...Have you ever wondered what the lifestyles of Nineteenth Century women were like? Were they independent, career women or were they typical housewives that cooked, clean, watched the children, and catered to their husbands. Did the women of this era express themselves freely or did they just do what society expected of them? Kate Chopin was a female author who wrote several stories and two novels about women. One of her renowned works of art is The Awakening. This novel created great controversy and received negative criticism from literary critics due to Chopin's portrayal of women by Edna throughout the book. The Awakening is a novel about a woman, Edna Pontellier, who is a confused soul. She is a typical housewife that is looking to find herself and be freed from her undesirable lifestyle. Edna was married to her husband for six years and has tow little boys. Her husband, Leonce Pontellier, is the "bread-maker" in the family. He is a business man that pays all the makes and makes sure that his family is financially stable while Edna cares for the children, cooks, and keeps the ... ... middle of paper ... ...(Spring 1978): 108-111 4. Kinnison, Dana. "Female Resistance to Gender Conformity in Kate Chopin's The Awakening.(1899) Women in Literature, Reading through the Lens of Gender. Ed. Jerilyn Fisher and Ellen S. Silber. Forward by David Sadker. Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn. Greenwood. 2003 (22-24) 5. Skaggs, Peggy, "The Awakening's Relationship with American...
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...Romantic Era Novels: How did Women Writers Refashion the Grand Self and Embrace Feminism? The romantic atmosphere is ideal for recognizing women as deserving equals. In this period, the feminist writings was brought and create a debate on the merits of women’ rights. A surge of women began writing and expressing themselves through novels and other literary works, such as Mary Shelley, Jane Austen. The feminist novels have tested the central “I” of women and also have shaken up gender roles of men. The female writers focused on the moral and ideological issues arising out of daily life and basic human relationships, and they advocate for female equality during romantic period fought to obtain better rights for women. The images of women across genres can be varied as the authors themselves. Mary Wollstonecraft is the radical feminist who contributed to those debates and typically revolted against the social condition of women. In her work of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, she believed in a push for growth in women and was disturbed by the lack of education. For most romantic feminists, their literary works focused on both the source of women’s inequality and its potential solution. The feminist novels in romantic era raised concerns about the ability of women to reject silence and express themselves. A feminist view from William Blake pointed out that female liberation some kind can make men free from the relationships based on power. Mary Shelley in her novel Frankenstein...
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...Benefits of Feminism to the American Society Name Institution Affiliation Benefits of Feminism From the nineteenth century, the word feminism gained much popularity globally, as advocates sought equal rights for women in comparison to their male counterparts. Feminism appealed to a high number of individuals belonging to the female gender, but left many males wounded and aggrieved. Presently, feminism is still a familiar concept that attracts negative and positive criticism from different people. Those that oppose feminism, claim that the idea is unrealistic and responsible for many fallbacks in the society, and the proponents say that, feminism is rightful and sublime. This paper analyzes the importance of feminism on the American society (Hannam, 2008). As a conception, different people perceive feminism differently especially because of the effects that it has on the American society. Some people view feminism as the means through which women acquired rights to vote, work, education, personal property and politic among other issues. On the other hand, some people see feminism as a way through which women seek entitlement and other benefits, by claiming that they have equal rights with men, and reminding the society that they deserve special treatment, after having been oppressed for many years. Considering that both factions are right, one can say that feminism has brought both beneficial and harmful effects...
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...Assess the contribution of feminist perspectives to our understanding of society. (33 marks) Feminism is a set of ideologies used to advance the cause of women’s equality and to end the sexist theory and practice of social oppression. It is a structuralist theory which is made up of several versions, but they all argue that society is patriarchal. The types of feminism I will be reviewing are liberal feminism, radical feminism, marxist feminism, and difference feminism. Aside from all agreeing that society is patriarchal, these versions of feminism disagree on two levels; the extent of patriarchy in society and also what needs to be done to create gender equality. Firstly, liberal feminism. Liberal feminists believe all humans should be treated equally; however they believe that women aren’t treated equally to men in society. Liberal feminists suggest that to create greater gender equality laws that are unfavourable to women need to be changed in order to present women with greater opportunities. Oakley distinguishes between sex and gender, referring to sex as the biological differences between males and females such as their reproductive role, whereas she refers to gender as culturally constructed differences between masculine and feminine roles and identities assigned to males and females. Liberal feminists therefore disagree with the functionalist Parsons who believed that males and females perform the roles they are biologically suited to do, contrarily believing...
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...History Pg.7 5. Indian Feminism Pg.9 6. Where feminism goes wrong Pg.14 7. Bibliography Pg.20 ABSTRACT Women have always been an integral part of society. However, more often than not their contribution in the human society has been ignored. This gave rise to the need of empowering women and hence the feminist movement. This research project aims to comprehend and analyze the very essence of Feminism in terms of the 3rd wave and in Indian context. It also analyses the myths associated with feminism and the flaws which lead to the ambiguity in the whole concept of feminism. Further, the paper discusses as to whether the term “feminism” can be brought under one general definition or there is much more to it. INTRODUCTION DEFINITION "A woman should be barefoot, pregnant and chained to a stove," stated Ben Glantz, a high school senior. Drew Pershing, another senior, also shared a joke, "What does a woman do after she leaves a battered shelter? The dishes...if she knows what's good for her!" Daily jokes and comments such as these, no matter how harmless, are detrimental to the status of women and a dangerous undermining of their accomplishments. Shared by both genders, sexually discriminative comments are widely accepted in society as normal and harmless. "I didn't mean anything by that; I was just kidding," whimpered Ben Glantz after receiving several cold stares from young women who overheard his bashing, sexist comment. The word ‘Feminism’ seems to refer to an...
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...century, women in China were regarded essentially different from men. Despite the association of women with yin and men with yang, two qualities considered equally important by Daoism, women were believed to occupy a lower position than men in the hierarchical order of the universe. The I Ching stated that "'Great Righteousness is shown in that man and woman occupy their correct places; the relative positions of Heaven and Earth.'" Women were to be submissive and obedient to men. Women were not allowed to participate in government or community institutions. A number of women, and some men, spoke out against these conditions in the early 20th century, but to little avail. As a result of government approval, women's rights groups became increasingly active in China: "One of the most striking manifestations of social change and awakening which has accompanied the Revolution in China has been the emergence of a vigorous and active Woman's Movement." Beginning in the 70s and continuing in the 80s, however, many Chinese feminists began arguing that the Communist government had been "consistently willing to treat women's liberation as something to be achieved later, after class inequalities had been taken care of."[9] Some feminists claim that part of the problem is a tendency on the government's part to interpret "equality" as sameness, and then to treat women according to an unexamined standard of male normalcy.[10] Chapter two: definition, development, and categories of feminism ...
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...Feminism in Bangladesh: Establishing equal rights between men & women in young generation. SADMAN ANIS Students University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh ABSTRACT This is basically exploratory study and was conducted at University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh & United International University, Dhanmondi,Dhaka, Bangladesh over a period of 10 days started from 1st December, 2012 to 10th December, 2010. The main objective of this study is to describe what the condition of feminism in Bangladesh and what is the thinking of our varsity girl about feminism. Total 21 respondents were selected based on age class of 18-22. Feminism is a belief in the right of women to have political, social, and economic equality with men. It is a discourse that involves various movements, theories, and philosophies which are concerned with the issue of gender difference, advocate equality for women, and campaign for women’s rights and interests. According to some, the history of feminism can be divided into three waves. 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. Feminist theory emerged from these feminist movements. It is manifest in a variety of disciplines such as feminist geography, feminist history and feminist literary criticism. Although feminism has emerged in nineteenth in the world, it is yet unknown to women of our country. The concept of feminism in Bangladesh has...
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...Rice 17). Intersectionality was described as women and men living multiple layers of identities and were experiencing oppression and privilege (Hobbs, Rice 18). Intersectionality explores gender, sexuality, race, class, disability, age, and much more but it is evident to men and women to display the positions of power. Patricia Hill Collins published,...
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...Liberal Feminism In today’s society, women are greatly advancing politically and economically due to the contributions of liberal feminists that began in the mid to late 20th century. Liberal feminists believe that gender differences should not be derived from biology and therefore, men and women should be treated equally and have equal rights under the law and in the workplace. However, there are a few limitations to liberal feminism including denigrating women traits such as empathy and nurturing in order to increase women’s social status in society. One major achievement that liberal feminism has achieved is getting gender equality for women in the workplace and education, written in the civil rights laws in the United States. In the workplace, women have always faced discrimination by men through hiring, promotion and lower salaries. Liberal feminism has been trying to break these obstacles to help women find an easier passage to occupations that are usually conquered by men. The concepts of gate keeping, glass ceiling and gendered job queues are what liberal feminism have been fighting against to insure that women receive the same occupations, wages and benefits as men do. Affirmative Action was created to rectify the gender, racial and ethnical imbalance in the workplace which also helped women exceed without discrimination. Not only has liberal feminism advanced women with general occupations, but also with government positions. Liberal feminists have been encouraging...
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...academic lesson I would have learned from that day because of the small fact that an inch of my knee might be of disturbance to a hormonal high school boy. This is the point in my life when I needed feminism. I always understood the term feminism to be straightforward: anyone who believes in equality between men and women, as well as the perseverance of self-worth regardless of gender, is a feminist. However, my generation of women has a far more straight forward view of feminism than I do. Women who recommend the values of feminism now frown upon identifying themselves as feminist. Why is that? Many misconceptions and misunderstandings become part of the issue when a person has a lack of understanding or comprehension of exactly what the term feminism truly means. It is important to know the difference between equality and feminism. Comprehending the meaning of the two also empowers a women to be grounded and given the capability to know what they stand for. A Huffington post “Poll: Few Identify as Feminists, But Most Believe in Equality of Sexes”, conducted a poll that displayed the percentage of women who would identify themselves as feminist and only that of 23% consider to be feminist while the vast majority believes in equality. The gap that consists between the women who identify themselves as feminist against the percentage...
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...of Second and Third Wave Feminism A historical Social Movement that had major implications for the future was the Feminist movement during the 1960s-1970s often referred to as the Second Wave of feminism. This movement’s peak was during these two decades although it lasted until the 1980’s. This historical social movement is interesting because it was almost immediately followed by what is referred to as the third wave of feminism, which began in the 1990’s and still exists today. Both movements focused on aspects of women’s rights although they differ in rhetoric. The emergence and decline of second wave feminism was a necessary event which led to the third wave of feminism. The term second-wave feminism refers mostly to the radical feminism of the women’s liberation movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Second-wave feminism grew out of leftist movements in postwar Western societies, such as student protests, the anti–Vietnam War movement, the lesbian and gay movements, and, in the United States, the civil rights and Black power movements (Krolokke, Sorensen, p. 8). During this period other movements that were critical of capitalism and imperialism focused on the interest of oppressed groups: working classes, minorities, women and homosexuals. Even during this period of social upheaval women found themselves servicing the revolution, cut off from real influence and thus, once again, exposed to sexism (p. 9). To combat this, women began to form consciousness-raising...
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...“Interrogating Post Feminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture” (2007) discusses the importance of post feminism in contemporary popular culture. In this book, Tasker and Negra focus mainly on film, television and advertising. According to the article “The Myth of Postfeminism”, the United States entered a postfeminist era around 1990. (Hall, J. E. (2003) p. 878) In America Charmed was television series which ran from 1998 up until 2006. Post-feminism, also known as third wave feminism emerged after second wave feminism and was a response to what second wave feminism excluded. The shows central characters are three sisters who are witches, the show is hailed as a feminist text because of its portrayal of strong female characters, and the fact the...
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...oppress women?(20 marks) Feminism is what culture is like for women just because they are women compared to what life is like for men. In society women get treated differently to men as men are seen as more superior, however this only happens in some cultures and these cultures are prejudice towards women. There are 4 key theories that I will talk about in this essay, they all argue different beliefs about feminism and how the family allows men to control and oppress women. Firstly, Radical feminism, they believe that a patriarchal society is the cause of conflict. They also promote lesbianism and separatism. Theorists like Rich, Brownmiller and Firestone all believe differently about Radical feminism. Rich believes in heterosexual relationships however he also thinks that they don’t satisfy the women. Brownmiller believes that women are secluded by society as they fear violence and rape. Lastly Firestone believes that women are unequal due to the factor of child birth. This shows that men are the decision makers and are the ones who have the power within the family. Patriarchy seems to divide rights, privileges and power by gender. Resulting in oppressing women and privileging men. The limitations of this theory are that it assumes all women are the same and men are evil, however this may not be the case as some women may have a more dominant role. Lesbianism is not a good family type to raise children, nuclear is better. Also, not all religions subordinate women, for example...
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...Feminism is the “theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes” (Merriam-Webster). Feminism is combatting all of the notions and systems of oppression against women, such as the Glass Ceiling, to advocate in the ideas and validity of women. Most advocates of Feminism have become Feminist critics. Feminist critics are more “concerned with the ways in which literature [, or roles in society,] reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women” (The OWL at Purdue 2010). Feminist critics call their practice, reading through “Feminist Lens”, which is the idea of reading literature and “striving to expose the explicit and implicit misogyny in male writing about women” (Richter 2016). The Feminist lens are feminist critics way to expose the negative perceptions of women that is expressed by...
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...Feminism refers to political, cultural, and economic movements aimed at establishing greater rights, legal protection for women, and or women's liberation. It includes some of the sociological theories and philosophies concerned with issues of gender difference. Nancy Cott defines feminism as the belief in the importance of gender equality, invalidating the idea of gender hierarchy as a socially constructed concept. Feminism has earned itself a bad reputation, but it never undermined gender differences that exist between males and females. A man can never be as good a mother as a female can. Similarly, a woman can never be as good a father as a male can. While accepting these anatomical and physiological differences between the two genders, feminism seeks for both genders to be equally respected. They are both human and as a species, humans cannot progress without either one of them. Maggie Humm and Rebecca Walker divide the history of feminism into three waves. The first wave transpired in the nineteenth and early twentieth century’s, the second occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, and the third extends from the 1990s to the present. In each wave of the movement, though men have taken part in significant responses to feminism, the relationship between men and feminism has been complex. 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 presented a women's...
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