Feminist Movement Essays (Examples)

Feminist Movement of the 1970s
Ending the "The Problem with No Name"

The Golden Age of marriage and family, the 1950s, was statistically a time when most women married and few divorced (Smith, lecture notes). On the surface, American society seemed to be content with the status quo; however, the existence of pervasive racial and gender inequality was preventing the oppressed from fully taking part in the Golden Age, let alone enjoying full citizenship.

Women in the 1950's began to suspect their happiness might depend on factors other than marriage, home, and three and a half children (Smith, lecture notes). Alcohol and valium were helping women find some relief from their unrealized dreams and unrelenting melancholia, in their role as domestic servants. With most of society expecting women to be happy as wife and homemaker this pervasive sense of unfulfillment became known as the "problem with no name." When the…

Tinker's analysis brings into fore the issue of women subjugation in Catholicism in general, regardless of the cultural context in which Catholicism is applied. Unlike Robert's case, Tinker's presented the other side of the coin, a case in point that explains why there are feminist constructions around the relationship between gender and religion, specifically of Catholicism and its female followers. From the last case, a feminist reading is negotiated, wherein the author questioned the roles imposed upon women by Catholicism. Robert's case further intensified the need to answer Tinker's question, for there actually exists cultures wherein women are not subjugated, but instead, assumed significant roles and functions in their communities. This contrast between two cases under the same religion, Catholicism, illustrated that there is a special need for women whose roles remained relegated to being subordinate to males and still subjected to the rules of patriarchy.

A feminist reading of…

Feminism
The feminist movement, like many other social movements in American history, has become tainted and infected by the negative opinions of those within and without the feminist circle. Stereotypes have been a significant hindrance as well as motivational factor to the feminist movement. One way in which stereotypes are interwoven with feminism is the stereotypes about women that have been held long and hard in Western culture which gave birth to the movement through necessity. Other ways in which stereotypes are strongly interlinked with feminism are the stereotypes that are held by society regarding feminist culture in specific, and the stereotypes that are held by many people that identity as feminists regarding other cultures and social groups. Additionally, specific stereotypes about women in certain social and ethnic groups, such as African-American women and Indian women, have greatly affected their role in the women's rights movements and their place as…

Feminist Art as Evolution Rather Than as a Movement
Feminist art as a named movement evolved in the context of the late 1960's early 1970's political climate. The movement contextually cannot be separated from larger civil rights movements and specifically those relating to women; like the sexual revolution, the women's liberation movement, and the formation and growth of groups like the National Organization for omen. Strictly speaking there can be no real separation of the feminist art movement from the civil rights movements in its context because so much of art of the era acted as the voice and vision of the messages of the movements as a whole. Though there are of coarse exceptions to this rule art as a whole during this period was a demonstrative agent for social change.

In this analysis of both feminist art and its contextual school of thought, during the civil rights era…

Adultery and any sort of infidelity turns out to be a different story for men as Rosenthal stresses: "prohibition against adultery is not about property, pregnancy, misdirected male desire, or bloodlines, as one might have thought, but about the prevention of female comparison" (Rosenthal, 2008) as sharing men would be established by the size of their sexual organs.
A recurrent theme in the play from a gender perspective relates to the fact that the play is generally a patriarchal type of play in which paternal figures are predominant and the evolution of the other characters is a direct result of this way of using power. The women in this play, especially Doralice and Melantha are victimized as women had lesser rights to speak their minds or act according to their decisions. The paternalistic environment is also observed in the way Palamede and Rhodophil behave, as all four of them find…

" Cultural and social differences, then, between men and women are not so much reflections of differing social roles and expectations as they are reflections of basic genetic differences between men and women..." (Groenhout 51)
3.1. The family

To understand this criticism of feminism and the reaction to the attack on female domesticity, one has to know something about the background that initiated this reaction. This refers especially to the view of the family as a valued institution central to the structure of society that is in decline throughout the world.

A number or critics note how the feminist view and the "new" role of women in society has negatively affected the family. This has resulted as well in many feminists turning against the more radical views of feminism as they feel that they endanger the integrity of the family and family life. As one critic notes, "From the early…

As such, she fails to address the central problem of feminism in the Pontellier perspective, namely the impossibility of female individuality and independence in a patriarchal world. It is only in isolation that Edna can find any happiness, and she must make this isolation more and more complete in order to maintain her happiness, as the patriarchy has a means of encroaching on all populated areas, and Wollstonecraft's feminism does not offer an alternative to this need to escape humanity.
A final snort of disgust might be distinctly heard from Edna Pontellier upon her reading of this line of Wollstonecraft's, afterwards she might likely have flung the text aside (or into the fireplace, depending on the season): "Pleasure is the business of woman's life, according to the present modification of society" (ch. 4, par. 10). What Wollstonecraft means is that women are thought to be so fragile, so emotional, and…

In the 1986 Demme-directed film, Lulu/Audrey captures and upsets the mundane life of Charlie Driggs, bringing madcap spontaneity through her female dizziness. But in Ridley Scott's female road epic, Thelma must escape the madcap, silly housewife persona that leads her into a bad situation during the opening cowboy dance scene that nearly results in a rape. Thelma becomes toughed for the better by the proximity of the character of Louise and gaining a new outlook on female empowerment.

Audrey was also married, like Thelma, to a violent man named Ray. Her chosen protector Charlie finds the ray of his own manhood by saving Audrey, after she has playfully abducted this uptight yuppie from his rote, miserable job and dull daily existence. This suggests that men can rescue women from the tyrannies of patriarchy in exchange for female lightness and delights. But both the personas of Thelma and Louise suggest in…

Racial identity plays a strong role in the definition of self; Lorde recognized the importance of racial identity even in the struggle for gender equality. Her argument implicitly supports Jones' assertion that racial equality is "prior" to the cause of gender equality for African-American women. The implicit argument is that feminism could not be a united force because white women did not have the ability through their institutionalized advantages to cogently appreciate the tribulations of African-American women. As a result, there could never have been unity in the first place. In understanding this key point, the justification for African-American unity and the subjugation of the black feminist movement appears to be a more appealing strategy.
A final poignant comparison and relationship between the greater struggle for racial equality and black feminism rests in the internal conflict within African-American culture. One of the greatest ironies of the Civil Rights movement is…

omen's Studies
Feminist Third ave publications: Reflection

One of the most striking aspects of Bitch Magazine is the plethora of topics it addresses. 'omen's issues' are clearly no longer confined to concerns narrowly pertaining to sexuality and gender. Somewhat 'expected' topics such as lesbianism on Glee are also paired with thoughtful articles on women and film and a positive article about how romance is presented in the culture on Valentine's Day. Rather than simply condemning the popular media, Bitch is interested in how it can be appropriated and used to express feminist ends. Or, conversely, how apparently feminist aspects of popular culture many not be as clearly manifest as one might suspect.

Diversity is clearly the watchword of modern feminism. There is no longer a feminist orthodoxy of behavior and belief. Rather than focusing on politics alone, questions of how identity is manifested are of equal concern. There is a…

Half the Sky from a Feminist Perspective
In the last sixty years, women in estern countries and to a lesser extent the rest of the world have become outspoken about women's rights, demanding equal rights in political, economic, cultural, social, and domestic spheres. Their struggles and activism, generally known as feminist movements, helped to elevate the status of women in many countries. Yet, as Nicholas D. Kristoff and Sheryl udunn document in their book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for omen orldwide, the struggle for gender equality is far from over. Kristoff and udunn demonstrate the deeply troubling picture of gender relations around the world where women and girls are systematically subjected to brutality, mistreatment, and discrimination. In their attempt to expose gender inequality in the world, Kristoff and udunn are largely successful, but their analysis is not well-grounded in feminist scholarship, which weakens their argumentation.

Kristoff and…

Because society compromises the value of the woman, it is allowed the life of domesticity and life. The speaker however remains forever beyond this because she chooses self-realization instead.
In Heaney's "Punishment," feminism can be seen from the male viewpoint, as it were. The corpse of a bog girl, an adulteress, educates the narrator regarding issues of gender and politics. The narrator, far from the conventional male reaction of disgust, instead becomes infatuated with her. It is as if he is the male representative of the feminist viewpoint; that women offer value and education rather than objects of sex or symbols of domesticity. The intimacy between the speakers involve no blame. Instead of man and woman, they are equals, in strong contrast with the society that would condemn them both for their actions and their association.

ources

Academy of American Poets. A Close Reading of "I Cannot Live With You."…

Black FeministIntroductionThe black feminist roots can be traced to 1864 when slavery had not yet been abolished, and Sojourner Truth began selling pictures mounted to a paper card to fund her activism. After being enslaved, being in a position to own and sell her image for profit was revolutionary. According to Peterson (2019), Truth often commented that she used to be sold for other peoples benefit, but now she sold herself for her own. Her activism was mainly centered on the abolishment of slavery and securing the rights of women since she was convinced race and gender were inseparable. Truths activism is an early representation of the early black tradition. While the vision may differ in the…

omen's Rights Movement In The 1970s
In A People's History of the United States, Zinn begins his narrative of the liberation of women with the women's suffrage movement of the early twentieth century. However, according to Zinn, even after women were granted their vote, their identity was still largely measured by their success in living up to the idealized role models of wife and mother till the overt feminist movement of the late 1960s. Till then, the only time that women were allowed to break the traditional stereotype mold of femininity and domesticity was during periods such as war, civil strife or extreme economic conditions (Zinn, 503-6).

Zinn, in his account, gives a detailed description of the events that occurred in the 1960s. omen of all ages took active part in the civil rights movement of the sixties, which in a sense laid the ground for women collectively voicing their…

feminist rhetorical theory. omen have been historically minimized and isolated by the domination of the patriarchal majority. Although women have been able to make a degree of progress, finally achieving positions of social and political power, the number of women in these high offices is still far less than the roles that are filled by man. Modern women, far removed from the "angels in the house" of the Victorian age, are nonetheless still impacted by the sociological oppression of women which was reinforced during that era, according to the rhetorical theory of feminism. Given that this is the case, men and women need to be aware of these underlying gender biases so that they can both combat them and make sure that they themselves do not fall prey to them. People who deny that this subjugation of women may be enlightened by closer examination of the power dynamics which exists…

Women's Timeline
Women's Movement Timeline

The following paragraphs describe eight incredible women who lived from the 1700's through the present. This paper also includes a timeline to better place into perspective these women's incredible effort and their success at initiating change and giving women first, a voice, then, rights equal to those of men.

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

In 1792, Wollstonecraft published the most important piece relating to women's rights, a pamphlet entitled Vindication on the Rights of Women. This work advocated equality of the sexes, and elaborated upon what was later to become the central idea of the Women's Movement across Europe and America. According to scholars, Wollstonecraft "ridiculed prevailing notions about women as helpless, charming adornments in the household" and instead suggested the women should be educated and not be slavish dependents of their husbands. In fact, Wollstonecraft was one of the first women to advocate women's education above…

Feminist Criminology and Victimization Theory
Feminist Criminology

Feminist criminology theory proposes that social and ethnic structures that lead to gender oppression will increase the prevalence of criminality among the oppressed (Bernard, 2013). In most cultures, including the west, there exists a history of subjugation of women at all levels of society. The feminist movement in the United States and elsewhere accordingly sought to reduce or eliminate the power of these social, legal, and religious sanctions that relegated women to second class citizenship. This was the driving force behind the emergence of the feminist criminology model.

In support of the feminist criminology model, Bernard (2013) points out that some women within society have a higher risk of incarceration. In the U.S., this high-risk demographic is non-white, young, living in poverty, under-educated, and unmarried with children. There also tends to be a multi-generational history of drug/alcohol problems and domestic violence. This demographic…

Feminist Movement or Organization Challenging Globalization
What are the circumstances / background that gave rise to the movement or organization?

UN Women (UNW) was created in 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly, which also created the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UNEGEEW). Creation of these two bodies was intended to increase the rate at which the UN and its Member States were working towards empowerment of women and addressing gender equality, making this an historic step. The UN itself was undergoing change, with a reform agenda directed to unify mandates and resources in order to achieve a greater impact. The overall UN organization combined four separate older organizations to create UN Women. These were the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women…

"Briefly, feminists believe the personal is political. Basic tenets of feminism include a belief in the equal worth of all human beings, recognition that each individual's personal experiences and situations are reflective of and an influence on society's institutionalized attitudes and values, and a commitment to political and social change that equalizes power among people. Feminists are committed to recognizing and reducing the pervasive influences and insidious effects of oppressive societal attitudes and society" (Chappell 2000). In its current incarnation, feminist therapy's stress upon liberating individuals from oppressive social attitudes does not just pertain only to gender, but all negative social attitudes. Thus, at its most universal, feminist therapy's central tenant that the personal and political are intermeshed, and that one's political reality creates one's cognitive reality, can be applied to many contexts beyond gender.
Although it deals with the psychology created by oppression, feminist therapy still stresses personal choice…

The intended audience is the general reader, scholars and historians. Overall, this work is highly-valuale as a source for all those wishing to understand the complexities of the women's movement in the 20th century.
Google Book Search: (http://ooks.google.com/ooks?vid=ISBN0838632238&id=w9TzuCg-XYC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=women%27s+rights+movement&sig=7y7B0ojdo7sgtl_agde_B1PdVnE#PPP10,M1).

Law, Cheryl. Suffrage and Power: The Women's Movement, 1918-1928. New York:

I.B. Tauris & Company (Palgrave Macmillan), 1997. 260 pages ISBN

This ook y acclaimed scholar Cheryl Law of New York University examines how the women's movement, through its network of organization and its powerful and widespread campaigning, was transformed and developed into a formidale fighting force which aided in its continuing assault on entrenched positions to secure women's full and equal participation in society -- in politics, commerce, industry and the professions, education, welfare, politics and for franchise extension. It also examines the myths associated with the decline in the women's movement following World War I. It contains eleven major sections…

Feminist Blog Analysis: Feministing
While described in the assignment details as a blog, the website Feministing actually seems to go beyond the expectations of a mere blog. It considers itself an "online community run by and for young feminists,"[footnoteRef:1] and instead of offering just the social commentary one might expect going to a blog site, it actually offers a significant amount of reporting or, at least repackaging, of news, making it easily consumed by potential readers. Its stated goal is to provide an intersectional overview of feminist issues and to provide a way to connect emerging feminists with other activists and organizations. While the blog is not inappropriate for other people, its target audience is young feminists and one of its goals is clearly to help young people understand why feminism is still so critical to social equality, although this is not overtly stated in the blog's promotional materials. It…

Collins cites participation in the abolitionist movement, anti-lynching campaigns of the early 20th century, and recent civil rights work in the South, where Black women have not only worked on behalf of themselves but for all African-Americans (Collins, p. 218). The overarching theme, however is the belief that teaching people how to be self-reliant fosters empowerment. Collins cites Angela Davis (1989), who wrote that activism was designed to empower everyone: "We must climb in such a way as to guarantee that all our sisters, regardless of social class, and indeed all of our brothers climb with us" (Collins, p. 219).
Collins writes "epistemology points to the ways in which power relations shape who is believed and why" (Collins, p. 251). She charges that many Black women are not viewed as credible witnesses for their own experiences (Collins, p. 254) and that the ideas of a relatively select few are safe…

Ibsen's Nora
Although it is difficult to know exactly how audiences watching Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House felt about the content of the play when it was first performed, it is difficult for us reading or watching it in the 21st century to see it as anything but a strongly feminist statement.

hat is especially striking about the powerful feminism of the play - other than the year in which it was written - is the fact that Ibsen himself always claimed to be resolutely apolitical. And yet for a man who claimed in no way to be either a feminist or more generally an advocate for social change, his exploration of the ways in which women were continually infantilized by society in fact seems highly political to us, and in fact is one of the reasons that the play remains so compelling to us more than a century after…

This public visibility had an extremely positive effect on the movement, reaching people their more passive campaign would never have touched.
Needless to say, the strategy of marching in the streets was not one typically associated with normal female behavior. Yet, through this brazen tactic, suffragists were able to elevate their public image to a position where they were seen as legitimate participants in the public political arena. Onlookers began to see suffragists as serious and dignified, and as individuals who had courage to make public appearances, presenting themselves to onlookers (McCammon). Much of the effectiveness of these parades was due to the manner in which they were held.

As McCammon notes, woman suffrage parades were neither festive nor frivolous. The women typically marched in formation. They wore white dresses and carried signs and banners stating reasons why women should have the right to vote. In eastern parades, primarily, a…

" Patriarchy perpetuates its crimes through "denial, tokenism, obfuscation and reversal" and traps its victims (particularly the women) in the semantic web of lies which, in the words of Daly, "constitutes the reality of the Foreground, and obscures ultimate reality, which is the Background." She advises women to take a leap of faith to break free from the necrophilic embrace of patriarchy to dis-cover their true human potential and "reclaim their primordial power, their gynergy, in order to spin new, gynocentric and biophilic realities."
Utopian Society of the Future:

Another controversial theory advanced by Daly in her book, Quintessence, describes a utopian society of the future, on a continent populated entirely by women, where procreation occurs through parthenogenesis, without the participation of men. She further asserts, "If life is to survive on this planet, there must be a decontamination of the Earth. I think this will be accompanied by an…

Virginia Woolf and Her Works as Mediums of Feminism
Virginia Woolf was among the rare writers who have put their talents and ideologies into writings, particularly as a patron of equality to women. Considered as one of the founders of feminism, there were quite a number of literary works that show Woolf's passion for promoting feminism. Some of this includes the following literary masterpieces.

To the Lighthouse

A Room on One's Own (1929)

Three Guineas (1938)

Women and Fiction (1929)

Professions for Women (1929)

Much of Woolf's literatures depicted her strict criticism on how the society put little importance to the female gender. Also, she showed in the context of her works how prominent the female gender can play important roles in the society, both socially and politically. Much of Woolf's works have in fact depicted political thoughts that have endeared the hearts and minds of many readers.

The information…

Gender Studies -- the orld Split Open
hy were American women unhappy? In building her case regarding the unhappiness that women in America experienced in the 1950s, the author of The orld Split Open: How the Modern omen's Movement Changed America -- Ruth Rosen -- goes into great detail. On page 13 Rosen points out that after II in the American culture, women getting pregnant and having babies, was extremely common and normal. In fact, a woman who was not married was "an embarrassment," and the author quotes actress Debbie Reynolds (from the film The Tender Trap) as saying that marriage is "the most important thing in the world" and that a woman is not "really a woman" until she has a wedding and babies (Rosen, 13).

But after taking care of babies all day, doing housework, running errands and cooking dinner for the family -- all the while using…

History Of Fashion: Gloria Steinem -- Feminist Chic
The fashion style of Gloria Steinem is perfectly reflected in the photograph by Yale Joel as well as in the ideology which she promoted throughout the early days of the Feminist Movement.

Steinem's fashion style mirrored her Feminist advocacy history, when in the 1960s, she started Ms. Magazine, which addressed such topics as the problematic nature of the word "male" being in "female." "[footnoteRef:1] In Yale Joel's photograh, Steinem sits, Indian style (cross-legged), and holds a placard that reads "We Shall Overcome."[footnoteRef:2] The emphatic nature of this prophecy is apparent in the underscored verb and the clothing that Steinem wears indicates a kind of militaristic "chic" -- a fashionably elegant, streamlined radical femininity that a leader like Steinem could use advocate change. She would use this image to advocate abortions, as she did in a 2006 article entitled "We Had Abortions," which…

However, over the years, history book publishers have not followed suit and described the soladeras in a positive way. For instance, one of Casaola's most well-known photos is of a harried soldadera in a train station. The photograph's saturated colors make the scene deeply emotional and compelling, with a feeling of urgency and dynamic motion. The spontaneity of the picture and transparency of reality provide an historical accuracy and high degree of precision. Yet, the caption of one history book, for example, relates how many of the soldaderas were forced to ride on the rooftops of the trains, instead of inside the wagons. Many of the women died early deaths when the train sped through dangerous ravines and cliffs. This was anything but a supportive interpretation of the photograph and not why Casola took the photographs.
On the other hand, Casola's photographs, especially this one in the train station, did…

Maria Helena, another woman from later in Patai's book, shows a much more direct rejection of masculine dominance, particularly in the context of a marriage. She admits to being something of a lapsed Catholic, which could be seen to tie into her statement that "when I was married, my husband always liked to tell me what to do, but I wouldn't let him. For example, he didn't want our boys to go to school...hen he dies, most of them were already in secondary school" (Patai 195). Maria Helena did not completely reject her Church or her husband, but she refused to let either of these institutional structures make decisions for her, or to influence or even dictate what she felt would be most important and advantageous for her family.

These stories also illustrate the increasing importance the women of Brazil felt, perhaps unconsciously at first, in having the ability to…

The fact that a novel in the sentimental and seduction genre attained such heights of popularity is, in the first instance, evidence its impact and effect on the psyche and minds of the female readers of the novel. As one critic cogently notes:
hy a book which barely climbs above the lower limits of literacy, and which handles, without psychological acuteness or dramatic power, a handful of stereotyped characters in a situation already hopelessly banal by 1790, should have had more than two hundred editions and have survived among certain readers for a hundred and fifty years is a question that cannot be ignored.

(Fiedler 94)

The initial question that obviously arises therefore is what made this book so popular and in what way does this novel speak to the feelings and aspirations of the readers to make it such a perennial favorite. As Fudge ( 1996) notes,

It is…

Many women took up the cause of temperance. omen like Jane Adams, worked to expose political corruption and economic exploitation and established philanthropic programs for the poor.
By 1900 over one-third of the wage-earning women in this country were employed as domestics or waitresses." As business grew, the privileged class grew. Domestics were in demand and were expected to do every kind of household chore in addition to cooking, serving, laundry, sewing, and anything else required by her mistress.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in 1865 joined in their work to equalize the rights of men and women. They declared that women had a natural right to happiness, and the opportunities and advantages, and denied that women were made simply for men and that her best interests must be "sacrificed to his will" (Kerber, pg. 225).

In 1923, a feminist conference in Seneca Falls, New York developed a…

intimidation and the choices that successful women have in finding their partners.
There was a time when women were thought of as a second class citizen. Only men worked in offices, fought in wars, ruled countries etc., men were responsible for providing the basic needs of the family. On the other hand women did all the work at home such as laundry, cleaning dishes, cooking food etc. omen were not allowed to have a corporate career. However as the time passed, the concept of equal rights picked up. Feminists' movements and human rights activist have allowed women to redefine the purpose of living. The term "It's a Man's orld" does not apply any more in the estern countries. Standards have changed along with the changing society.

The immediate questions that comes to mind after discussing the transformation of the society is that how have men responded to that change? Are…

Tese women endured extreme ardsips in order to fulfill teir roles. Tey often ad to live in almost starvation level circumstances, since most of te food ad to be given to te battle ready individuals. Often tey would toil for ours to find food, dig roots, and oter metods to see te fruits of teir labor be provided te figting men. Tey endured te malnutrition as well as miserable living conditions in order to provide sustenance for te group. Many times tey even endured cildbearing under inospitable surroundings (Soto, 44). As nurses, tey ealed te wounded and endured te contamination of dangerous diseases as well as nursed back to ealt many of te fallen men during te Revolution. Many of tem suffered severe infections and diseases as a result of contact wit te sick, many primary records reveal tat anywere from ten to twenty percent of te soldaderas contracted serious…

Cyber Feminism, Gender and Technology
Cyberfeminism, Gender and Technology

Feminist movement found on the internet is known as Cyberfeminism. In recent times, the term has gained controversial status. Cyberfeminism, a fundamental issue from the feminist perspective, is mostly ignored by researchers and academics. It concentrates on empowerment of women through the cyberspace. Furthermore, it deals with female enlightenment and concentrates on creating awareness on how the digital technologies can influence the rights and social status of women. The digital technologies act as a medium of re-embodying the issue of racism and gender. Internet is the new medium used to erase the identity of women; that is; women are the erased race. However, the internet has played a significant role in promoting Cyberfeminism by pointing out that several feminist studies and internet activities are done by the online media. It cannot be denied that technology plays an important role in promoting…

"Lady Gaga in part because she keeps us guessing about who she, as a woman, really is. She has been praised for using her music and videos to raise this question and to confound the usual exploitative answers provided by 'the media'… Gaga's gonzo wigs, her outrageous costumes, and her fondness for dousing herself in what looks like blood, are supposed to complicate what are otherwise conventionally sexualized performances" but this complication does not necessarily lead to a feminist liberation (Bauer 2010).
Still, Gaga has been embraced by a generation of women, some who shun and some who embrace the feminist label. "Lady Gaga idealizes this way of being in the world. But real young women, who, as has been well documented, are pressured to make themselves into boy toys at younger and younger ages, feel torn. They tell themselves a Gaga-esque story about what they're doing. hen they're on…

decision for women to leave the workforce and care for their children, it is more of a difficult choice then ever before. Modern conservatives consistently present the idea that women are naturally and inherently child-rearing and therefor should desire to end their career and stay at home with their children. Modern feminists, however, argue that no woman should be obligated to care for her child and instead should instantly step back into the workforce after having a child. ithin the feminist camp there are two divided camps of thought as to why so many women refuse to remain in their careers. The first camp is that which argues that feminism failed to challenge the roles of the family and that women feel pulled to remain at home due to the traditional family stereotype. The second camp argues that women leave the workforce because the workforce had, in a sense, already…

Schwartz (2006), many arguments are presented, most of which generally criticize the Western treatment of First Nations people or address women's rights issues. As an example, "Aboriginal Australia: Current Criminological Themes" by ick Sarre (2006) focuses on the affect of British colonialism in Australia on the Aborigines, connecting it to a vast overrepresentation of Aborigines in the Australian penal system. "The Left ealist Perspective on ace, Class, and Gender" by Walter S. DeKeseredy (2006) illustrates the fact that, in the United States, it cannot be said that there is 'justice for all;' "First Nations people and African-Americans are much more likely to be arrested, convicted and incarcerated than members of the dominant culture who commit the same crimes" (p. 49). Throughout most of the articles, different approaches to solving such attitudes are explored, such as the left realist theory and the postmodern perspective.
The Female Circumcision Controversy: an Anthropological Perspective…

The main Woolworth's store was already on strike, and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) was threatening to escalate the strike to all of the stores in Detroit." (Cobble, 2003)
Myra had been nicknamed the: "attling elle of Detroit" by media in the Detroit area because Myra is said to have:.." relished a good fight with employers, particularly over the issues close to her heart. A lifelong member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) she insisted, for example, on sending out racially integrated crews from the union's hiring hall, rejecting such standard employer requests as 'black waiters only, white gloves required." (Cobble, 2003) Myra was involved in many more organized protests and strikes and is stated to "consider herself a feminists...outspoken about her commitment to end sex discrimination...lobbied against the ERA until 1972...chaired the national committee against a repeal of women-only state labor…

This is similar to third wave thinking; however, post modern feminists tend to embrace academic writing and academic feminism, and third wave feminists generally reject academic feminism (Frederick, 2004). In addition, postmodern feminists are considered more grounded in theory, and very specific with regard to their intent and vocalizations, whereas third wave are also seen as appealing more to the masses (Frederick, 2004; Tong, 1998). Postmodern feminism is also viewed as embracing the idea of 'disruptive sexuality' without analysis (Frederick, 2004).

People say that Feminism is messier today (third wave) than in the first and second wave because feminists have complicated the very nature of feminism. In the second wave women were dealing with traditional things such as basic human rights, but now most women don't know what is happening. Women already have many basic freedoms thus don't know where to turn. Feminists in the third wave still attempt to…

Shirley Chisholm
An Analysis of the Life and Work of Shirley Chisholm

In light of the fact that black feminism has gained more of a voice in the last few decades it is important to remember the people who first brought the plight of the black woman, specifically, to the forefront of national public and political discourse. One of these women was Shirley Chisholm. She was the first black member of the New York State Assembly and the United States House of epresentatives. Many black women may not have regarded her ventures into the political realm as wise, her voice was could have been dampened by the need to remain diplomatic, because she could have done more good advocating the cause as just an activist. But, Chisholm used her platform to change the way many, both black and white, viewed African-American women. Her personal story was one of rising to…

Representation of Women Through Media Has Changed From 1960s
How representation of women through media has changed from the 1960s

Susan Douglas suggests that fifty years ago, mass media existed in the form of music, television, and magazines. However, she suggest that the journey has been tough owing to the manner in, which the media represents women. The media used a sexist imagery to represent women, especially women who took part in music. Although researchers suggest that the media is a powerful tool, she suggests that the public had an option to resist the media by turning off their television, or ignoring advertisements in the magazines (Douglas 1995). Mass media had substantial influence on the social, cultural, economic, spiritual, political, and religious phases of the society as well as personal level thinking, feeling, and acting. Notably, mass media has both a good side and a bad side; it is insidious…

However, Suzanne is a white woman. Obviously, a woman of color would have had a different experience in that same time period, because there were not darker skinned women in powerful roles in the media. When they did appear, they may have been relegated to subservient positions or be women with very Caucasian features, like Dorothy Dandridge. Therefore, it is important to keep in mind that Suzanne's experience is probably not reflective of all women of her time period.
In fact, to me it appears clear that media images are another issue that could be seen as a comparable harmless or less important inequality rather than an evil. For instance, "North American feminism, in particular, has focused on securing equal political and economic rights for women (inequalities) and prioritized these problems rather than focusing on domestic violence and traffic in women and girls (evils)" (Brennan, 2009, p. 146). While women…

Having grown up in an era where sex-based discrimination was legal, they understand how easy it would be to return to that era. This has led to a characterization of second-wave feminists as somehow militant, a label that even third-wave feminists might apply to them.
Looking at the 2008 Democrat presidential primaries, the conflict between second and third wave feminists became apparent. Many second-wave feminists felt that it was a woman's duty to vote for the female candidate because having a woman run as a serious contender in a presidential primary could be an isolated event. In contrast, many third-wave feminists, though thrilled that Clinton was taken seriously as a candidate, simply did not think that her candidacy would be an isolated event; instead, they believed that women would continue to make credible candidates in presidential elections. Moreover, many third-wave feminists, like the author, seemed to find racial barriers more…

females and their plights. The writer explores the films Fried Green Tomatoes and Stepmom to discuss the way gender of the film is affected by gender. There were four sources used to complete this paper.
Fans of the silver screen have enjoyed the entertainment value of movies since the industry's infancy. Whether it is a desire to laugh, to cry, to yell or to spend quality time with children, movie goers have been able to find it during a day at the theater. While the industry by and large is there for the purpose of entertainment, the movies have also been used to send messages to the world. Political trends, fads and other things important to society have worked through their evolvement on the screen for the viewers. One of the more recent trends that has been finding its way on the silver screen in the past few decades is…

The change was not all positive, however. Bailey notes that the social and psychological transformation that followed women working outside the home "mounted to tidal-wave proportions" (1020). hile women working outside the home in the urban age were not too terribly different from women working outside the home in the agricultural age, the movement raised questions about women's roles, family, and the workplace. The feminist movement was born from a mentality that women did not need to sty at home. Once they were in the workplace, however, they complained that they were expected to bring home the bacon and cook it as well. Feminists protested against sexism and even went up against historic giants like Yale and est Point. It was not long before women were seen flying airplanes and traveling in space. Feminists also railed against tradition organizations that judged women for their looks such as beauty pageants. They…

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Moreover, Malachi Martin describes the theology as "a freeing from political oppression, economic want, and misery here on earth. More specifically still…a freeing from political domination by the capitalism of the United States."

Furthermore, though it grew out of the unrest in Latin America "with its political domination by strong-arm leaders and monopolistic oligarchies," viewed by members of the Church as a direct result of American capitalism, the events in Latin America were preceded by a much more basic historical development -- the "rights of man" extrapolated from the French Revolution and re-coined as the "rights of the working man."

The spread of Marxist doctrine in the early twentieth century saw its incorporation into Catholic theology by several prominent professors right up to the time of the Second Vatican Council, upon which Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz certainly based her theology, and pursued her concept of "evangelical poverty": union with the…

circle around. I am interested in exploring the tensions between the stated goals and the process of achieving them. The readings in this course have demonstrated that there are many pitfalls within the community building community itself. Some of these are as black as white as: who is the most important factor in a mobilizing effort -- the individual or the group. Some of the tensions, like those about roles and the future, are more nuanced and are answered with a well it depends. At the heart of my response to this course is the recognition that there are and always will be competing objective in a world with limited resources. And that despite those limitations the objective is to find ways to adapt and evolve while retaining the human connections to one another that allow us to effectively problem solve so that we may all live well. To that…

Could this movie possibly fall into the category of a conspiracy; that any fictional parody of male behavior (which this surely is, at least in part) becomes in fact a parody of female behavior as well? Is that what irks feminists about the Stepford Wives?

And no matter what the answer to that question is, the "horror" aspects of this 1975 film were balanced, and even matched, by the ideological aspects. Whether one views the film as a statement on that cadre of men who are control freaks, or that element of the female gender hopelessly submissive to the whims and demands of men, the film has a strong ideological theme.

And moreover since ideology is part of the political world, and the political issues of the day seem to always creep into film, the Stepford Wives, as a feminist-themed film, is ideological. Feminists always have a fierce political agenda,…

hereas the trial began in the early 2000s, matters escalated across time and thousands of employees have gotten actively engaged in solving their problems with almart. The company is likely to lose billions of dollars out of this enterprise (Goudreau).
It is difficult to determine when a person is being discriminated because of his or her gender. Many tend to mistake casual actions for discrimination, this happening because people have gotten used to have their behavior governed by stereotypes. It is actually hard for someone today not to associate particular matters with things that he or she has seen in other people. Society needs to understand that women are not bad drivers and that it is not normal for men to financially support women.

The feminist movement mainly relies on the concept of a woman and everything that it stands for. Feminists are not necessarily fueled by their desire to…

Food Justice Movement and Its Themes
Intersectional Theory is the study of systems that intersect in terms of power structure dichotomies -- oppression vs. hegemony -- and approaches this intersection from the standpoint of focusing on how various variables (such as gender, age, class, etc.) interact with cultural, ecological, environmental, economical categories in different ways. In the food justice movement, "the social relations of food have been organized along lines of gender" with women predominantly in the role of food preparer, thus projecting woman's role in the world "in deep, complex, and often contradictory ways" (Allen, Sachs, 2007, p. 1). Yet, with the globalization of food through the rise of multinationals, the powerful role held by women in food preparation and production has been taken from them and placed in the hands of the corporations (Shiva, 2009, p. 17). Food simultaneously elevates and impoverishes women in terms of the social…

Wife Bath: Feminism Chaucer
Chaucer appears to create the Wife of Bath shine intentionally from the rest of the characters in the novel; she has been possibly one of his most controversial figures since her contradictions as to what she states and just what she does. The writer's formation of her character offers one significant objective which has been to surprise his readers. Chaucer chooses to consider each and every bad attribute that ladies were thought to have in those times and also the outcome has been Alisoun. This kind of vivacity and boldness had been seldom observed in female fictional figures of that era (Oberembt 287).

The Wife Bath: Feminism Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales had been written towards the end of the Fourteenth century, however it was left incomplete. It has been setup as numerous stories within one story. The primary frame has been a travelling crowd…

Their labor market position then becomes a matter of individual 'choice'....In Sweden, the definition of women's entitlements to welfare in family policies has changed dramatically since the early 1970s, away from the provision of benefits to them as mothers and toward benefits that they draw by virtue of their labor market status. Yet, paradoxically, the outcome of this shift has been the strengthening of policies that recognize women's needs as mothers. The framework of equal treatment on the basis of labor market participation supported by a full employment policy seems to have made possible the greater recognition of women's caring work in the family" (Lewis & Astrm 59).
In other words, Sweden is very permissive in granting paternal leave and day care to both parents, which benefits women, but men can also benefit from these policies, even though the greatest beneficiary of the policy may be women, as women have…

At the same time, this is also the best criticism method because it puts into light Obama's rhetorical style and this is important, especially for audiences to understand how this is developed and how it works towards reaching its goals. With the Neo-Aristotelian Method of Criticism, one best understands it.

The feminist criticism is not an adequate method of criticism first and foremost because the main objective of this speech is not directed towards the feminist movement. The aim of this speech is not to get close to the female voters, but to rally the entire population of Virginia by showing how important this state is in electing Obama. The message is thus for the entire population, not only for the females and the feminists in the audience.

There are, however, some elements that may argue in favor of the feminist criticism, one of them being the fact that the…

interview of a woman that is more than 40 years old and belongs to a generation different than mine. It analyzes and provides a reflection of the woman's life experiences and beliefs. The main focus of the interview is to evaluate the impact of belief systems and socio-economic structures in her life as well as any resistance to these factors. The reflection also examines the impact of ideologies, cultural factors, social structures, and economics on the interviewee as a female. In addition, the process of through which she negotiates these factors and opportunities and limitations in her life are also discussed.
Brief Summary of the Interviewee

I interviewed Rebecca Mintz who is a dynamic, highly accomplished, and renowned business woman in her community. Mintz is famous for her dedication to social work and community development through which she has made major contributions towards improving the livelihoods of young women in…

United States is a large nation that is presently facing a multitude of problems. For many Americans the most important of these problems is the plight of the workforce and the unemployment rate among that workforce. The importance of this problem is reflected through the result of opinion polls conducted by a number of the country's leading pollsters. Displacing concerns with the economy as the nation's number one problem, the fact that unemployment now ranks as the primary concern highlights how serious unemployment has become in the United States. It indicates that the American workforce is eager to get back to work.
The unfortunate thing about the present unemployment figures is that they do not reflect the seriousness of the present situation. The figures do not reflect those who have ceased seeking employment, those working in positions below their capabilities, and those working two or three part-time jobs in order…

American History
During the 1940s, America had just experienced the onslaught of World War II. After massive fighting against the Axis power nations (Germany, Italy, and Japan), America, along with its allies in the war, was able to conclude the conflict by deciding to drop the atomic bomb in Japan. The war ended with the Axis power conceding defeat, and America went on to rehabilitate its nation after the war. The rehabilitation of America as a nation weary of possible atrocities among nations in the world is twofold. After the war, America experienced a resurgence in economic growth, primarily brought about by the development of new technologies that spurred the country's commercial market. Furthermore, the growth of new technologies and manufacturing industry in America encouraged social mobility, enabling the middle class society to increase in number, narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor. Thus, the technological revolution and…

143).
Moreover, the global neglect of women (in terms of science) is reflected in the fact that women have been excluded as experimental subjects in drug research, Rosser continues. Certainly pregnant women have been excluded from experiments with pesticides and radioactive materials, but beyond that Rosser explains that "…these drugs and materials are then used without ever having been tested on women" (1991, p. 143). And yet notwithstanding their exclusion from testing, women's research has led to a vast resource of knowledge vis-a-vis the natural environment.

To wit, Rachel Carson correctly extrapolated the deadly effects on the environment due to agricultural pesticides (DDT in particular), and in fact changed the way the government approached pesticides (1991, p. 144). Indeed, Carson's books ("Silent Spring," "Under the Sea-Wind," and others) had an enormous impact on the nation's grasp of environmental dangers and led eventually to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency…

Italy is a cultural hub of gender identity where issues of feminism and masculinism have been deeply entrenched for many years. For centuries Italy has been considered a more masculine country, though the majority of work documented related to masculinism actually is sparse. Issues of feminism and masculinity has surfaced in the workplace, where naturally access to issues such as equal employment and technology have surfaced. Gender inequality issues in Italy have in fact created a basis for the continuance of a feminism-masculinism dichotomy.
Masculinism has been defined as "the property by which humans of the male sex are defined as manly" (Noumenal, 2004). Alternatively, Simone de Beauvoir described femininity as "neither a natural nor an innate entity, but rather a condition brought about by society." This statement is more true than any other, as evidenced by gender inequality differences largely the result of the paternalistic nature of the culture…

Farm He Had a Wife
Ontario Farm Women and Feminism, 1900-1970"

Monda Halpern

When we read a book that raises important issues, we suddenly find ourselves in the company of a more knowledgeable and learned partner who challenges our pre-conceived notions and urges us to think a little more deeply. This is exactly how I felt while reading Monda Halpern's And On That Farm He Had a Wife- a book about Ontario farmwomen who have popularly been categorized as indifferent souls who were largely uninterested in the feminist movement.

Historians have mostly discussed them with hidden contempt or indifference as if accusing them of passivity and inactive participation which some believed negatively affected the feminist cause. The book has been written to counter such allegation as Halpern maintains that historians didn't do justice to the role of Ontario farmwomen because they "either avoided the subject of Ontario farm women and…