marginalized women in postcolonial societies. They challenge the assumption that gender oppression is the primary force of patriarchy. Postcolonial feminists object to portrayals of women of non-Western societies as passive and voiceless victims and the portrayal of Western women as modern, educated and empowered.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Jackson, Stevi |author=Mills, S. |others=Jones, Jackie |title=Contemporary feminist theories |year=1998 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh  |isbn=0-7486-0689-0 |chapter=Postcolonial Feminist Theory}}</ref>
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*"The feminista agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a [[socialist]], anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, [[abortion|kill their children]], practice [[witchcraft]], destroy capitalism, and become [[lesbian]]s" - Pat Robertson, fundraising letter, 1992<ref>http://www.gainesvillehumanists.org/patr.htm </ref>  
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Postcolonial feminism emerged from the gendered history of colonialism: colonial powers often imposed [[Western culture|Western]] norms on colonized regions. In the 1940s and 1950s, after the formation of the [[United Nations]], former colonies were monitored by the West for what was considered "social progress". The status of women in the [[developing world]] has been monitored by organizations such as the United Nations and as a result traditional practices and roles taken up by women—sometimes seen as distasteful by Western standards—could be considered a form of rebellion against colonial oppression.<ref name=Mohanty88> {{cite journal |last=Mohanty |first=Chandra Talpade |authorlink=Chandra Talpade Mohanty |title=Under Western Eyes |journal=Feminist Review |issue=Autumn, 1988 |pages=27 | number = 30}}</ref> Postcolonial feminists today struggle to fight gender oppression within their own cultural models of society rather than through those imposed by the Western colonizers.<ref>{{cite book |author=Bulbeck, Chilla |title=Re-orienting western feminisms: women's diversity in a postcolonial world |year=1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge [[Cambridgeshire]] |isbn=0-521-58975-4 |pages=282}}</ref>
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*"The people I'm furious with are the Women's Liberationists. They keep getting up on soapboxes and proclaiming women are brighter than men. That's true, but it should be kept quiet or it ruins the whole racket" - Anita Loos
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[[Image:Taslima Nasrin.jpg|thumb|[[Taslima Nasrin]]: author, physician, and feminist human rights activist]]
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Postcolonial feminism is critical of Western forms of feminism, notably [[radical feminism]] and [[liberal feminism]] and their universalization of female experience. Postcolonial feminists argue that cultures impacted by colonialism are often vastly different and should be treated as such. Colonial oppression may result in the glorification of pre-colonial culture, which, in cultures with traditions of power stratification along gender lines, could mean the acceptance of, or refusal to deal with, inherent issues of gender inequality.<ref>Greenwald, A: "[http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/post/achebe/greenwald3.html Postcolonial Feminism in Anthills of the Savannah]", 2002</ref> Postcolonial feminists can be described as feminists who have reacted against both universalizing tendencies in Western feminist thought and a lack of attention to gender issues in mainstream [[Postcolonialism|postcolonial]] thought.<ref>Mills, S (1998): "Postcolonial Feminist Theory" page 98 in S. Jackson and J. Jones eds., ''Contemporary Feminist Theories'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press) pp.98-112</ref>
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*"Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation, and destroy the male sex" - [[Valerie Solanas]], [[SCUM]] founder (Society for Cutting Up Men)
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''[[Third-world feminism]]'' has been described as a group of feminist theories developed by feminists who acquired their views and took part in feminist politics in so-called [[third-world]] countries.<ref name=Narayan>{{cite book |author=Narayan, Uma |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Dislocating cultures: identities, traditions, and Third-World feminism |year=1997 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=0-415-91418-3 |pages=0415914183}}</ref> Although women from the third world have been engaged in the feminist movement, [[Chandra Talpade Mohanty]] and [[Sarojini Sahoo]] criticize Western feminism on the grounds that it is [[ethnocentrism|ethnocentric]] and does not take into account the unique experiences of women from third-world countries or the existence of feminisms [[Indigenous knowledge|indigenous]] to third-world countries. According to [[Chandra Talpade Mohanty]], women in the third world feel that Western feminism bases its understanding of women on "internal racism, classism and homophobia".<ref name=Mohanty> {{cite book |author=Mohanty, Chandra Talpade |editor=Mohanty, Chandra Talpade; Russo, Ann; Torres, Lourdes |chapter=Introduction |title=Third World women and the politics of feminism |year=1991 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |isbn=0-253-20632-4 |pages=49}}</ref> This discourse is strongly related to African feminism and [[postcolonial feminism]]. Its development is also associated with concepts such as black feminism, womanism,<ref name=Walker/><ref name= Ogunyemi>{{cite journal |last=Ogunyemi |first=C. O. |title=Womanism: The Dynamics of the Black Female Novel in English |journal=Signs |year=1985 |volume=1 | number = 1 |pages=17}}</ref><ref name=Kolawole>{{cite book |author=Kolawole, Mary Ebun Modupe |title=Womanism and African consciousness |year=1997 |publisher=Africa World Press |location=Trenton, N.J. |isbn=0-86543-540-5 |pages=216}}</ref> "Africana womanism",<ref name=Hudson-Weems>{{cite book |author=Hudson-Weems, Clenora |title=Africana womanism: reclaiming ourselves |year=1994 |publisher=Bedford Publishers |location=Troy, Mich. |isbn=0-911557-11-3 |pages=158}}</ref> "motherism",<ref name= Acholonu>{{cite book |author=Obianuju Acholonu, Catherine |title=Motherism: The Afrocentric Alternative to Feminism |year=1995 |publisher=Afa Publ. |isbn=9783199714 |pages=144}}
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</ref> "Stiwanism",<ref name=Ogundipe-Leslie>{{cite book |author=Ogundipe-Leslie, Molara |title=Re-creating Ourselves: African Women & Critical Transformations |year=1994 |publisher=Africa World Press |isbn=0865434123 |pages=262}})</ref> "negofeminism",<ref name= Nnaemeka>{{cite journal |last=Nnaemeka |first=O. |title=Feminism, Rebellious Women, and Cultural Boundaries |journal=Research in African Literatures |year=1970}}</ref> [[chicana feminism]], and "femalism".
   −
*"The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness...can be trained to do most things" - Jilly Cooper, [[SCUM]] (Society For Cutting Up Men, started by [[Valerie Solanas]])  
+
===Multiracial feminism===
 +
{{main|Chicana feminism}}
 +
Multiracial feminism (also known as “women of color” feminism) offers a standpoint theory and analysis of the lives and experiences of women of color.<ref name=Baca_Zinn/> The theory emerged in the 1990s and was developed by Dr. Maxine Baca Zinn, a Chicana feminist and Dr. Bonnie Thornton Dill, a sociology expert on African American women and family.<ref name=Baca_Zinn>{{cite book
 +
|author=Baca Zinn, Maxine
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|coauthor = Bonnie Thornton Dill
 +
|editor=Carole R. McCann & Seung-Kyung Kim
 +
|title=Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives
 +
|year=2002
 +
|chapter=Theorizing Difference from Multiracial Feminism.
 +
|place = New York
 +
|publisher=Routledge
 +
|isbn=0415931525}}</ref><ref name=Baca_Zinn2>{{cite book |author=Zinn, Maxine Baca; |coauthors=Dill, Bonnie Thornton |title=Women of Color in U.S. Society (Women in the Political Economy) |year=1994 |publisher=Temple University Press |isbn=978-1-56639-106-1}}
 +
</ref>
   −
*"Since marriage constitutes slavery for women, it is clear that the women's movement must concentrate on attacking this institution. Freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage" - Sheila Cronin, the leader of the feminist organization NOW
+
===Socialist and Marxist feminisms===
 +
{{main|Socialist feminism|Marxist Feminism}}
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[[Image:Zetkin luxemburg1910.jpg|thumb|[[Clara Zetkin]] and [[Rosa Luxemburg]], 1910]]
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[[Socialist feminism]] connects the oppression of women to [[Marxist]] ideas about exploitation, oppression and labor. Socialist feminists see women as being held down as a result of their unequal standing in both the workplace and the domestic sphere.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.feministezine.com/feminist/domesticity.html|title=Monstrous Domesticity by Faith Wilding|accessmonthday=May 31|accessyear=2007}}</ref> Prostitution, domestic work, childcare, and marriage are all seen by socialist feminists as ways in which women are exploited by a patriarchal system which devalues women and the substantial work that they do. Socialist feminists focus their energies on broad change that affects society as a whole, rather than on an individual basis. They see the need to work alongside not just men, but all other groups, as they see the oppression of women as a part of a larger pattern that affects everyone involved in the capitalist system.<ref>Ehrenreich, Barbara. "What is Socialist Feminism" WIN Magazine, 1976</ref>
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*"The institution of sexual intercourse is anti-feminist" - Ti-Grace Atkinson
+
Marx felt that when class oppression was overcome, gender oppression would vanish as well.<ref name=Marx> Marx, Karl, ''Capital'' translated by B. Fowkes (Penguin Classics, 1990), ISBN 9780140445688</ref> According to some socialist feminists, this view of gender oppression as a sub-class of class oppression is naive and much of the work of socialist feminists has gone towards separating gender phenomena from class phenomena. Some contributors to socialist feminism have criticized these traditional Marxist ideas for being largely silent on gender oppression except to subsume it underneath broader class oppression.<ref name=round-table_discussion>{{cite journal |last=Connolly |first=Clara | number = 23 |coauthors=Lynne Segal, Michele Barrett, Beatrix Campbell, Anne Phillips, Angela Weir, Elizabeth Wilson |title=Feminism and Class Politics: A Round-Table Discussion |journal=Feminist Review |issue=Socialist-Feminism: Out of the Blue |pages=17 |date=Summer 1986 |doi=}}</ref> Other socialist feminists, notably two long-lived American organizations [[Radical Women]] and the [[Freedom Socialist Party]], point to the classic Marxist writings of [[Frederick Engels]]and [[August Bebel]] as a powerful explanation of the link between gender oppression and class exploitation.<ref name=Engels>{{cite book |author=Engels, Friedrich |title=The origin of the family, private property, and the state, in the light of the researches of Lewis H. Morgan |year=1972 |publisher=International Publishers |location=New York |isbn=978-0-85315-260-6}}</ref><ref name = Bebel>{{cite book |author=Bebel, August |title=Woman Under Socialism |publisher=University Press of the Pacific |isbn=978-1-4102-1564-2}}</ref>
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*"Feminism is the theory, lesbianism is the practice" - Ti-Grace Atkinson
+
In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century both Clara Zetkin and Eleanor Marx were against the demonization of men and supported a [[proletariate|proletarian]] revolution that would overcome as many male-female inequalities as possible.<ref name=Stokes>{{cite book |author=Stokes, John |title=Eleanor Marx (1855-1898): life, work, contacts |year=2000 |publisher=Ashgate |location=Aldershot |isbn=978-0-7546-0113-5}}</ref>
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{{seealso|Gender roles in Eastern Europe after Communism}}
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*"It matters more what's in a woman's face than what's on it." - Claudette Colbert, quoted in Kindling the Spirit by Lois P. Frankel
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===Libertarian feminism===
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According to the [[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]], "Classical liberal or libertarian feminism conceives of freedom as freedom from coercive interference. It holds that women, as well as men, have a right to such freedom due to their status as self-owners."<ref>[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-liberal/#ClasCri Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]</ref>
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*"Rape is nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear" - Susan Brownmiller; Authoress of Against Our Will p.6
+
There are several categories under the theory of libertarian feminism, or kinds of feminism that are linked to libertarian ideologies.  [[Anarcha-feminism]] (also called ''anarchist feminism'' or ''anarcho-feminism'') combines feminist and [[anarchist]] beliefs, embodying classical libertarianism rather than contemporary conservative libertarianism. Anarcha-feminists view patriarchy as a manifestation of hierarchy, believing that the fight against patriarchy is an essential part of the [[class struggle]] and the anarchist struggle against the state.<ref name=farrow>{{cite book |author=Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne |title=Quiet Rumours |publisher=AK Press |isbn=978-1-902593-40-1}}</ref> Anarcha-feminists such as Susan Brown see the anarchist struggle as a necessary component of the feminist struggle. In Brown's words, "anarchism is a political philosophy that opposes all relationships of power, it is inherently feminist".<ref name=Brown>{{cite book |editor=Roussopoulos, Dimitrios I. |chapter=Beyond Feminism: Anarchism and Human Freedom |title=The Anarchist papers, 3 |year=1990 |publisher=Black Rose Books |location=Montreal |isbn=0-921689-53-5 |author=Brown, Susan}}</ref> Recently, [[Wendy McElroy]] has defined a position (which she labels "ifeminism" or "individualist feminism") that combines feminism with [[anarcho-capitalism]] or contemporary conservative [[Libertarianism#Libertarian_conservatism|libertarianism]], arguing that a pro-capitalist, anti-state position is compatible with an emphasis on equal rights and empowerment for women.<ref name=McElroy0>{{cite web|url=http://www.wendymcelroy.com/xxx|title=XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography|accessdate=2008-07-08}}</ref> Individualist anarchist-feminism has grown from the [[United States|US]]-based [[individualist anarchism]] movement.<ref name=Greenway>{{cite book |editor=Kramarae, Cheris |others=Spender, Dale |author=Greenway, Judy |title=Routledge international encyclopedia of women: global women's issues and knowledge |year=2000 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=0-415-92088-4 |chapter=Feminism: Anarchist}}</ref>
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*"When a woman reaches orgasm with a man she is only collaborating with the patriarchal system, eroticizing her own oppression" - Sheila Jeffrys
+
[[Individualist feminism]] is typically defined as a feminism in opposition to what writers such as Wendy McElroy and [[Christina Hoff Sommers]] term, ''political'' or ''[[gender feminism]]''.<ref name=mcelroy1>{{cite book |author=McElroy, Wendy |title=Liberty for Women: Freedom and Feminism in the 21st century |year=2002 |publisher=Ivan R. Dee, Publisher |isbn=978-1-56663-435-9}}</ref><ref name=Hoff_Sommers>{{cite book |author=Sommers, Christina Hoff |authorlink=Christina Hoff Sommers |title=Who stole feminism?: how women have betrayed women |year=1995 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=0-684-80156-6 |pages=320}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0602f.asp|title=Mary Wollstonecraft by Wendy McElroy}}</ref> However, there are some differences within the discussion of individualist feminism. While some individualist feminists like McElroy oppose government interference into the choices women make with their bodies because such interference creates a coercive hierarchy (such as patriarchy),<ref name=wwwifeministsnet>{{cite web |title=ifeminists.net|url=http://www.ifeminists.net/introduction/|accessdate=2007-08-22}}</ref><ref name=mcelroy2>{{cite book |editor=McElroy, Wendy |authorlink=Wendy McElroy |title=Liberty for Women: Freedom and Feminism in the 21st century |year=2002 |publisher=Ivan R. Dee, Publisher |location= |isbn=978-1-56663-435-9}}</ref> other feminists such as Christina Hoff Sommers  hold that feminism's political role is simply to ensure that everyone's, including women's, right against coercive interference is respected.<ref>[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-liberal/#ClasCri Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]</ref> Sommers is described as a "socially conservative equity feminist" by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,<ref>[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-liberal/#ClasCri Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]</ref> and she has argued that women should voluntarily commit to traditional gender roles.<ref>Dwight Furrow,
 +
[http://books.google.com/books?id=tGPYH6dnrEMC&pg=PA248&vq=sommers&dq=%22traditional+values%22+%22Christina+hoff+sommers%22&lr=&source=gbs_search_s&sig=ACfU3U36y2jiv3LaemaskAgGF0gbH9bsbA#PPA225,M1 Moral Soundings: Readings on the Crisis of Values in Contemporary Life], Rowman & Littlefield, 2004 ISBN 0742533700, 9780742533707</ref> Critics have called her an [[anti-feminist]]<ref>[http://organizenow.net/cco/right/antifem.html Female Anti-Feminism for Fame and Profit] by Jennifer Pozner</ref><ref>{{cite book
 +
|last=LaFramboise
 +
|first=LaFramboise
 +
|authorlink=
 +
|title=The Princess at the Window: A New Gender Morality
 +
|url=http://adamjones.freeservers.com/donna.htm by Donna LaFramboise
 +
|accessdate=2006-10-19
 +
|year=1996
 +
|publisher=Penguin
 +
|location=Toronto, Canada
 +
|id=ISBN 0-14-025690-3
 +
|quote=Over the past few years, a growing number of women have written books critical of mainstream feminism. Among them [...] Christina Hoff Sommers.}}</ref>
   −
*"Politically, I call it rape whenever a woman has sex and feels violated" - Catharine MacKinnon
+
===Post-structural and postmodern feminism===
 +
{{details|Postmodern feminism}}
 +
''Post-structural feminism'', also referred to as ''French feminism'', uses the insights of various [[epistemology|epistemological]] movements, including psychoanalysis, linguistics, political theory (Marxist and [[post-marxism|post-Marxist]] theory), race theory, literary theory, and other intellectual currents for feminist concerns.<ref name=Johnson>{{cite book |author=Barbara Johnson |title=The Feminist Difference: Literature, Psychoanalysis, Race and Gender |year=2002 |publisher=Harvard University Press |pages=224 |isbn=0674001915}}</ref> Many post-structural feminists maintain that difference is one of the most powerful tools that females possess in their struggle with patriarchal domination, and that to equate the feminist movement only with equality is to deny women a plethora of options because equality is still defined from the masculine or patriarchal perspective.<ref name=Johnson/><ref>{{cite book |editor=Price, Janet |others=Shildrick, Margrit |author=Irigaray, Luce |chapter=When Our Lips Speak Together |coauthors= |title=Feminist theory and the body: a reader |year=1999 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=0-415-92566-5}}</ref>
 +
[[Image:Judith Butler.jpg|thumb|Judith Butler at a lecture at the [[University of Hamburg]].]]
 +
''[[Postmodern feminism]]'' is an approach to [[feminist theory]] that incorporates [[Postmodern philosophy|postmodern]] and [[post-structuralism|post-structuralist theory]]. The largest departure from other branches of feminism is the argument that gender is [[social construction|constructed]] through [[discourse|language]].<ref name=Butler/> The most notable proponent of this argument is [[Judith Butler]]. In her 1990 book, ''[[Gender Trouble]]'', she draws on and critiques the work of [[Simone de Beauvoir]], [[Michel Foucault]] and [[Jacques Lacan]]. Butler criticizes the distinction drawn by previous feminisms between biological [[sex]] and socially constructed gender. She says that this does not allow for a sufficient criticism of [[essentialism]]. For Butler "woman" is a debatable category, complicated by class, [[ethnicity]], sexuality, and other facets of identity. She suggests that [[gender performativity|gender is performative]]. This argument leads to the conclusion that there is no single cause for women's subordination and no single approach towards dealing with the issue.<ref name=Butler>{{cite book |author=Butler, Judith |title=Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity |year=1999 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=9780415924993}}</ref>
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[[Image:Donna Haraway and Cayenne.jpg|thumb|Donna Haraway, author of ''A Cyborg Manifesto'', with her dog Cayenne]]
   −
*"All sex, even consensual sex between a married couple, is an act of violence perpetrated against a woman" - Catharine MacKinnon
+
In ''A Cyborg Manifesto'' [[Donna Haraway]] criticizes traditional notions of feminism, particularly its emphasis on identity, rather than affinity. She uses the metaphor of a [[cyborg]] in order to construct a postmodern feminism that moves beyond [[dualisms]] and the limitations of traditional gender, feminism, and politics.<ref name=Harraway>{{cite book |author=Harraway, Donna |title=Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature |chapter=Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century |year=1991 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=1853431389 |pages=32 |url=http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html}}</ref> Haraway's cyborg is an attempt to break away from [[Oedipal]] narratives and [[Christian]] origin-myths like [[Genesis]]. She writes:
 +
"The cyborg does not dream of community on the model of the organic family, this time without the oedipal project. The cyborg would not recognize the Garden of Eden; it is not made of mud and cannot dream of returning to dust."<ref name=Harraway/>
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*"You grow up with your father holding you down and covering your mouth so another man can make a horrible searing pain between your legs" - Catharine MacKinnon (Prominent legal feminist scholar; Universities of Michigan & Yale)  
+
A major branch in postmodern feminist thought has emerged from the contemporary psychoanalytic [[French feminism]]. Other postmodern feminist works highlight stereotypical [[gender roles]], only to portray them as parodies of the original beliefs. The history of feminism is not important in these writings—only what is going to be done about it. The history is dismissed and used to depict how ridiculous past beliefs were. Modern feminist theory has been extensively criticized as being predominantly, though not exclusively, associated with Western middle class [[academia]]. Mary Joe Frug, a postmodernist feminist, criticized mainstream feminism as being too narrowly focused and inattentive to related issues of race and class.<ref name=Frug>{{cite journal |last=Frug |first=Mary Joe |title=Postmodern Feminist Legal Manifesto (An Unfinished Draft) |journal=Harvard Law Review |volume=105 |pages=30 |month=March |year=1992 |doi=}}</ref>
 +
{{See also|French feminism|Deconstruction|Poststructuralism|Postmodernism}}
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*"In a patriarchal society, all heterosexual intercourse is rape because women, as a group, are not strong enough to give meaningful consent" - Catharine MacKinnon, quoted in ''Professing Feminism: Cautionary Tales from the Strange World of Women's Studies''
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===Ecofeminism===
 +
[[Image:Biehl.jpg|thumb|Janet Biehl is one of the premier authors on social ecology]]
 +
{{main|Ecofeminism}}
 +
[[Ecofeminism]] links [[ecology]] with feminism. Ecofeminists see the domination of women as stemming from the same ideologies that bring about the domination of the environment. Patriarchal systems, where men own and control the land, are seen as responsible for the oppression of women and destruction of the natural environment. Ecofeminists argue that the men in power control the land, and therefore they are able to exploit it for their own profit and success. Ecofeminists argue that in this situation, women are exploited by men in power for their own profit, success, and pleasure. Ecofeminists argue that women and the environment are both exploited as passive pawns in the race to domination. Ecofeminists argue that those people in power are able to take advantage of them distinctly because they are seen as passive and rather helpless. Ecofeminism connects the exploitation and domination of women with that of the environment. As a way of repairing social and ecological injustices, ecofeminists feel that women must work towards creating a healthy environment and ending the destruction of the lands that most women rely on to provide for their families.<ref name=MacGregor>{{cite book |author=MacGregor, Sherilyn |title=Beyond mothering earth: ecological citizenship and the politics of care |year=2006 |publisher=UBC Press |location=Vancouver |isbn=0-7748-1201-X |pages=286}}</ref>
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*"The more famous and powerful I get the more power I have to hurt men" - Sharon Stone, Actress
+
Ecofeminism argues that there is a connection between women and nature that comes from their shared history of oppression by a patriarchal Western society. Vandana Shiva claims that women have a special connection to the environment through their daily interactions with it that has been ignored. She says that "women in subsistence economies, producing and reproducing wealth in partnership with nature, have been experts in their own right of holistic and ecological knowledge of nature’s processes. But these alternative modes of knowing, which are oriented to the social benefits and sustenance needs are not recognized by the [[capitalism|capitalist]] reductionist paradigm, because it fails to perceive the interconnectedness of nature, or the connection of women’s lives, work and knowledge with the creation of wealth.”<ref name=Shiva>{{cite book |author=Shiva, Vandana |title=Staying alive: women, ecology and development |year=1988 |publisher=Zed Books |location=London |isbn=978-0-86232-823-8}}</ref>
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*"Ninety-five percent of women's experiences are about being a victim. Or about being an underdog, or having to survive ... women didn't go to Vietnam and blow things up. They are not [[Rambo]]" - Jodie Foster, Actress - as quoted in The New York Times Magazine
+
However, feminist and [[social ecology|social ecologist]] [[Janet Biehl]] has criticized ecofeminism for focusing too much on a mystical connection between women and nature and not enough on the actual conditions of women.<ref name= Biehl>{{cite book |author=Biehl, Janet |title=Rethinking eco-feminist politics |year=1991 |publisher=South End Press |location=Boston, MA |isbn=978-0-89608-392-9}}</ref>
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{{seealso|Environmentalism}}
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*"The proportion of men must be reduced to and maintained at approximately 10% of the human race" - Sally Miller Gearhart, in ''The Future - If There Is One - Is Female''
+
==Society==
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{{details|Feminist movement}}
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[[Image:Woman suffrage headquarters Cleveland.jpg|thumb|Woman Suffrage Headquarters, Cleveland, 1912]]
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*"And if the professional rapist is to be separated from the average dominant heterosexual (male), it may be mainly a quantitative difference" - Susan Griffin, Rape: The All-American Crime
+
The [[feminist movement]] has effected change in Western society, including [[women's suffrage]]; the right to initiate [[divorce]] proceedings and "no fault" divorce; and the right of women to make individual decisions regarding pregnancy (including access to [[contraceptive]]s and [[abortion]]); and the right to own property.<ref name=Messer-Davidow>{{cite book |author=Messer-Davidow, Ellen |title=Disciplining feminism: from social activism to academic discourse |year=2002 |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham [[N.C.]] |isbn=978-0-8223-2843-7}}</ref><ref name=Butler2>{{cite journal |last=Butler |first=Judith |title=Feminism in Any Other Name |journal=differences |volume=6 |pages=30 |month=March |year=1992 | number= 2-3 |doi=}}</ref>
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*"If life is to survive on this planet, there must be a decontamination of the Earth. I think this will be accompanied by an evolutionary process that will result in a drastic reduction of the population of males" - Mary Daly, former Professor at Boston College, 2001
+
===Civil rights===
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{{main|Women's rights}}
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From the 1960s on the women's liberation movement campaigned for [[women's rights]], including the same pay as men, equal rights in law, and the freedom to plan their families. Their efforts were met with mixed results.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jofreeman.com/feminism/suffrage.htm|title=FROM SUFFRAGE TO WOMEN'S LIBERATION: FEMINISM IN TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICA by Jo Freeman}}</ref> Issues commonly associated with notions of women's rights include, though are not limited to: the right to bodily integrity and autonomy; to vote (universal suffrage); to hold public office; to work; to fair wages or equal pay; to own property; to education; to serve in the military; to enter into legal contracts; and to have marital, parental and religious rights.<ref name=quarterly>{{cite book |author=Lockwood, Bert B. |title=Women's Rights: A Human Rights Quarterly Reader |year=2006 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=978-0-8018-8374-3}}</ref>
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*"If anyone is prosecuted for filing a false report, then victims of real attacks will be less likely to report them" - David Angier
+
In the UK a public groundswell of opinion in favour of legal equality gained pace{{when}}, partly through the extensive employment of women in men's traditional roles during both world wars. By the 1960s the legislative process was being readied, tracing through MP [[Willie Hamilton]]'s [[Select Committee (Westminster System)|select committee]] report, his Equal Pay For Equal Work Bill, the creation of a Sex Discrimination Board, Lady Sear's draft sex anti-discrimination bill, a government [[Green Paper]] of 1973, until 1975 when the first British Sex Discrimination Act, an Equal Pay Act, and an [[Equal Opportunities Commission]] came into force.<ref>The Guardian, 29 December 1975</ref><ref>The Times, 29 December 29 1975 "Sex discrimination in advertising banned"</ref>
 +
With encouragement from the UK government, the other countries of the [[EEC]] soon followed suit with an agreement to ensure that discrimination laws would be phased out across the European Community.
   −
*"To use the word [rape] carefully would be to be careful for the sake of the violator, and the survivors don't care a hoot about him. &hellip; They [men unjustly accused of rape] have a lot of pain, but it is not a pain that I would necessarily have spared them. I think it ideally initiates a process of self-exploration. 'How do I see women?' 'If I didn't violate her, could I have?' 'Do I have the potential to do to her what they say I did?' Those are good questions." - Catherine Comins, assistant dean of student life at Vassar in 1991 <ref>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,973077-6,00.html</ref>
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In the USA, the US [[National Organization for Women]] (NOW) was created in 1966 with the purpose of bringing about equality for all women. NOW was one important group that fought for the [[Equal Rights Amendment]] (ERA). This amendment stated that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of [[gender|sex]].”<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.now.org/history/purpos66.html|title=The National Organization for Women's 1966 Statement of Purpose}}</ref> But there was disagreement on how the proposed amendment would be understood. Supporters believed it would guarantee women equal treatment. But critics feared it might deny women the right be financially supported by their husbands. The amendment died in 1982 because not enough states had ratified it. ERAs have been included in subsequent Congresses, but have still failed to be ratified.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.answers.com/topic/national-organization-for-women?cat=biz-fin&nr=1|title=National Organization for Women: Definition and Much More from Answers.com}}</ref>
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*"I believe that women have a capacity for understanding and compassion which man structurally does not have, does not have it because he cannot have it. He's just incapable of it" - Barbara Jordan, former congresswoman
+
In the final three decades of the 20th century, Western women knew a new freedom through [[birth control]], which enabled women to plan their adult lives, often making way for both career and family. The movement had been started in the 1910s by US pioneering social reformer [[Margaret Sanger]] and in the UK and internationally by [[Marie Stopes]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1676.html|title=Margaret Sanger}}</ref>
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*"Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release" - [[Germaine Greer]]
+
The ''United Nations Human Development Report 2004'' estimated that when both paid employment and unpaid household tasks are accounted for, on average women work more than men. In rural areas of selected developing countries women performed an average of 20% more work than men, or an additional 102 minutes per day. In the [[OECD]] countries surveyed, on average women performed 5% more work than men, or 20 minutes per day.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/hdr04_complete.pdf|title=Section 28: Gender, Work Burden, and Time Allocation in ''United Nations Human Development Report 2004'' |pages=233|format=PDF}}</ref> At the UN's Pan Pacific Southeast Asia Women's Association 21st International Conference in 2001 it was stated that "in the world as a whole, women comprise 51% of the population, do 66% of the work, receive 10% of the income and own less than one percent of the property".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ppseawa.org/Bulletin/01May/conference.html|title=PPSEAWA International Bulletin - Pan Pacific Southeast Asia Women's Association 21st International Conference}}</ref>
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*"Man-hating is everywhere, but everywhere it is twisted and transformed, disguised, tranquilized, and qualified. It coexists, never peacefully, with the love, desire, respect, and need women also feel for men. Always man-hating is shadowed by its milder, more diplomatic and doubtful twin, ambivalence" - [[Judith Levine]], Authoress
+
===Language===
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{{details|Gender-neutral language in English}}
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Gender-neutral language is a description of [[Word usage|language usages]] which are aimed at minimizing assumptions regarding the biological [[sex]] of human [[reference|referents]]. The advocacy of gender-neutral language reflects, at least, two different agendas: one aims to clarify the ''inclusion'' of both sexes or genders (gender-inclusive language); the other proposes that gender, as a category, is rarely worth marking in language (gender-neutral language). Gender-neutral language is sometimes described as ''non-sexist language'' by advocates and ''politically-correct language'' by opponents.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usask.ca/policies/2_03.htm|title="Gender Neutral Language." University of Saskatchewan Policies 2001 |accessdate=2007-03-25}}</ref>
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*"I feel what they feel: man-hating, that volatile admixture of pity, contempt, disgust, envy, alienation, fear, and rage at men. It is hatred not only for the anonymous man who makes sucking noises on the street, not only for the rapist or the judge who acquits him, but for what the Greeks called philo-aphilos, 'hate in love' for the men women share their lives with - husbands, lovers, friends, fathers, brothers, sons, co-workers." - [[Judith Levine]], Authoress of My Enemy, My love
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===Heterosexual relationships===
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The increased entry of women into the workplace beginning in the twentieth century has affected gender roles and the [[division of labor]] within [[household]]s. Sociologist [[Arlie Russell Hochschild]] in ''The Second Shift'' and ''The Time Bind'' presents evidence that in two-career couples, men and women, on average, spend about equal amounts of time working, but women still spend more time on housework.<ref name=Hochschild1>{{cite book |author=Hochschild, Arlie Russell |coauthors=Machung, Anne |title=The second shift |year=2003 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=New York  |isbn=978-0-14-200292-6 }}</ref><ref name=Hochschild2>{{cite book |author=Hochschild, Arlie Russell |title=The time bind: when work becomes home and home becomes work |year=2001 |publisher=Henry Holt & Co. |location=New York  |isbn=978-0-8050-6643-2}}</ref> Feminist writer [[Cathy Young]] responds to Hochschild's assertions by arguing that in some cases, women may prevent the equal participation of men in housework and parenting.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2000/06/12/gatekeeping/index.html|title=The mama lion at the gate |accessdate=2008-07-08 |publisher=Salon.com |author=Young, Cathy |authorlink=Cathy Young}}</ref>
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*"There are no boundaries between affectionate sex and slavery in (the male) world. Distinctions between pleasure and danger are academic; the dirty-laundrylist of 'sex acts' ... includes rape, foot binding, fellatio, intercourse, auto eroticism, incest, anal intercourse, use and production of pornography, cunnilingus, sexual harassment, and murder" - Judith Levine; summarizing comment on the WAS document (A Southern Women's Writing Collective: Women Against Sex)
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Feminist criticisms of men's contributions to child care and domestic labor in the Western middle class are typically centered around the idea that it is unfair for women to be expected to perform more than half of a household's domestic work and child care when both members of the relationship also work outside the home. Several studies provide statistical evidence that the financial income of married men does not affect their rate of attending to household duties.<ref>{{cite journal  |author=South, Scott J.   | coauthor= Spitze, Gelnna  |title=Housework in Marital and Nonmarital Households |journal=American Sociological Review  |volume=59  |year=1994 | number= 3  |pages=327–348  |doi=10.2307/2095937}}</ref><ref>{{cite book  |author=Fenstermaker Berk, Sarah  | coauthor= Shih, Anthony  |chapter=Contributions to Household Labour: Comparing Wives' and Husbands' Reports |journal=American Sociological Review  |title=Women and Household Labour  |year=1980 |editor=Fenstermaker Berk, Sarah  |isbn=0803912110 }}</ref>
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*((Delaney Nickerson, of the American Coalition for ABUSE AWARENESS, refers to the False Memory Syndrome Foundation as "The F---ing Molesters Society" (Miami Herald, April 3, 1995) The ACAA is a lobbying group, which includes Ellen Bass (co-author of THE COURAGE TO HEAL), and Rene Frederickson, leading feminist psychotherapist and strong proponent of repressed memory theory))
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In ''Dubious Conceptions'', [[Kristin Luker]] discusses the effect of feminism on teenage women's choices to bear children, both in and out of wedlock. She says that as childbearing out of wedlock has become more socially acceptable, young women, especially poor young women, while not bearing children at a higher rate than in the 1950s, now see less of a reason to get married before having a child. Her explanation for this is that the economic prospects for poor men are slim, hence poor women have a low chance of finding a husband who will be able to provide reliable financial support.<ref name=Luker>{{cite book |author=Luker, Kristin |title=Dubious conceptions: the politics of teenage pregnancy |year=1996 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Mass.  |isbn=0-674-21703-9 }}</ref>
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*((At the STONE ANGELS satanic ritual abuse conference in Thunder Bay in February, 1995, the following was contained in the handouts at a conference supported financially by the Ontario Government: FMS stands for: FULL OF MOSTLY SH*T; FOR MORE SADISM; FELONS, MURDERERS, SCUMBALLS; FREQUENT MOLESTERS SOCIETY))
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Although research suggests that to an extent, both women and men perceive feminism to be in conflict with romance, studies of undergraduates and older adults have shown that feminism has positive impacts on relationship health for women and sexual satisfaction for men, and found no support for negative stereotypes of feminists.<ref>{{cite journal  |author=Rudman, Laurie A.  | coauthor= Phelan, Julie E.  |title=The Interpersonal Power of Feminism: Is Feminism Good for Romantic Relationships? |journal=Sex Roles  |volume=57  | number = 11-12 |url=http://www.springerlink.com/content/6163700x51t5r169/ |month=December |year=2007 |accessdate=2008-07-08  |doi=10.1007/s11199-007-9319-9  |pages=787 }}</ref>
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*"Women have their faults / men have only two: / everything they say / everything they do" {{Fact|Date=March 2008}} -- Popular Feminist Graffiti
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===Religion===
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{{details|Feminist theology}}
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{{see also|God and gender}}
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{{related|[[Christian feminism]],<br />[[Difference feminism]],<br />[[New feminism]],<br />[[Islamic feminism]],<br />[[Jewish feminism]]<br />[[Dianic Wicca|Wiccan feminism]]}}
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[[Feminist theology]] is a movement that reconsiders the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of religions from a feminist perspective. Some of the goals of feminist theology include increasing the role of women among the clergy and religious authorities, reinterpreting male-dominated imagery and language about God, determining women's place in relation to career and motherhood, and studying images of women in the religion's sacred texts.<ref name=Bundesen>{{cite book |author=Bundesen, Lynne |title=The Feminine Spirit: Recapturing the Heart of Scripture |publisher=Jossey-Bass |isbn=978-0-7879-8495-3}}</ref>
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*"I was, in reality, bred by my parents as my father's concubine... What we take for granted as the stability of family life may well depend on the sexual slavery of our children. What's more, this is a cynical arrangement our institutions have colluded to conceal" - Sylvia Fraser, Journalist
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[[Christian feminism]] is a branch of feminist theology which seeks to interpret and understand [[Christianity]] in light of the equality of women and men. Because this equality has been historically ignored, Christian feminists believe their contributions are necessary for a complete understanding of Christianity. While there is no standard set of beliefs among Christian feminists, most agree that God does not discriminate on the basis of biologically-determined characteristics such as sex. Their major issues are the [[ordination of women]], male dominance in Christian marriage, and claims of moral deficiency and inferiority of abilities of women compared to men. They also are concerned with the balance of parenting between mothers and fathers and the overall treatment of women in the church.<ref name=Haddad>{{cite journal |author=Haddad, Mimi |title=Egalitarian Pioneers: Betty Friedan or Catherine Booth? |journal=Priscilla Papers |year=2007 |volume=20 | number = 4 |date=Autumn 2006}}</ref><ref name=andeson>{{cite book |author=Anderson, Pamela Sue |coauthors=Clack, Beverley |title=Feminist philosophy of religion: critical readings |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=0-415-25749-2}}</ref>
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*Catharine MacKinnon maintains that "the private is a sphere of battery, marital rape and women's exploited labor." In this way, privacy and family are reduced to nothing more than aspects of the master plan, which is male domination. Democratic freedoms and the need to keep the state's nose out of our personal affairs are rendered meaningless. The real reason our society cherishes privacy is because men have invented it as an excuse to conceal their criminality. If people still insist that the traditional family is about love and mutual aid - ideals which, admittedly, are sometimes betrayed - they're "hiding from the truth" The family isn't a place where battery and marital rape sometimes happen but where little else apparently does. Sick men don't simply molest their daughters, they operate in league with their wives to "breed" them for that purpose - Donna Laframboise; The Princess at the Window (in a critical explication of the Catharine MacKinnon, [[Gloria Steinem]] et al, tenets of misandric belief)
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[[Islamic feminism]] is concerned with the role of [[Women and Islam|women in Islam]] and aims for the full equality of all [[Muslims]], regardless of gender, in public and private life. Islamic feminists advocate [[women's rights]], [[gender equality]], and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework. Although rooted in Islam, the movement's pioneers have also utilized secular and Western feminist discourses and recognize the role of Islamic feminism as part of an integrated global feminist movement.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.feminismeislamic.org/eng/index.htm|publisher=feminismeislamic.org |author=Catalonian Islamic Board |title=II International Congress on Islamic Feminism|accessdate=2008-07-09 |date=24th-27th October 2008}}</ref> Advocates of the movement seek to highlight the deeply rooted teachings of equality in the [[Quran]] and encourage a questioning of the patriarchal interpretation of Islamic teaching through the Quran, ''[[hadith]]'' (sayings of [[Muhammad]]), and ''[[sharia]]'' (law) towards the creation of a more equal and just society.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2002/569/cu1.htm|title=Al-Ahram Weekly: Islamic feminism: what's in a name? |author=Badran, Margot |accessdate=2008-07-09 |date=17 - 23 January 2002}}</ref>
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*"If the classroom situation is very heteropatriarchal - a large beginning class of 50 to 60 students, say, with few feminist students - I am likely to define my task as largely one of recruitment ... of persuading students that women are oppressed" - Professor Joyce Trebilcot of Washington University, as quoted in Who Stole Feminism: How Women Have Betrayed Women
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[[Jewish feminism]] is a movement that seeks to improve the religious, legal, and social status of women within [[Judaism]] and to open up new opportunities for religious experience and leadership for Jewish women. Feminist movements, with varying approaches and successes, have opened up within all major branches of Judaism. In its modern form, the movement can be traced to the early 1970s in the [[United States]]. According to [[Judith Plaskow]], who has focused on feminism in [[Reform Judaism]], the main issues for early Jewish feminists in these movements were the exclusion from the all-male prayer group or ''[[minyan]]'', the exemption from positive time-bound ''[[Mitzvah|mitzvot]]'', and women's inability to function as witnesses and to initiate [[Jewish view of marriage#Divorce|divorce]].<ref name=Plaskow1997>{{cite book |author=Plaskow, Judith |editor=Frank, Daniel H. |others=Leaman, Oliver |title=History of Jewish philosophy |year=2003 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=0-415-32469-6 |chapter=Jewish Feminist Thought}}</ref>
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*"Men, as a group, tend to be abusive, either verbally, sexually or emotionally. There are always the exceptions, but they are few and far between (I am married to one of them). There are different levels of violence and abuse and individual men buy into this system by varying degrees. But the male power structure always remains intact." - Message on FEMISA, responding to a request for arguments that men are unnecessary for a child to grow into mature adulthood.
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The [[Dianic Wicca]] or Wiccan feminism is a female focused, Goddess-centered Wiccan sect; also known as a feminist religion that teaches witchcraft as every woman’s right. It is also one sect of the many practiced in [[Wicca]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Raphael, Melissa |title=Introducing Thealogy: Discourse on the Goddess |year=1999 |publisher=Routledge |chapter=Chapter ^: Feminist Witchcraft|isbn=1850759758}}</ref>
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*Another posting on FEMISA: "Considering the nature and pervasiveness of men's violence, I would say that without question, children are better off being raised without the presence of men. Assaults on women and children are mostly perpetrated by men whom they are supposed to love and trust: fathers, brothers, uncles, grandfathers, step-fathers." (Both above quotes taken from Daphne Patai's excellent critical work, [[Heterophobia]])
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==Culture==
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{{seealso|Women's cinema|Women's music}}
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===Women's writing===
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[[Image:VirginiaWoolf.PNG|thumb|[[Virginia Woolf]]]]
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{{details|Women's writing in English|Women's literature written in English}}
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Women's writing came to exist as a separate category of scholarly interest relatively recently. In the West, second-wave feminism prompted a general reevaluation of women's historical contributions, and various academic sub-disciplines, such as [[Women's history]] (or [[herstory]]) and women's writing, developed in response to the belief that women's lives and contributions have been underrepresented as areas of scholarly interest.<ref name=Blain>{{cite book |author=Blain, Virginia |coauthors=Clements, Patricia; Grundy, Isobel |title=The feminist companion to literature in English: women writers from the Middle Ages to the present |year=1990 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=0-300-04854-8 |pages=1231}}</ref> Virginia Balisn et al. characterize the growth in interest since 1970 in women's writing as "powerful".<ref name=Blain/> Much of this early period of feminist literary scholarship was given over to the rediscovery and reclamation of texts written by women. Studies such as Dale Spender's ''Mothers of the Novel'' (1986) and Jane Spencer's ''The Rise of the Woman Novelist'' (1986) were ground-breaking in their insistence that women have always been writing. Commensurate with this growth in scholarly interest, various presses began the task of reissuing long-out-of-print texts. Virago Press began to publish its large list of nineteenth and early-twentieth-century novels in 1975 and became one of the first commercial presses to join in the project of reclamation. In the 1980s Pandora Press, responsible for publishing Spender's study, issued a companion line of eighteenth-century novels written by women.<ref>Sandra M. Gilbert, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE4DD1E3AF937A35756C0A960948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 Paperbacks: From Our Mothers' Libraries: women who created the novel]." ''New York Times'', May 4, 1986.</ref> More recently, Broadview Press has begun to issue eighteenth- and nineteenth-century works, many hitherto out of print and the University of Kentucky has a series of republications of early women's novels. There has been commensurate growth in the area of [[List of biographical dictionaries of women writers|biographical dictionaries of women writers]] due to a perception, according to one editor, that "[[m]]ost of our women are not represented in the 'standard' reference books in the field".<ref name=Blain/>
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*"At Brandies I discovered Feminism. And I instantly became a convert... writing brilliant papers in my Myths of Patriarchy class, in which I likened my fate as a woman to other victims throughout the ages." {{fact}} - Heather Hart 7
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Another early pioneer of Feminist writing is [[Charlotte Perkins Gilman]], her most notable work was ''[[The Yellow Wallpaper]].'' <ref>[http://www.scaryforkids.com/yellow-wallpaper/ Full Text of ''The Yellow Wallpaper''], retrieved January 22, 2008.</ref>
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*Here are 10 reasons why we are concerned about feminism and the National Organisation for Women  
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====Feminist science fiction====
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{{main|Feminist science fiction}}
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In the 1960s the genre of science fiction combined its sensationalism with political and technological critiques of society. With the advent of feminism, questioning women’s roles became fair game to this "subversive, mind expanding genre".<ref>{{cite book |author=Clute, John |coauthors=Nicholls, Peter |title=The Encyclopedia of science fiction |year=1995 |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |location=New York |isbn=0-312-13486-X |pages=1386}}</ref> Two early texts are [[Ursula K. Le Guin|Ursula K. Le Guin's]] ''[[The Left Hand of Darkness]]'' (1969) and [[Joanna Russ]]' ''[[The Female Man]]'' (1970). They serve to highlight the socially constructed nature of gender roles by creating [[utopia]]s that do away with gender.<ref>Elyce Rae Helford, in Westfahl, Gary. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Greenwood Press, 2005: 290.</ref> Both authors were also pioneers in feminist criticism of science fiction in the 1960s and 70s, in essays collected in ''The Language of the Night'' (Le Guin, 1979) and ''How To Suppress Women's Writing'' (Russ, 1983). Another major work of feminist science fiction has been<ref>Sturgis, Susanna. Octavia E. Butler: June 22, 1947–February 24, 2006: ''The Women's Review of Books'', 23(3): 19 May 2006.</ref> ''[[Kindred (novel)|Kindred]]'' by [[Octavia Butler]].
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1. "The simple fact is that every woman must be willing to be identified as a lesbian to be fully feminist" - National NOW Times, January, 1988
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===Riot grrrl movement===
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[[Image:Khanna.jpg|thumb|150px|[[Kathleen Hanna]] was the lead singer of [[Bikini Kill]], a [[riot grrrl]] music band formed in 1990.]]
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{{main|Riot Grrrl}}
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[[Riot grrrl]] (or riot grrl) is an underground feminist [[Punk rock|punk]] movement that started in the 1990s and is often associated with [[third-wave feminism]] (it is sometimes seen as its starting point). It was Grounded in the [[DIY ethic|DIY philosophy]] of [[Punk ideologies#Punk ethics|punk values]]. Riot grrls took an [[anti-corporate]] stance of [[self-sufficiency]] and [[self-reliance]].<ref name=Rowe-Finbeiner/> Riot grrrl's emphasis on universal female identity and separatism often appears more closely allied with second-wave feminism than with the third wave.<ref name=Rosenberg_Garofalo>{{cite journal  |author=Rosenberg, Jessica | co-author= Gitana Garofalo |title=Riot Grrrl: Revolutions from within |journal=Signs |volume=23  | number = 3 |date=Spring 1998 |issue=Feminisms and Youth Cultures  |doi=10.1086/495289  |pages=809}}</ref> Riot grrrl bands often address issues such as rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, and female empowerment. Some bands associated with the movement are: [[Bikini Kill]], [[Bratmobile]], [[Excuse 17]], [[Free Kitten]], Heavens To Betsy, [[Huggy Bear]], [[L7 (band)|L7]], and [[Team Dresch]]. In addition to a music scene, riot grrrl is also a [[subculture]]; [[zines]], the [[DIY]] ethic, art, political action, and activism are part of the movement. Riot grrrls hold meetings, start chapters, and support and organize women in music.<ref name=Schilt>{{cite journal  |author=Schilt, Kristen |title="A Little Too Ironic": The Appropriation and Packaging of Riot Grrrl Politics by Mainstream Female Musicians |journal=Popular Music and Society |year=2003 |volume=26  |date=Spring 1998 }}</ref>
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2. "Since marriage constitutes slavery for women, it is clear that the women's movement must concentrate on attacking this institution. Freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage" - feminist leader Sheila Cronan
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The riot grrrl movement sprang out of [[Olympia, Washington]] and [[Washington, D.C.]] in the early 1990s. It sought to give women the power to control their voices and artistic expressions.<ref name=Rowe-Finbeiner/> Riot grrrls took a growling double or triple r, placing it in the word ''girl'' as a way to take back the derogatory use of the term .<ref name=Rowe-Finbeiner>{{cite book |author=Rowe-Finkbeiner, Kristin |coauthors= |title=The F-Word: Feminism In Jeopardy - Women, Politics and the Future |year=2004 |publisher=Seal Press |isbn=1-58005-114-6 }}</ref>
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3. In response to a question concerning China's policy of compulsory abortion after the first child, Molly Yard responded, "I consider the Chinese government's policy among the most intelligent in the world" - Gary Bauer, "Abetting Coercion in China" The Washington Times, Oct. 10, 1989
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The Riot Grrrl’s links to social and political issues are where the beginnings of third-wave feminism can be seen. The music and zine writings are strong examples of "cultural politics in action, with strong women giving voice to important social issues though an empowered, a female oriented community, many people link the emergence of the third-wave feminism to this time".<ref name=Rowe-Finbeiner/> The movement encouraged and made "adolescent girls’ standpoints central," allowing them to express themselves fully.<ref name=Code>{{cite book |author=Code, Lorraine |title=Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |place=London |isbn=10415308852 |pages=560 }}</ref>
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{{-}}
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4. "Overthrowing capitalism is too small for us. We must overthrow the whole ... patriarch!" - [[Gloria Steinem]], radical feminist leader, editor of Ms. Magazine
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==Pornography==
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{{details|Feminist sex wars}}
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The "Feminist Sex Wars" is a term for the acrimonious debates within the feminist movement in the late 1970s through the 1980s around the issues of feminism. sexuality, sexual representation, [[pornography]], [[sadomasochism]], the role of [[transwomen]] in the lesbian community, and other sexual issues. The debate pitted [[Anti-pornography movement|anti-pornography feminism]] against [[sex-positive feminism]], and parts of the feminist movement were deeply divided by these debates.<ref name=Duggan>{{cite book |author=Duggan, Lisa; Hunter, Nan D. |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Sex wars: sexual dissent and political culture |year=1995 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=0-415-91036-6 |pages=}}</ref><ref name=Hansen>{{cite book |author=Hansen, Karen Tranberg; |coauthors=Philipson, Ilene J. |title=Women, class, and the feminist imagination: a socialist-feminist reader |year=1990 |publisher=Temple University Press |location=Philadelphia |isbn=0-87722-630-X |pages=}}</ref><ref name=Gerhard>{{cite book |author=Gerhard, Jane F. |title=Desiring revolution: second-wave feminism and the rewriting of American sexual thought, 1920 to 1982 |year=2001 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-231-11204-1}}</ref><ref name=Leidholdt>{{cite book |author=Leidholdt, Dorchen; |authorlink=Dorchen Leidholdt |coauthors=Raymond, Janice G |title=The Sexual liberals and the attack on feminism |year=1990 |publisher=Pergamon Press |location=New York |isbn=0-08-037457-3}}</ref><ref name=Vance>{{cite book |author=Vance, Carole S. |title=Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality |publisher=Thorsons Publishers|isbn=0-04-440593-6}}</ref>
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5. "Marriage has existed for the benefit of men; and has been a legally sanctioned method of control over women.... We must work to destroy it. The end of the institution of marriage is a necessary condition for the liberation of women. Therefore it is important for us to encourage women to leave their husbands and not to live individually with men ... All of history must be re-written in terms of oppression of women. We must go back to ancient female religions like witchcraft" (from "The Declaration of Feminism" November, 1971)
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====Anti-pornography movement====
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{{details|Anti-pornography#Feminist objections}}
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[[Anti-pornography movement#Feminist objections|Anti-pornography feminists]], such as [[Catharine MacKinnon]], [[Andrea Dworkin]], [[Robin Morgan]] and [[Dorchen Leidholdt]], put [[pornography]] at the center of a feminist explanation of women's oppression.<ref name=XXX>{{cite book |author=McElroy, Wendy |title=XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography |year=1995 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |isbn=0312136269 |pages=243}}</ref>
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6. "By the year 2000 we will, I hope, raise our children to believe in human potential, not God" - [[Gloria Steinem]], editor of Ms. Magazine)
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Some feminists, such as [[Diana Russell]], [[Andrea Dworkin]], [[Catharine MacKinnon]], [[Susan Brownmiller]], [[Dorchen Leidholdt]], [[Ariel Levy]], and [[Robin Morgan]], argue that pornography is degrading to women, and complicit in violence against women both in its production (where, they charge, abuse and exploitation of women performing in pornography is rampant) and in its consumption (where, they charge, pornography eroticizes the domination, humiliation, and coercion of women, and reinforces sexual and cultural attitudes that are complicit in [[rape]] and [[sexual harassment]]).<ref name= Dworkin>{{cite book |author=Dworkin, Andrea |authorlink=Andrea Dworkin |title=Pornography: men possessing women |year=1989 |publisher=Plume |location=New York |isbn=0-452-26793-5 |pages=300}}</ref>
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7. "Let's forget about the mythical Jesus and look for encouragement, solace, and inspiration from real women ... Two thousand years of patriarchal rule under the shadow of the cross ought to be enough to turn women toward the feminist 'salvation' of this world" - Annie Laurie Gaylor, "Feminist Salvation," The Humanist, p. 37, July/August 1988
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Beginning in the late 1970s, anti-pornography [[radical feminism|radical feminists]] formed organizations such as [[Women Against Pornography]] that provided educational events, including slide-shows, speeches, and guided tours of the sex industry in [[Times Square]], in order to raise awareness of the content of pornography and the sexual subculture in pornography shops and live sex shows.<ref name= Brownmiller>{{cite book |author=Brownmiller, Susan |title=In our time: memoir of a revolution |year=1999 |publisher=Dial Press |location=New York |isbn=0-385-31486-8 |pages=360}}</ref> Andrea Dworkin and Robin Morgan began articulating a vehemently anti-porn stance based in radical feminism beginning in 1974, and anti-porn feminist groups, such as Women Against Pornography and similar organizations, became highly active in various US cities during the late 1970s.<ref name= Dworkin/>
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{{seealso|Women Against Pornography|Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media}}
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8. "In order to raise children with equality, we must take them away from families and communally raise them" - Dr. Mary Jo Bane, feminist and assistant professor of education at Wellesley College, and associate director of the school's Center for Research on Woman
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====Sex-positive movement====
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{{main|Sex-positive feminism}}
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Sex-positive feminism is a movement that was formed in order to address issues of women's sexual pleasure, freedom of expression, [[sex work]], and inclusive gender identities. [[Ellen Willis]]' 1981 essay, "Lust Horizons: Is the Women's Movement Pro-Sex?" is the origin of the term, "pro-sex feminism"; the more commonly-used variant, "sex positive feminism" arose soon after.<ref>{{citation
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|last=Willis
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|first=Ellen
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|date=1981-06-01
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|title=Lust Horizons: Is the Women's Movement Pro-Sex?
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|periodical = [[Village Voice]]
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|issue=June 1981
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|doi=
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|oclc =
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}}</ref>
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9. "Being a housewife is an illegitimate profession... The choice to serve and be protected and plan towards being a family- maker is a choice that shouldn't be. The heart of radical feminism is to change that" - Vivian Gornick, feminist author, University of Illinois, The Daily Illini, April 25, 1981
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Although some sex-positive feminists, such as [[Betty Dodson]], were active in the early 1970s, much of sex-positive feminism largely began in the late 1970s and 1980s as a response to the increasing emphasis in radical feminism on anti-pornography activism, and to the ideas of anti-pornography feminists like [[Robin Morgan]], [[Andrea Dworkin]], and [[Catharine MacKinnon]], who argued that sexual expressions such as [[pornography]], [[sadomasochism]], [[transexualism]], and other "male" modes of sexuality are a central cause of women's oppression.<ref name=Echols/><ref name=McElroy0/>
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10. "The most merciful thing a large family can to do one of its infant members is to kill it" - Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, in "Women and the New Race" p. 67
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Sex-positive feminists are also strongly opposed to radical feminist calls for legislation against pornography, a strategy they decried as [[censorship]], and something that could, they argued, be used by social conservatives to censor the sexual expression of women, gay people, and other sexual minorities. The initial period of intense debate and acrimony between sex-positive and anti-pornography feminists during the early 1980s is often referred to as the [[Feminist Sex Wars]]. Other sex-positive feminists became involved not in opposition to other feminists, but in direct response to what they saw as patriarchal control of sexuality.{{Fact|date=June 2008}}
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{{seealso|Samois}}
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*"Women's chains have been forged by men, not by anatomy." - Estelle R. Ramey
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==Relationship to political movements==
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===Socialism===
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{{main|The left and feminism}}
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Since the early twentieth century some feminists have allied with [[socialism]]. In 1907 there was an International Conference of Socialist Women in [[Stuttgart]] where suffrage was described as a tool of class struggle. [[Clara Zetkin]] of the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] called for women's suffrage to build a "''socialist order, the only one that allows for a radical solution to the women's question''".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxismo.net/idm/idm5/idm5.htm|title=Rossi, Elisabetta. L'emancipazione femminile in Russia prima e dopo la rivoluzione In difesa del marxismo Nr. 5}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxist.com/emancipation-women-russia.htm|title=The Emancipation of Women in Russia before and after the Russian Revolution In Defence of Marxism}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Badia, Gilbert |title=Zetkin. Femminista senza frontiere |year=1994 |publisher=University of Michigan. |isbn=8885378536 |pages=320}}</ref><ref name="hww5"/>
   −
*"I would have girls regard themselves not as adjectives but as nouns." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton, "Our Girls"
+
In Britain, the women's movement was allied with the [[Labour party (UK)|Labour party]]. In America, [[Betty Friedan]] emerged from a radical background to take command of the organized movement. [[Radical Women]], founded in 1967 in Seattle is the oldest (and still active) socialist feminist organization in the U.S.<ref>{{cite book |author= |coauthors= |title=The Radical Women manifesto: socialist feminist theory, program and organizational structure |year=2001 |publisher=Red Letter Press |location=Seattle, WA.  |isbn=0-932323-11-1}}</ref> During the [[Spanish Civil War]], [[Dolores Ibárruri]] (''La Pasionaria'') led the [[Communist Party of Spain]]. Although she supported equal rights for women, she opposed women fighting on the front and clashed with the [[Anarcho-Feminism|anarcho-feminist]] [[Mujeres Libres]].<ref name=Ib>{{cite book |author=Ibárruri, Dolores |title=Speeches & Articles, 1936-1938: 1936-1938 |year=1938 |publisher=University of Michigan. |pages=263}}</ref>
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*"We are, as a sex, infinitely superior to men" - [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]], from her diary of December 27, 1890, quoting a letter she wrote. <ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=CIsEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA270&lpg=PA270&dq=%22we+are+as+a+sex+infinitely+superior+to+men%22&source=web&ots=FqYVyWK-s6&sig=tnXoiGvopCcO1vFaoF7nmSvtXPM&hl=en#PPA270,M1</ref>
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Revolutions in Latin America brought changes in women's status in countries such as Nicaragua where [[Feminist ideology during the Sandinista Revolution]] was largely responsible for improvements in the quality of life for women but fell short of achieving a social and ideological change.<ref name=parpart>{{cite book |author=Parpart, Jane L. |coauthors=Connelly, M. Patricia; Connelly, Patricia; Barriteau, V. Eudine; Barriteau, Eudine |title=Theoretical perspectives on gender and development |date= |publisher=Ottawa, Canada : International Development Research Centre 2000. |isbn=0-88936-910-0 |pages=215}}</ref>
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{{seealso|Post-Communism Gender Roles in Eastern Europe|Role of women in Nicaraguan Revolution}}
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From 'A feminist Dictionary; ed. Kramarae and Triechler, Pandora Press, 1985:
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===Fascism===
 +
Scholars have argued that [[Nazi Germany]] and the other [[fascist]] states of the 1930s and 1940s illustrates the disastrous consequences for society of a state ideology that, in glorifying women, becomes antifeminist.<ref>{{cite book |author=Bridenthal, Renate |coauthors=Grossmann, Atina; Kaplan, Marion A. |title=When biology became destiny: women in Weimar and Nazi Germany |year=1984 |publisher=Monthly Review Press |location=New York |isbn=0-85345-642-9 |pages=364}}</ref> In Germany after the rise of [[Nazism]] in 1933, there was a rapid dissolution of the political rights and economic opportunities that feminists had fought for during the prewar period and to some extent during the 1920s. In Franco's Spain, the right wing Catholic conservatives undid the work of feminists during the Republic. Fascist society was hierarchical with an emphasis and idealization of virility, with women maintaining a largely subordinate position to men.<ref name=hww5>{{cite book |author=Duby, Georges |coauthors=Perrot, Michelle; Pantel, Pauline, Schmitt |title=A history of women in the West |year=1994 |publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Mass. |isbn=0-674-40369-X |pages=600}}</ref>
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*MALE: ... represents a variant of or deviation from the category of female. The first males were mutants ... the male sex represents a degeneration and deformity of the female
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==Scientific discourse==
 +
Some feminists are critical of traditional scientific discourse, arguing that the field has historically been biased towards a masculine perspective.<ref name=shildrick/> [[Evelyn Fox Keller]] argues that the [[rhetoric of science]] reflects a masculine perspective, and she questions the idea of [[scientific objectivity]]. [[Primatologist]] [[Sarah Blaffer Hrdy]] notes the prevalence of masculine-coined stereotypes and theories, such as the non-sexual female, despite "the accumulation of abundant openly available evidence contradicting it".<ref name=Hrdy>{{cite book|last=Blaffer Hrdy |first=Sarah |title=Infanticide: Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives: Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants and Natural Selection |publisher=Pantheon, 1999 }}</ref> Some natural and social scientists have examined feminist ideas using scientific methods.
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*MAN: ... an obsolete life form ... an ordinary creature who needs to be watched ...a contradictory baby-man ...  
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===Biology of gender===
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{{related|[[Biology of gender]]}}
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Modern feminist science is based on the view that many differences between the sexes are based on socially constructed gender identities rather than on biological sex differences. For example, [[Anne Fausto-Sterling|Anne Fausto-Sterling's]] book ''Myths of Gender'' explores the assumptions embodied in scientific research that purports to support a biologically [[essentialist]] view of gender.<ref name=Fausto-Sterling>{{cite book |author=Fausto-Sterling, Anne |title=Myths of gender: biological theories about women and men |year=1992 |publisher=BasicBooks |location=New York, NY  |isbn=0-465-04792-0}}</ref> Her second book, ''Sexing the Body'' discussed the biological possibility of more than two ''true'' biological sexes. However, in ''The Female Brain'', Louann Brizendine argues that brain differences between the sexes are a biological reality with significant implications for sex-specific functional differences.<ref name=Brizendine>{{cite book |author=Brizendine, Louann |title=The Female Brain |year=2007 |publisher=Bantam Press |isbn=9780593058077}}</ref> Steven Rhoads' book ''Taking Sex Differences Seriously'' illustrates sex-dependent differences across a wide scope.<ref name=Rhoads>{{cite book |author=Rhoads, Steven E. |title=Taking sex differences seriously |year=2004 |publisher=Encounter Books |location=San Francisco, Calif. |isbn=978-1-893554-93-1 }}</ref>
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*TESTOSTERONE POISONING: ... 'Until now it has been though that the level of testosterone in men is normal simply because they have it. But if you consider how abnormal their behavior is, then you are led to the hypothesis that almost all men are suffering from "testosterone poisoning"
+
[[Carol Tavris]], in ''The Mismeasure of Woman'', uses psychology and sociology to critique theories that use biological [[reductionism]] to explain differences between men and women. She argues rather than using evidence of innate gender difference there is an over-changing hypothesis to justify inequality and perpetuate stereotypes.<ref name= Tavris>{{cite book
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|last=Tavris |first=Carol |title=The Mismeasure of Woman: : Why Women Are Not the Better Sex, inferior or Opposite Sex |publisher=Simon & Schuster, 1992 }}</ref>
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*Letter to editor: "Women's Turn to Dominate" "... Clearly you are not yet a free-thinking feminist but rather one of those women who bounce off the male-dominated, male-controlled social structures. Who cares how men feel or what they do or whether they suffer? They have had over 2000 years to dominate and made a complete hash of it. Now it is our turn. My only comment to men is: if you don't like it, bad luck - and if you get in my way I'll run you down" Signed: Liberated Women, Boronia Herald-Sun, Melbourne, Australia. 9 February, 1996
+
===Evolutionary biology===
 +
{{related|[[Evolutionary biology]]}}
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Sarah Kember—drawing from numerous areas such as evolutionary biology, [[sociobiology]], [[artificial intelligence]], and [[cybernetics]] in development with a new evolutionism—discusses the biologization of technology. She notes how feminists and sociologists have become suspect of [[evolutionary psychology]], particularly inasmuch as sociobiology is subjected to [[complexity]] in order to strengthen sexual difference as [[wiktionary:immutable|immutable]] through pre-existing cultural value judgments about [[human nature]] and [[natural selection]]. Where feminist theory is criticized for its "false beliefs about human nature," Kember then argues in conclusion that "feminism is in the interesting position of needing to do more biology and evolutionary theory in order not to simply oppose their renewed hegemony, but in order to understand the conditions that make this possible, and to have a say in the construction of new ideas and artefacts."<ref name=Kember>{{cite journal  |author=Kember, Sarah |title=Resisting the New Evolutionism |journal=Women: a Cultural Review |year=2001 |volume=12  | number = 1 |date=Spring 1998 |pages=8  |doi=10.1080/09574040110034075}}</ref>
   −
*“Feminism, Socialism, and Communism are one in the same, and Socialist/Communist government is the goal of feminism” - Catharine MacKinnon
+
==Men and feminism==
 +
{{main|Men and feminism}}
 +
[[Image:Antisuffragists.jpg|thumb|Anti-suffragists in 1911]]
 +
The relationship between men and feminism has been complex. Men have taken part in significant responses to feminism in each 'wave' of the movement. There have been positive and negative reactions and responses, depending on the individual man and the social context of the time.<ref name=Lingard>{{cite book |author=Lingard, Bob; |coauthors=Douglas, Peter |title=Men engaging feminisms: pro-feminism, backlashes and schooling |year=1999 |publisher=Open University Press |location=Buckingham [[England]] |isbn=978-0-335-19817-7 }}</ref> These responses have varied from [[pro-feminism]] to [[masculism]] to [[anti-feminism]].<ref name=Digby>{{cite book |author=Digby, Tom |title=Men doing feminism |year=1998 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-0-415-91625-7}}</ref><ref name=Farrell>{{cite book |author=Farrell, Warren|authorlink=Warren Farrell |coauthors=Sterba, James P. |title=Does Feminism Discriminate against Men?: A Debate (Point/Counterpoint) |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0-19-531283-6}}</ref><ref name=Porter>{{cite book |author=Porter, David |title=Between men and feminism |year=1992 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-0-415-06988-5}}</ref> In the twenty-first century new reactions to feminist ideologies have emerged including a generation of male scholars involved in gender studies,<ref name=Kimmel/><ref name= Schacht>{{cite book |author=Schacht, Steven P. |coauthors=Ewing, Doris W. |title=Feminism and men: reconstructing gender relations |year=1998 |publisher=New York University Press |location=New York  |isbn=978-0-8147-8077-0}}</ref> and also [[men's rights]] activists who promote male equality (including equal treatment in family, divorce and [[anti-discrimination]] law).<ref name=Flood>{{cite book
 +
|last=Flood
 +
|first=Michael
 +
|authorlink=Michael Flood
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|title=The battle and backlash rage on: Why feminism cannot be obsolete
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|date=7 July 2004
 +
|editor=Stacey Elin Rossi
 +
|publisher=Xlibris Press
 +
|location=Philadelphia, PA
 +
 +
|isbn=1-4134-5934-X
 +
|pages=17
 +
|chapter=Backlash: Angry men's movements}}</ref> Historically a number of men have engaged with feminism. Philosopher [[Jeremy Bentham]] demanded equal rights for women in the eighteenth century. In 1866, philosopher [[John Stuart Mill]] (author of "[[The Subjection of Women]]") presented a women’s petition to the British parliament; and supported an amendment to the 1867 Reform Bill. Others have lobbied and campaigned against feminism. Today, academics like [[Michael Flood]], [[Michael Messner]] and [[Michael Kimmel]] are involved with [[men's studies]] and [[pro-feminism]].<ref name=Kimmel>Michael S. Kimmel, “Who’s Afraid of Men Doing Feminism?,” from Men Doing Feminism, Tom Digby, ed. New York: Routledge, 1993, 57-68</ref><ref>Michael S. Kimmel, “Introduction,” in Against the Tide: Pro-Feminist Men in the U.S., 1776-1990, A Documentary History. Boston: Beacon 1992, 1-51.</ref><ref name=Flood/><ref name=Messner>{{cite book |author=Messner, Michael A. |title=Power at play: sports and the problem of masculinity |year=1992 |publisher=Beacon Press |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-8070-4105-5}}</ref><ref name=Messner2>{{cite book |author=Messner, Michael A. |title=Taking the field: women, men, and sports |year=2002 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis, MN |isbn=978-0-8166-3449-1}}</ref>
   −
*The English novelist and critic [[Rebecca West]] said <ref>http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/rebecca_west.html</ref> :
+
A number of feminist writers maintain that identifying as a feminist is the strongest stand men can take in the struggle against sexism. They have argued that men should be allowed, or even be encouraged, to participate in the feminist movement.<ref name="Brod1">Harry Brod, “To Be a Man, or Not to be a Man{{ndash}} That Is the Feminist Question,” in Men Doing Feminism, Tom Digby, ed. (NY: Routledge, 1993), 197-212.</ref><ref name="hooks1984">hooks, bell. ''Men: Comrades in Struggle,'' in Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (1984).</ref> Other female feminists argue that men cannot be feminists simply because they are not women. They maintain that men are granted inherent privileges that prevent them from identifying with feminist struggles, thus making it impossible for them to identify with feminists.<ref name="Funk1"> Russ Ervin Funk, “The Power of Naming: Why Men Can’t Be Feminists,” in Feminista!: The Journal of Feminist Construction 1, no. 4.</ref> Fidelma Ashe has approached the issue of male feminism by arguing that traditional feminist views of male experience and of "men doing feminism" have been monolithic.<ref name=Ashe1>{{cite book |author=Ashe, Fidelma |title=The new politics of masculinity |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=0-415-30275-7 |pages=178}}</ref><ref name=Ashe2>{{cite journal  |author=Ashe, Fidelma |title=Deconstructing the Experiential Bar |journal=Men and Masculinities |year=2004 |volume=7 | number= 2 |date=Spring 1998  |doi=10.1177/1097184X03257524  |pages=187}}</ref> She explores the multiple political discourses and practices of pro-feminist politics, and evaluates each strand through an interrogation based upon its effect on feminist politics.<ref name=Ashe2/><ref name=Ashe1/>
   −
*<blockquote> "I myself have never been able to find out what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute."  </blockquote>
+
==Pro-feminism==
 +
{{main|Pro-feminism}}
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[[Pro-feminism]] is the support of feminism without implying that the supporter is a member of the [[feminist movement]]. The term is most often used in reference to men who are actively supportive of feminism and of efforts to bring about [[gender equality]]. The activities of pro-feminist men's groups include anti-violence work with boys and young men in schools, offering [[sexual harassment]] workshops in workplaces, running community education campaigns, and counseling male perpetrators of violence. Pro-feminist men also are involved in men's health, activism against pornography including anti-pornography legislation, [[men's studies]], and the development of gender equity curricula in schools. This work is sometimes in collaboration with feminists and women's services, such as domestic violence and rape crisis centers. Some activists of both genders will not refer to men as "feminists" at all, and will refer to all pro-feminist men as "pro-feminists".<ref name=Kimmel>{{cite book |author=Kimmel, Michael S. |authorlink=Michael Scott Kimmel |coauthors=Mosmiller, Thomas E. |title=Against the tide: pro-feminist men in the United States, 1776-1990: a documentary history |year=1992 |publisher=Beacon Press |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-8070-6767-3}}</ref><ref name=Lingard>{{cite book |author=Lingard, Bob |coauthors=Douglas, Peter |title=Men engaging feminisms: pro-feminism, backlashes and schooling |year=1999 |publisher=Open University Press |location=Buckingham [[England]] |isbn=0-335-19818-X |pages=192}}</ref>
 +
 
 +
==Anti-feminism==
 +
{{main|Anti-feminism}}
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Antifeminism is opposition to feminism in some or all of its forms.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50009621/50009621se1|title="Anti-feminist." ''The Oxford English Dictionary''. 2nd ed. 1989}}</ref> Feminists such as [[Camille Paglia]], [[Christina Hoff Sommers]], [[Jean Bethke Elshtain]] and [[Elizabeth Fox-Genovese]] have been labeled "anti-feminists" by other feminists.<ref>{{cite journal  |author=Stacey, Judith |title=Is Academic Feminism an Oxymoron?  |journal=Signs  |year=2007 |volume=25  | number = 4 |date=Summer 2000 |issue=Feminisms at a Millennium |pages=5}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal  |author=Kamarck Minnich, Elizabeth |title=Review: 'Feminist Attacks on Feminisms: Patriarchy's Prodigal Daughters'  |journal=Feminist Studies  |year=2007 |volume=24  | number = 1 |date=Spring 1998 |pages=26}}</ref> [[Daphne Patai]] and Noretta Koertge argue that in this way the term "anti-feminist" is used to silence academic debate about feminism.<ref name=Patai_Koertge>{{cite book |last=Patai |first=Daphne |coauthors=Noretta Koertge |title=Professing Feminism: Education and Indoctrination in Women's Studies |isbn=0739104551 }}</ref> [[Nathanson and Young|Paul Nathanson and Katherine K. Young's]] books ''Spreading Misandry'' and ''Legalizing Misandry'' explore what they argue is feminist-inspired [[misandry]].<ref name="Legalizing Misandry">{{cite book |author=Nathanson, Paul; Young, Katherine K. |title=Legalizing misandry: from public shame to systematic discrimination against men |year=2006 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |location=Montreal  |isbn=0-7735-2862-8}}</ref> [[Christina Hoff-Sommers]] argues feminist misandry leads directly to [[misogyny]] by what she calls "establishment feminists" against (the majority of) women who love men in ''Who Stole Feminism: How Women Have Betrayed Women''.<ref name=Hoff_Sommers/> "Marriage rights" advocates criticize feminists like Sheila Cronan who take the view that marriage constitutes slavery for women, and that freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage.<ref>{{cite journal
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|title=The Married Professional Woman: A Study in the Tolerance of Domestication
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|author=Poloma M. M., Garland T. N.
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|journal=Journal of Marriage and the Family
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|year=1971
 +
|volume=33
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|issue=3
 +
|pages=531–540
 +
|url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-2445%28197108%2933%3A3%3C531%3ATMPWAS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23
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|doi=10.2307/349850
 +
}}</ref>
 +
Many men still believe feminism is a good thing.
    
==See also==
 
==See also==
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*[[Anti-Feminism]]
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*[[Equal pay for women]]
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*[[Feminism and housewives]]
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*[[Equal Rights Amendment]]
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*[[Feminist style]]
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*[[Feminist therapy]]
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*[[Gender equality]]
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*[[Human trafficking]]
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*[[Gender police]]
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*[[Lactivism]]
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*[[Lesbian feminism]]
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*[[List of feminist literature]]
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*[[Masculism]]
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*[[Misogyny]]
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*[[Separatist feminism]]
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*[[Sex/gender distinction]]
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*[[Social criticism]]
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*[[Women's Environment & Development Organization]]
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==References==
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{{reflist|2}}
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{{liberalism}}
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==External links==
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{{wikiquote}}
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{{wiktionary}}
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{{wikiversity|Women's Studies}}
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{{commons|Feminism}}
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*[http://web.archive.org/web/20070702114236/http://www.feministinitiative.ca/index.html FemINist INitiative] Canadian effort at building a political party, archived at the [[Internet Archive]]
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*[http://now.org National Organization for Women] United States
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*[http://www.sanctuaryforfamilies.org Sanctuary for Families]
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*[http://www.roks.se/ ROKS] Swedish women's organization
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*[http://www.womensforumaustralia.org/ Women's Forum Australia]
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*[http://www.cirac.org/prototype/women-uk.htm International Women's Day] is a slide show ''in English'' of the Brazilian [http://www.cirac.org/prototype/vmm-pt.htm Vinna Mara Fonseca]
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==References==
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{{Template group
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{{Feminism}}
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{{Discrimination}}
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{{Political ideologies}}
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}}
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[[Category:Civil rights and liberties]]
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[[Category:Women's rights]]
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==External Links==
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*[http://www.feministezine.com/feminist/ The Feminist eZine] Archive of articles about Feminist History.
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*[http://www.cia-on-campus.org/surveil/steinem.html Gloria Steinem and the CIA], ''The New York Times'', February 21, 1967.
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*[http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg02217.html Inside the CIA with Gloria Steinem], Nancy Borman,  ''The Village Voice''.
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*[http://www.american.com/archive/2008/march-april-magazine-contents/why-can2019t-a-woman-be-more-like-a-man Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Man?], Christina Hoff Sommers, ''The American'' March/April 2008.
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