Chapter 9: Ethics and World Politics: Feminism

Question 1

Feminism

Answer 1

Social and intellectual movement that aims to ensure equal rights for women and men
Emerged out of social movements that were committed to radical change
Seeks to redress the way women are disadvantaged by current social, economic, and political arrangements

Question 2

Gender

Answer 2

Socially constructed identities, roles, and characteristics assigned to both men and women

Question 3

First Wave Feminism

Answer 3

Late 19th, early 20th century
Engaged out of urban industrialization and liberal and socialist politics
Goal was to open opportunities for women (economic, political) and for abolition of slavery because women tended to interact with slaves differently than men
(Connection b/n women + slaves, could explain their situation to heir mistresses)
Formally began at Seneca Convention of 1848
Outcome: in 1920, the 19th Amendment passed – women able to vote

Question 4

Second Wave Feminism

Answer 4

Started in 1960s-1970s –> continued to the 1990s
Unfolded w/in context of antiwar + civil rights movement
Growing self-consciousness on variety of minority issues
Sexual Reproductive rights of women
Goal: passing Equal Rights Amendment (not successful) which guarantees social equality regardless of sex

Question 5

Third Wave Feminism

Answer 5

Began in the ’90s
Informed by post-colonial critique
Challenged in the social construct of gender
Social constructs were destabilized
Goal: Challenged idea of universal womanhood – not all women around the world are the same, body politics, sexuality, heteronormativity
Tends to be more global, multicultural, and shuns the idea of artificial identity

Question 6

What are the types of contemporary feminism

Answer 6

Equality feminism, Radical Feminism, and Post Colonial Feminism

Question 7

Equality Feminism

Answer 7

Argues that key problems in current world is how women are treated differently and worse than men
Highlights legal, political, and economic subordination of women
Equality feminist are in the forefront of international campaign of gender equality

Question 8

Radical Feminism

Answer 8

Disagrees with Equality Feminism: believes that women are not equal to men, but that we should celebrate the differences between men and women
Campaign for women to be treated differently within the system than men where their vulnerabilities and needs are different
Politicize issues of sexual and domestic violence, motherhood, sex tourism, and sex trafficking

Question 9

Post-Colonial Feminism

Answer 9

Suggest that other feminist politics/thoughts impose political agenda of middle class women in capitalist states on women globally
Points to different understandings women have regarding issues like abortion, sexual assault, etc.
Resulted in privileged western feminism setting the agenda for trans motional women