Summary: The Feminist Movement

The Fight for Women’s Rights For long, women were considered inferior to men. Before the start of the women’s rights movement, people thought that females were destined for a life of cleaning, taking care of kids, and being a good; submissive wife. They couldn’t own property, couldn’t vote, couldn’t attend school nor college, couldn’t work, couldn’t even take care of their own money; it was as if they were objects, destined for reproduction. In medieval times, women were even considered the devil’s work.

The Feminist Movement was a series of campaigns for changes on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment and sexual violence all of which fall under the label of feminism and the feminist movement during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. The Purpose of the Women's Liberation Movement was to recognize a woman’s dignity and worth, and to enable women to enjoy equal rights with men in the workplace and to allow women to have more more control of their lives.

Many societies are progressing forward to the new era of gender role equality. The long-overlooked notions of women belonging in the kitchen and being unqualified for masculine jobs, are now brought to light for discussion. The words, “feminist” and “feminism”, rose to attention during the discussions of gender equality. It was first officially listed in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1852.

The organizers that started this organization were named Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia Mott. These women were feminists; which (is the theory that women should have economic, political, and social rights equal to those of men.”) This movement had also dealing with women 's rights that were included in the civil rights movement. For two centuries, feminism tried to win over and start gaining equality of sexes by supporting the same opportunity

Women did not have equal rights like men did back in the 1960ś and this then caused a rise of the second feminist movement wave and lasted till 1990ś arrived. In the 1960ś women were limited to doing normal everyday things they did such as anything that involved schooling and going to work in certain areas, but the majority of women were known as stay at home wives. Not only did women not have equal rights, but had to deal with the domestic violence and rape at home for their husbands or any men. The feminist movement is for women who do not have reproductive rights, leave, equal pay, protection from sexual harassment, sexism, etc. Women are fighting for something they should’ve been obligated since they reached their legal age.

The National Organization for Women aimed to promote women 's ideas, eliminate discrimination, and protect the equal rights of women in all aspects of life. Friedan ignited the second wave of American feminism by writing The Feminine Mystique. Friedan 's audience would most likely be women who want their rights and are annoyed with the housewife role. In her article, "The Importance of Work," Friedan uses several means of persuasion and different types of rhetorical strategies to describe the change in human identity. Friedan uses logos, the ability to convince her audience by logic and reasoning, throughout her article to describe facts that took place in 1963.

This is a real life example of what it looks like when feminism and Poetry intertwine. Nikki Giovani an American writer and activist from Knoxville, TN has a quote a about poetry that really relates to the way Beyonce creates her music. “Writers don’t write from experience, although many are hesitant to admit that they don’t. If you wrote from experience, you’d get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy.”

It was not until 1963 the Feminine Mystique was written and published by Betty Friedan which was claimed to start the women’s rights movement of the 1960s “The Feminine Mystique is remembered as the book that “started” the women 's movement and 1960s feminism in the United States.” In her book Friedan described her life as a typical housewife of the 1960s, she argued that women’s role was not just to be housewives and do housework, but instead they are a lot more important than that; she also called women to recognize their potential, to speak up and to aspire to work in professional jobs and become equal to men, “She also helped advance the women’s rights movement as one of the founders of the National

According to the unknown authors of this article, “The demand for feminism done with, she wanted the focus of feminism to shift to effective juggling of career and home, equal distribution of responsibilities and economic freedom” (Betty Friedan Biography. (n.d.). This was one of her most famous works along with The Feminine Mystique. In The Second Stage, Friedan argues that once past the initial phases of describing and working against political and economic injustices, the women’s movement should focus on working with men to remake private and public arrangements that work against full lives with children for women and men both (The Second Stage. (n.d.).

When I first heard “We Should All Be Feminists” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, it was because Beyoncé samples Adichie’s speech. Though it was a small and heavily edited, it made me pressed “repeat” on my IPhone because her verse alone made me love the song. After the fifth or sixth time listening to the song, I had to google Adichie’s lyrics: “We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful.

There was a time when feminism was avoided by artists, saying that they believed that women and men are and should be treated as equals in society, yet being a feminist was yet again too aggressive a term to be. But all of a sudden feminism became cool. It moved from first being accepted by society as a word that resonated with placards and street rallies to chic, fierce and edgy. An example for this would be 2014 when Beyoncé was at one of MTV’s biggest music awards night, Video Music Awards (VMA’s). After her performance the word “FEMINIST” in big bold shining letters was flashed and like a virus spreading, artist per artist claimed to be a feminist.

The Progressive Era, lasting from about 1890 to 1920, was a period of social reform and adaptation to the new technologies and advancements of the Gilded Age. With the increase of railroads and other means of transportation, people in the Progressive Era had access to more goods and information than ever before. Society was adapting to new industries that required less man power and more machine power, and domestic life was no different. The technologies introduced into the homes of white middle-class women meant that the workload they adopted was much lighter. Women of this era arguably felt some of the most significant changes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. With more leisure time and less household responsibilities, many

Additionally, these stories reveal the great diversity among women. Generally, women are grouped together, as stated by Lorde: “As women we have either been taught to ignore our differences or view them as causes for separation and suspicion rather than forces of change (Lorde, 1979).” Despite the efforts to categorize women’s issues into one mass of problems, White women perceive the world differently than African American women, Hispanic women, Native American women, etc., and vice versa. This conglomeration of “women’s issues” does not address every aspect of being a woman in patriarchal and unjust societies throughout the world.

Feminist Criticism examines the patterns of thought, behavior, and relationships between gender values, enfranchisement, and power in relations between and within the sexes.(Literary theories ppt) Madea goes to jail highlights the relationships between genders in a matriarchal society that develop influential effects. In Madea Goes to Jail, Tyler Perry, conveys the power of women in their

The United States of America is a relatively new country that evolved exceptionally fast. Yet the common ideas of gender haven't evolved much. Namely, many historical events were accomplished by women or involved women; however, they aren't taught in high school. Most, if not all, educated individuals know these great male historical figures that influenced the US: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, and etc. Most of 'American history' is white men history, or better summarized as (his)story. But do students know Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Maria Stewart, and etc.? Maybe. How about Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Ida B. Wells, and other marginalized women? Most people don't know or never heard