Page 182 - DENG402_HISTORY_OF_ENGLISH_LITERATURE

Unit 23: The Nineteenth Century (Feminist Movement)

The women who made the first efforts towards women’s suffrage came from more stable and privileged Notes
backgrounds, and were able to dedicate time and energy into making change. Initial developments for
women, therefore, mainly benefited white women in the middle and upper classes.

Did u know? The beginning of the feminist movement in America was a specific agenda for
a certain group of women.

The different waves of feminism are not only reflective of the cultural evolution in America since
the 1920s. It is also the way in which the feminist movement used different social movement tactics
to encourage women in America to become active and motivate individuals to make change for all
women in America. Although the feminist movement has spanned almost a century, there are
ways in which to break down the timeline and recognize how women have framed the ways they
have achieved different goals throughout history. “By rendering events or occurrences meaningful,
frames function to organize experience and guide action, whether individual or collective”.
The feminist movement has been an ongoing presence in American culture, and the group of
women targeted at the beginning has since changed. The beginning of the feminist movement was
seen as exclusive in that, according to bell hooks, “[oppressed] women... felt that our only response
to white, bourgeois, hegemonic dominance of feminist movement is to trash, reject, or dismiss
feminism.”
The three waves of Feminism are examples of how values have been identified, shared, and
transformed, and the feminist movement as a whole has worked to redefine certain standards of
its agenda in order to include a broader spectrum of people. For example, the movement later
included women of different races and sexual orientations. It was only in the fall of 1971 that NOW
(National Organization of Women) “acknowledged, ‘the oppression of lesbians as a legitimate
concern of feminism’”
The feminist movement continues to support and encourage women to pursue their goals as
individuals who deserve equal opportunity. “The Foundation of future feminist struggle must be
solidly based on a recognition of the need to eradicate the underlying cultural basis and causes of
sexism and other forms of group oppression,” according to bell hooks.

Task Write down the origin of Feministic movement.

23.6 Summary

The feminist movement (also known as the Women’s Movement, Women’s Liberation, or
Women’s Lib) refers to a series of campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive
rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women’s suffrage, sexual harass-
ment and sexual violence.
Feminist theory emerged from these feminist movements and includes general theories
and theories about the origins of inequality, and, in some cases, about the social construc-
tion of sex and gender, in a variety of disciplines.
Feminist leaders rooted in the second wave like Gloria Anzaldúa, bell hooks, Chela
Sandoval, Cherríe Moraga, Audre Lorde, Maxine Hong Kingston, and many other femi-
nists of color, called for a new subjectivity in feminist voice.
The feminist movement’s agenda includes acting as a counter to the putatively patriarchal
strands in the dominant culture.

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