Feminism Research

Feminism research

All feminist theories start from the perspective that gender identity is significant.

society is based "patriarchy" ( men dominate)which facilitates male dominance. this domination is based on ideological and coercive forms of social control.

the aim is to highlight social injustice against women, and try to challenge and change this.

The first wave (1830’s – early 1900’s): Women’s fight for equal contract and property rights

Women in the late 19th to early 20th centuries, realised that they must first gain political power, including the right to vote, to bring about change. Their political agenda included issues concerning sexual, reproductive and economic matters and they believed that women have the potential to contribute just as much if not more than men.They were confined to the domestic sphere and denied the right to own their own property, to study to participate to public life. They wanted women to have the right to vote.

The results of these activities include the 1970 Equal Pay Act and 1969 Divorce Reform Act

The second wave (1960’s-1980’s): Broadening the debate

The second wave of feminism focused on the workplace, sexuality, family and reproductive rights.

This time is often dismissed as offensive, outdated and obsessed with middle class white women’s problems. Many groups were fighting for equality and women felt their voices were not being heard and that in order to gain respect they first needed to address gender equality concerns.

Women wanted to strengthen their voices fighting for gender equality to ensure they would be heard.

Focused on the struggle for equal pay, equal rights at work and equal representation in political bodies as well as liberation from male oppression.Issues such as abortion, rape, domestic violence and child care were concerns of second wave feminists. They are increasingly questioning the way women are represented in the media.

The third wave (1990’s – present): The “micropolitics” of gender equality

Today there are different types of feminists like the ego-cultural feminists, the radicals, the liberal/reforms, the electoral, academic, ecofeminists…  Women are still working to vanquish the disparities in male and female pay and the reproductive rights of women. they want to end violence against women and are fighting for acceptance and a true understanding of the term ‘feminism,’ 

Third-wave feminism challenges the second wave's "essentialist" definitions of femininity. Instead they argue there are a variety of femininities. They believe that the 2nd wave was over empathising the experience of upper middle class women. they also star using sex and its relationship as power.

Post feminism

Post-feminism began in the early 1980’s, when journalists and academics began proclaiming that feminism was dead. The basic idea behind the movement is that feminism has achieved its goals and now it was time to distance ourselves from the movement.

Post-feminism has been positioned as everything from a reclaiming of traditional gender roles, an overt attempt to use the language of oppression to subvert feminism, to a way of depoliticising feminism in order to bring it to the home 

The movement arose out of a backlash against feminism. This backlash is often ascribed to the specialisation and splintering of feminism, which is seen by many post-feminists as one of the root causes for feminism’s decline.