Feminism Today

Paper Summary:

The paper relates how the feminist movement developed and reveals that women's advances toward equality have resulted in a backlash in the form of religious fundamentalism, claims of reverse discrimination by males and hostility from the general public. The paper looks at the goals of the feminist movement today, with the primary one being achieving solidarity among women. The paper is of the opinion that the movement has to develop its constituency and then mobilize support at the ballot box.

From the Paper:

"The development of the feminist movement can be traced back to the nineteenth century with growing agitation for women's suffrage and for other social changes, but as a strong political force feminism came to the fore much more recently, beginning after World War II as a result of changed perceptions on the part of women regarding their roles in society, in part because of their experiences from the war years. Betty Friedan (1963) defined the women's movement early with her book The Feminine Mystique. She finds that women are now passing through a period of self-examination constituting an identity crisis."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Aburdene, P. & Naisbitt, J. (1992). Megatrends for women. New York: Villard Books.
• Flexner, E. (1959). Century of struggle. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
• Friedan, B. (1963). The feminine mystique. New York: W.W. Norton.
• Paglia, C. (1997). Feminists must begin to fulfill their noble, animating ideal. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved April 30, 2007 from http://privat.ub.uib.no/bubsy/apollon.htm.

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