It is undeniable that female empowerment is imperative. More importantly, the establishment of feminist movements has created a platform for women to assemble as a community to combat the patriarchal system that continues to exist in society. Consequently, women uniting to dispute sexism, acknowledges a component that can hinder their progress and success in society. Yet, this idea of feminism is over simplified, it disregards the diverse and intricate experiences women face in actuality. Therefore, the consequence of generalizing the feminist political practice results in an assumption that women uniformly experience a single oppression, this ignores the reality of the multiple oppressions women can encounter.
Wollstonecraft 's contribution to the philosophy of feminism, the book is called A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), in which she takes the philosophies of the Enlightenment to task, especially Rousseau, for often misusing their vaunted Reason. She also had many other complaints: Wollstonecraft decries the “brainwashing” of women of her day, forcing them to fit into a social structure with no room for independence. Wollstonecraft advocates that the education of women should be to a degree equal to that of the men. Wollstonecraft express grief and sadness of the state of “spinsters,” the pejorative or worsen term for women, who for whatever the reason, the women never married. Wollstonecraft acknowledges that men are for the most part physically stronger than women, but Wollstonecraft argues that women have evolved beyond caveman ethics.
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A vindication of the rights of women written in 1792 can be considered one of the first feminist documents, although the term appeared much later in history. In this essay, Wollstonecraft debates the role of women and their education. Having read different thinkers of the Enlightenment, as Milton, Lord Bacon, Rousseau, John Gregory and others, she finds their points of view interesting and at the same time contrary to values of the Enlightenment when they deal with women’s place. Mary Wollstonecraft uses the ideas of the Enlightenment to demand equal education for men and women. I will mention how ideals of the Enlightenment are used in favor of men but not of women and explain how Wollstonecraft support her “vindication” of the rights of women using those contradictions.
With the lack of rights for women, there is a lot of things that were not allowed. To really understand the 19th century feminist movement, we’ll take a look at key political figures, define just one of the movements that took place in the United Kingdom, and study a work of literature from that time period. During the feminist era in Europe, two women sought to change the lives off all women in Europe and quite possibly all over the world. These two women were Mary Wollstonecraft and Anna Wheeler. Mary was an English writer who advocated for women’s equality.
He goes into detail of the theory that women are only used for sexual reproduction that denotes their ability to be self determined and their probability of female autonomy. Ford goes on to discuss the scrutiny that Wollstonecraft faced during the 1970’s. After the 1970’s, Wollstonecraft was reappraised with the second wave in 1994. Susan Gubar and others accepted Wollstonecraft as a vital source as the founder of feminism. With Wollstonecraft’s work “Vindications of the Rights of Woman,” explained as “the founding feminist text in English.” In his 16 page excerpt of Wollstonecraft, he goes over the scrutinies, the appraisals and the great work that was written over the years.
Mary Wollstonecraft was a key component in the movement of rights for women. Her philosophies on equality were a precursor for women around the world who would join together and fight back against the injustice they faced due to their gender. Wollstonecraft promoted her ideals during the middle of the 18th century at a point in time where rights for women were non-existent and she lived her whole life without any true rights of her own. Years after her death, her values were continued by women who were trying to gain the right the vote. The fight for the rights of women has continued since then and still continues in modern feminist movements.
The term feminism is considered a controversial issue once it may be impossible to give it an accurate definition . This definition will be better or further defined as claimed by its historical origins and development . The term feminism originated from the French word “ feminisme” made up by the utopian socialist Charles Fourier . In 1890s , the term was first used in English in association with the movement for equal political and legal rights for women . The term feminism was pinned down through three waves of feminist thought and activity : a.
Over the two and half centuries ago, Mary Wollstronecraft argued strongly for the education of woman. Is her argument still relevent today? Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is the response to the French writer Charles Maurice De Talleyrand. According to Talleyrand, women should be given education but it should be limited. In her response, She clarifies that women’s lack of reasoning power is not because they are biologically incapable of it, but because they are not given the equal opportunity to pursue their education.
Goldenberg (Goldenberg 1979). As was discussed above, many feminist have build their rationale on arguing for the society’s need to move away from religion in order to provide women with tools of emancipation and build gender equal society. One of such tools is secularism as a concept of liberation of the state’s political and social decisions from religious influence, or simply the separation of Church and State. The secular arguments in feminism were developing slowly in the religious era and became louder and prominent only by the end of the 18th century. French feminist and revolutionary Olympre De Gouge famous for her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen (1791), even if often speaking about God, was a strong campaigner against religious marriage which she deemed "love and trust's grave”.
Kate Chopin has been referred to as a pioneering feminist writer. Feminism is the belief that women should be allowed the same rights, power, and opportunities as men and be treated in the same way (dictionary.cambridge.org). Stemming from Feminism, is Feminist Criticism, a literary lens that “examines the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforces or undermines the economic, political, social, and psychological oppressions of women” (Tyson 83). Patriarchal attitudes dominated the minds of American people in the nineteenth century and Chopin’s work, “Desiree’s Baby”, encouraged women to look at their situations from a critical point of view, one in which women were unfairly treated because of their status as female. This essay takes a closer look at La Blanche and Desiree, two women with vastly different racial and class backgrounds who, in their own ways, are supressed by the traditional gender of the society in which they live and as a result, inadvertently conform to it.