Feminism

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer maintains that it is important that one understands the use and application of the numerous feminist perspectives to gain a lucid idea of what feminism really is and how it works. However, the writer notes that not even one successful feminist perspective has been recognized in recent years, which is one of the main reasons why this phenomenon has had to face more than its fair share of criticism in recent history. The writer points out that the feminist school of thought has helped women all around the world to gain confidence and strength in their abilities and venture out of their homes to widen their spectrum of opportunities. The writer concludes that feminism has also helped women to tackle the situation at hand whether it is defying against an aggressive spouse, challenging racial and class prejudice, tackling the demands of a greedy landlord, pursuing higher levels of education, encouraging the employment of female politicians or lawyers or engineers, challenging chauvinism at work, initiating women's health or co-operative or financial headquarters.

From the Paper:

"One of the phases where the feminist perspectives were finding strong basis was from the post WWII through to the early 1980s. The main aim of feminism during the post WWII period through to 1920 was to mainly speak out and fight against the oppression and violence that women were facing due to the constant political and economic conflicts that the world was facing. This particular form of feminism was very common throughout all the countries in the world but also had certain specific circumstances and characteristics related to every country where the gender-struggle was a constant issue. After that the main focus of the feminist activists was to gain parallel on the legal grounds alongside men specifically in the US. The open-minded feminists during this time tried to get the women to contribute at a higher percentage in the political and legal aspects of the administration."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Huguette Dagenails and Denise Piche. Women, Feminism and Development. Macgill-Queen's University Press. Pg 217-18. 1994. The book was written after the 1988 conference of the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRAIW). The main aim of this book was to incorporate the views established and the progress made overtime by women in different dimensions, while giving a fair overview of the opinion of the different authors that chaired the conference an/or attended it.
• Offen, Karen. Defining Feminism: A Comparative Historical Approach. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 14, 1: 1988, pg 119. Offen, in her book, has very successfully and clearly laid out the history of feminism and its overall impact. Her own analyses, though, of the philosophy of feminism are of the utmost interest as she incorporates the phenomenon of dualism, individualism and relationalism into the feminist school of thought. Even though, it does come across as biased at times, the views presented are fresh and new, unlike the very common good/bad aspects of feminism that are generally written about.
• Sanders, V. First wave feminism. In S. Gamble, (Ed.), The Routledge critical dictionary of feminism and postfeminism (pp. 16-28). New York: Routledge. 2000.
• Thomham, S. Second wave feminism. In S. Gamble, (Ed.), The Routledge critical dictionary of feminism and postfeminism (pp. 29-42). New York: Routledge. 2000.
• Walter Block. Levin on Feminism and Freedom. The journal of libertarian studies. X, 1: 1991, pg 97-8. Block, in his assessment of the work presented by Professor Levin agrees that the views presented are somewhat bold and does recommend the book for those readers who have inkling towards how feminism has disrupted the concept of human autonomy. However, he seems to disagree with Levin on numerous topics that have come across too chauvinistic and against women liberty.

More papers on Feminism:

• Analytical Essay # 141201 : "Ehrenreich on Social Feminism"
• Analytical Essay # 140676 : "Feminism - A Radical Ideology?"
• Article Review # 131724 : "Writings on Feminism"
• Analytical Essay # 133094 : "Paradigm Shift in Feminism"

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