Feminism Meaning
“Feminism” has started from the French word “feminisme,” authored by the idealistic communist Charles Fourier. It was first used in English during the 1890s, related to the movement for political and lawful rights for women. Feminism as an ideology hits at the gender norms and subjugation penetrated society due to patriarchal domination.
Feminism is a modern notion within legal circles, aiming to erase any sexism against women’s rights. For becoming a feminist, it is believed that everyone should be treated equally, regardless of sex. There should be equality between caste, creed, color, sexes, socially, politically, and nationality.
History of Feminism:
Feminism as an ideology gained prominence in the 20th century and further gained prominence in the 1960s. Feminism believes that history was written from only the male perspective and did not reflect women’s role while making history and structure of the society. Male-written history has created prejudice in the eye of human nature, gender, and social arrangements. This language, logic, and structure of the law are male-created and boost only male values.
Feminism waves:
Historians’ feminist has divided the history of feminism into three waves. First wave, Second Wave, and Third wave. The First Wave mainly deals with the suffrage movement, and it is the movement in the 19th to 20th centuries. The Second wave is started in the 1960s -1980s, and it deals with inequalities of laws and inequalities of culture. The last wave (third wave) started in the 1990s, and it is viewed as both a continuation of and a reaction to the apparent disappointments of the second wave.
Ideological divisions in Feminism:
Liberal Feminism – According to Mary Wollstonecraft- This ideological strand of Feminism transiently starts with the first wave. The first major modern text in this regard was a vindication of the rights of women. She used this idea to stress on equality of men and women based on personhood. This philosophical basis of liberal Feminism lies in the principle of Feminism which stresses equal treatment and equal rights regardless of sex, religion, caste, creed, race, color. It is a fundamental reformist that tries to open up public life to approach contest among people (men and women) instead of the test of what numerous women’s activists see as the male-centric construction of society itself.
Socialists’ feminists- It got prominent in the second half of the twentieth century. Socialists’ feminists argue that the connection between the genders is established in the social and monetary design itself. It also argues that the women constitute a ‘reserve group of workers’ which can be enrolled into the labor force when there is a need to increase the production. Likewise, in their part as a housewife, ladies assuage men of the burden of housework and childrearing, permitting them to utilize their time and energy upon paid and useful work.
Radical feminists- This emerged the advent of ”Second wave” Feminism. Radical Feminism includes a few different components, some of which underline the key and unalterable distinction among people.
Central ideas of Feminism
- Sex-Gender divide
- Public-Private divide
- Patriarchy: It is seen as a system of powers that defines the roles and capacities of both men and women.
- Sameness- difference debate: This debate is being used in citizenship and multiculturalism.
Conclusion
While the meaning of feminisms involves the uniformity of the sexes, society’s perspective of the word has developed into something very extraordinary. Most people would define the word Feminism as the superiority of the female gender. Some are saying that women would be far better off without men. While women’s rights are mainly about equivalent viewpoints on sexual orientations, the definition of many partners with the word Feminism is more precisely depicted as misandry. That is why the word Feminism is such a deceiving term since the root “fem” is suggestive of the word female. However, in a real sense, it implies the superiority of the female gender.