A brief history of Feminism (Part 2)

Gender

Gender equality: An introduction

Feminism

A brief history of Feminism

Applied ethics

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Information: Part 2 of an overview of the history of western feminism, and the main developments in western feminist thought. A version of this article was originally published on the website www.faithnet.org.uk.

Women's Rights in the Contemporary Era

'The modern domestic family is based on the overt and covert domestic slavery of women.' (Friedrich Engels 1820-95)

'Women must organise and fight for their OWN liberation. Don't wait for men to do it. Their vanity depends on being your lord and master.' (Clara Zetkin 1857-1933)

'The form love takes should correspond to the needs of the individuals - and that includes rights of contraception and abortion.' (Lily Braun 1865-1916)

In 1920's Europe and North America girls were at being formally educated, and some were even going into universities and the 'professions'. The1928 Electoral Reform Act gave women over 21 the right to vote, and allowed them to stand as MPs. Job opportunities also provided women with a new independent way of life. However, in the Great Depression of the 1930's women were resented for taking jobs men could do. Although the Second World War (1939-45) also led to many women doing men's jobs, in the 1950's job segregation returned, and women were encouraged to stay at home and be 'good housewives'. Simone de Beauvoir (1908-86) was a lone voice at this time. Her book The Second Sex (1949) was to become a touchstone for the next generation of 'liberated women':

'Men have created an image of us as 'the other' - different from them and to be kept inferior! When are women going to fight back with our own images and experience, to establish our equality with men?' (Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex)

In 1963 Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, and as a result became the leader of a new group called NOW (National Organisation of Women). NOW lobbied about issues involving sex-discrimination, and gender inequality. Also in the 1960's protests grew in America over the war in Vietnam, which also gave rise to various women's movements.

Although women were beginning to feel that they were at least being treated equally, in practice society was still geared towards an understanding of woman as someone who looked after man, and strove for their attention.

One of the first actions of these new women's liberation groups, was to protest at the 1968 Miss America beauty contest. Outside the hall they loaded a dustbin with a variety of objects, which to them symbolised women's oppression (E.g. false eyelashes, bras, dishcloths). Women also began to meet in 'consciousness raising' groups, which also gave women a forum with which to express their views without fear of male reprisals.

In the 1970's women's liberation really took off. Women's only groups numbered over 2,000 in the USA. However, as post-feminists would come to see, these were attempts by women to simply takeover and transform male structures for their own use. In reality, the world around them was still the product of male-centered ideas and ideologies. In the 1980s and 1990s, women's experience would also come to be increasingly fragmented. Black women, Lesbian women, Latin American Women, White Middle-class women all have different histories, perspectives, and pressures on them, and as such will respond to the call to 'Liberate woman' differently.

Key 'feminist' literature in the 1970s

Conditions of Illusion: Papers from the Women's Movement

Key 'Womanist' moments in UK politics since 1970

The Equal Pay Act (1970) meant that employees were legally required to receive equal pay for like work, regardless of their gender.
The Sex Discrimination Act (1975) made it illegal to discriminate in jobs on grounds of sex, or whether a person was married or not.
In 1979 Britain elected its first women Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Although this could be seen as a boon for feminism, the backlash which came as a result of bad Conservative political policies, and the rise and collapse of material wealth, left many people bitter.

In 1980 women protested at an American air base on Greenham Common, against an increase in nuclear armaments being housed by the US there. The male verses female symbolism was prominent: Armed soldiers inside the base protected phallic instruments of death and destruction, whilst outside women sang, danced, and wove ribbons. They also attached poems onto the perimeter fence. This gave rise to the notion that women were nurturers, life-givers and forces for peace and love, whilst men were seen as aggressors, destroyers and rapists of women and nature.

How Far Have Women Come?

Women in Britain today enjoy a country where equal rights and sex-discrimination are at the forefront of people's mind. More than ever before, people are aware of the need to treat all people fairly, and equally. However, women are still living in a world where emphasis is placed largely on surface values. Time and again women are heard on TV proclaiming that it is what is on the inside the person that counts (especially if they are overweight), and yet these ideas are punctuated by advertisements that encourage women to pamper the flesh, and worship their bodies. The notion of a slim, attractive and large-breasted women is still considered the ultimate desire by many men, and women pamper to this (E.g. slimming, fashion, plastic surgery, Botox etc.).

Although women have gained equal rights, this seems largely through fear of litigation than a real change in male attitudes towards women. The backlash against patriarchal institutions (E.g. marriage) has been significant, but men's control over women in the form of the remnants of a patriarchal society, still remain. For instance, women require the opinion of two doctors to 'authorise' whether they can have an abortion or not, women are not paid to 'work' as housewives, and many women still look after men as their PA or secretary! Many women are also doing jobs which are largely an extension of a home-life, and most heads of companies are male! Women also have limited representation in parliament, and still live in fear of men (E.g. rape and domestic violence). Finally, it may be a sobering fact for many women that technology has now given men the ability to create life (E.g. Genetic engineering, IVF), which was once the sole gift and domain of woman as mother.