Topics in Feminism
First published Fri Feb 7, 2003; substantive revision Tue Apr 19, 2011
Feminism is both an intellectual commitment and a political movement that eks justice for women and the end of xism in all forms. However, there are many different kinds of feminism. Feminists disagree about what xism consists in, and what exactly ought to be done about it; they disagree about what it means to be a woman or a man and what social and political implications gender has or should have. Nonetheless, motivated by the quest for social justice, feminist inquiry provides a wide range of perspectives on social, cultural, economic, and political phenomena. Important topics for feminist theory and politics include: the body, class and work, disability, the family, globalization, human rights, popular culture, race and racism, reproduction, science, the lf, x work, human trafficking, and xuality. Extended discussion of the topics is included in the sub-entries to feminism in this encyclopedia.
怎样快速学韩语∙ 1. Introduction
joyce∙ 2. What is Feminism?
o 2.1 Feminist Beliefs and Feminist Movements
o 2.2 Normative and Descriptive Components
o 2.3 Feminism and the Diversity of Women
o 2.4 Feminism as Anti-Sexism
∙ 3. Topics in Feminism: Overview of the Encyclopedia Sub-Entries
∙ 吻合的意思Bibliography
∙ Academic Tools
西点培训学校
terrell owens∙ Other Internet Resources
o General
o Feminism and Class
o Feminism and Disability
o Feminism, Human Rights, Global Feminism, and Human Trafficking
o Feminism and Race/Ethnicity
o Feminism, Sex, and Sexuality
∙ Related Entries
1. Introduction
Feminism brings many things to philosophy including not only a variety of particular moral and political claims, but ways of asking and answering questions, constructive and critical dialogue with mainstream philosophical views and methods, and new topics of inquiry. Feminist philosophers work within all the major traditions of philosophical scholarship including analytic philosophy, American Pragmatist philosophy, and Continential philosophy. Entries in this Encyclopedia appearing under the heading “feminism, approac
hes” discuss the impact of the traditions on feminist scholarship and examine the possibility and desirability of work that makes links between two traditions. Feminist contributions to and interventions in mainstream philosophical debates are covered in entries in this encyclopedia under “feminism, interventions”. Entries covered under the rubric “feminism, topics” concern philosophical issues that ari as feminists articulate accounts of xism, critique xist social and cultural practices, and develop alternative visions of a just world. In short, they are philosophical topics that ari within feminism.
Although there are many different and sometimes conflicting approaches to feminist philosophy, it is instructive to begin by asking what, if anything, feminists as a group are committed to. Considering some of the controversies over what feminism is provides a springboard for eing how feminist commitments generate a host of philosophical topics, especially as tho commitments confront the world as we know it.
2. What is Feminism?
2.1 Feminist Beliefs and Feminist Movements
The term ‘feminism’ has many different us and its meanings are often contested. For example, some writers u the term ‘feminism’ to refer to a historically specific political movement in the US and Europe; other writers u it to refer to the belief that there are injustices against women, though there is no connsus on the exact list of the injustices. Although the term “feminism” has a history in English linked with women's activism from the late 19th century to the prent, it is uful to distinguish feminist ideas or beliefs from feminist political movements, for even in periods where there has been no significant political activism around women's subordination, individuals have been concerned with and theorized about justice for women. So, for example, it makes n to ask whether Plato was a feminist, given his view that women should be trained to rule (设计班Republic, Book V), even though he was an exception in his historical context. (, Tuana 1994.)
struggle什么意思Our goal here is not to survey the history of feminism — as a t of ideas or as a ries of political movements — but rather is to sketch some of the central us of the term that are most relevant to tho interested in contemporary feminist philosophy. The reference
s we provide below are only a small sample of the work available on the topics in question; more complete bibliographies are available at the specific topical entries and also at the end of this entry.
In the mid-1800s the term ‘feminism’ was ud to refer to “the qualities of females”, and it was not until after the First International Women's Conference in Paris in 1892 that the term, following the French term féministe, was ud regularly in English for a belief in and advocacy of equal rights for women bad on the idea of the equality of the xes. Although the term “feminism” in English is rooted in the mobilization for woman suffrage in Europe and the US during the late 19th and early 20th century, of cour efforts to obtain justice for women did not begin or end with this period of activism.[1]特别的英文 So some have found it uful to think of the women's movement in the US as occurring in “waves”. On the wave model, the struggle to achieve basic political rights during the period from the mid-19th century until the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 counts as “First Wave” feminism. Feminism waned between the two world wars, to be “revived” in the late 1960's and early 1970's as “Second Wave” feminism. In this cond wave, femini
sts pushed beyond the early quest for political rights to fight for greater equality across the board, e.g., in education, the workplace, and at home. More recent transformations of feminism have resulted in a “Third Wave”. Third Wave feminists often critique Second Wave feminism for its lack of attention to the differences among women due to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion (e Section 2.3 below; also Breines 2002; Spring 2002), and emphasize “identity” as a site of gender struggle. (For more information on the “wave” model and each of the “waves”, e Other Internet Resources.)
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However, some feminist scholars object to identifying feminism with the particular moments of political activism, on the grounds that doing so eclips the fact that there has been resistance to male domination that should be considered “feminist” throughout history and across cultures: i.e., feminism is not confined to a few (White) women in the West over the past century or so. Moreover, even considering only relatively recent efforts to resist male domination in Europe and the US, the emphasis on “First” and “Second” Wave feminism ignores the ongoing resistance to male domination between the 1920's and 1960's and the resistance outside mainstream politics, particularly by women
of color and working class women (Cott 1987).
One strategy for solving the problems would be to identify feminism in terms of a t of ideas or beliefs rather than participation in any particular political movement. As we saw above, this also has the advantage of allowing us to locate isolated feminists who work was not understood or appreciated during their time. But how should we go about identifying a core t of feminist beliefs? Some would suggest that we should focus on the political ideas that the term was apparently coined to capture, viz., the commitment to women's equal rights. This acknowledges that commitment to and advocacy for women's rights has not been confined to the Women's Liberation Movement in the West. But this too rais controversy, for it frames feminism within a broadly Liberal approach to political and economic life. Although most feminists would probably agree that there is some n of “rights” on which achieving equal rights for women is a necessary condition for feminism to succeed, most would also argue that this would not be sufficient. This is becau women's oppression under male domination rarely if ever consists solely in depriving women of political and legal “rights”, but also extends into the structure of our s
ociety and the content of our culture, and permeates our consciousness (e.g., Bartky 1990).
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