Page 181 - DENG402_HISTORY_OF_ENGLISH_LITERATURE

History of English Literature

Notes

Notes The work of women changed the popular understanding of marriage and the very
meaning of life; women came to want more out of their marriages and from men,
education, and themselves.

The efforts and accomplishments of these women and organizations throughout the women’s
movement inspired many authors of that time to write about their personal experiences with
feminism. Jo Freeman and Sara Evans were two such authors. Both women participated in the
movement and wrote about their firsthand knowledge of feminism. Freeman, American feminist
and writer, wrote several feminist articles on issues such as social movements, political parties,
public policy toward women and many other important pieces about women. Evans wrote her
experiences in books such as “The Roots of Women’s Liberation in the Civil Right Movement and
the New Left” and “Born for Liberty”. Her works focused more on young women activists
recognizing that the “personal is political” as well as showing how these women used discussion
sessions to expand understanding of the social roots of personal problems and worked towards
developing different practices to address those issues.
Part of what made feminism so successful was the way women in different situations developed
their own variants and organized for the goals most important to them. All women - Native
American women, working class women, Jewish women, Catholic women, sex workers, and
women with disabilities - described what gender equality would mean for them and worked
together to achieve it.

Self Assessment
Fill in the blanks:
1. The history of Feminist movements has been divided into three .................... by feminist
scholars.
2. ...................., instead of blaming individual women for failing to adapt to women's proper
role, blamed the role itself and the society that created it.
3. If First-wave Feminism Focused upon absolute rights such as suffrage, .................... Feminism
was largely concerned with other issues of equality, such as the end to discrimination.
4. In the early 1990s, a movement, now termed the .................... of feminism, arose in response
to the perceived failures of the second wave Feminism.
5. As a movement, these women produced the deepest transformation in .................... and
enlisted the largest number of participants.

23.5 Cultural Dynamics

The feminist movement’s agenda includes acting as a counter to the putatively patriarchal strands
in the dominant culture. While differing during the progression of waves, it is a movement that
has sought to challenge the political structure, power holders, and cultural beliefs or practices.
Although antecedents to feminism may be found far back before the 18th century, the seeds of the
modern feminist movement were planted during the late part of that century. Christine de Pizan,
a late medieval writer, was possibly the earliest feminist in the western tradition. She is believed
to be the first woman to make a living out of writing. Feminist thought began to take a more
substantial shape during the Enlightenment with such thinkers as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
and the Marquis de Condorcet championing women’s education. The first scientific society for
women was founded in Middelburg, a city in the south of the Dutch republic, in 1785. Journals for
women which focused on issues like science became popular during this period as well.

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