The relationship between it's historical development and it's underlying principles

Question 1

What is the feminist worldview, philosophy, and ideology?

Answer 1

Worldview - to contend with the patriarchy

Philosophy - moral/political/philosophical concerns around justice and equality

Ideology - guiding actions to power, coherent beliefs, substantial following, proactive

Question 2

What is feminism?

Answer 2

A feminist is someone who believes in the social, economic and political equality of the sexes.

Feminism is about all genders having equal rights and opportunities.

Feminism is an ideology as it is a worldview that is shared by a significant number of people.

Question 3

Distinguish between philosophy and ideology?

Answer 3

Ideology

deals with beliefs of a social institution/organisation
Dogmatic approach
ideologies depend on philosophy
ideology has some underlying philosophical truth
ideology can impact on society
aims at spreading beliefs on members

Philosophy

explores truths and understanding of life/universe
- is objective
- encourages discussions
- independence of ideology
- philosophy does not have much impact on society
- aims at understanding nature of universe and existence

Question 4

outline 2nd wave feminism 1960s-1970s?

Answer 4

Women’s liberation—essentially the “let’s finish things where we left off” of 1st wave feminism. It was multi-focus and was all about acquiring basic rights women still lacked such as equal workplace opportunity.
Texts - Betty Friedan 1963, The feminine Mystique and Germaine Greer 1970, The female eunuch
2nd Wave Philosophy -
Radical feminism
Differs from liberal feminism as they are perceived as more willing to actively agitate for social and political change within their philosophy
More militant in their approach
Aims to dismantle patriarchy rather than making adjustments to the system through legal change. Radical feminist also resist reducing oppression to an economic or class issue, as socialist or marxist feminism did or does
Radical feminism oppose patriarchy not men

Question 5

outline 1st wave feminism 1848-1920?

Answer 5

Women’s suffrage—demanded the right to vote which they were denied. Also asked for same liberties and rights as men but was marginally successful
Texts - Mary Wollstonecraft 1792, A vindication of the rights of women
1st Wave Philosophy -
Liberal feminism
Values individualist approaches to justice and societal structures instead of blaming inequalities on others.
Gain women’s suffrage and then gain individual liberty
Concerned with gaining freedom through equality, putting an end to mens cruelty and gaining opportunities to to become full persons

Question 6

outline the 3rd wave of feminism from the 1990s?

Answer 6

Third wave, unlike the two previous waves, was entirely different. It focused on empowerment of individuals and challenged body, gender and sexuality issues
3rd Wave Philosophy
Postmodern and diverse feminism is influenced by the postmodernist movement, third wave feminists sought to question, reclaim, and refine the ideas, words, and media that have transmitted ideas about womanhood, beauty, sexuality, femininity, and masculinity among other things
There was a decided shift in the perception of gender, with the notion that there are some characteristics that are strictly male and and others that are strictly female giving way to the concept of gender continuum. From this perspective each person is seen as possessing, expressing, and suppressing the full range off traits that had been previously been associated with one gender or the other
For third-wave feminists, therefore, sexual liberation is a major goal of second wave feminism, was expanded to mean a process of first becoming conciseness of the ways gender identity and sexuality have been shaped by society and then intentionally constructing (and becoming free to express) one authentic gender identity
Texts - Naomi Wolf 1991, the beauty myth