西方文学理论入门

西方文学理论入门

课程论文

On Feminism

What is feminism?

Feminism,originated in the West, is a seriesof movements and ideologies in order to define, establish, and defend equal political, economic, and social rights and opportunities for women. These rights include legal protection in politics, business, and education. Feminism is controversial for defiancing the traditions in many fields, especially for supporting altering the political balance to women.Feminists object to sexual discrimination and there are many different kinds of feminism. Some feministsclaim that men should do a larger share of the housework and childcare. Somefeministsobject to beautycontest.

What is feminist theory

Most forms of feminism characterize patriarchy as an unjust social

system that is oppressive to women. In addition, feminism seeks to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment. A feminist is "an advocate or supporter of the rights and equality of women".

In the patriarchal social system, the most unfair social system, women have been oppressed and enslaved for a long time.Therefore, feminism is against the oppression of women, aimed at establishing women in education, equality of employment opportunities.

Feminist theory consists in a variety of disciplines, emerging from these feministmovements and including anthropology,economics, women‘s studies,sociology, literary criticism, psychoanalysis art history, and philosophy.

The Aim of feminist theory

Feminist theory aims at understanding the nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles and lived experience. It brings about equality between men and women in the universe It has developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues such as the social construction of sex and gender.

Feminism Movement

Feminism Movement also known as the Women‘s Movement and Women’s Liberation.According to Maggie Humm and Rebecca Walker, the history of feminism can be divided into three waves.They refer to a series of campaigns for reforms on issues such as domestic violence, reproductive rights, equal pay, women’s voting rights, sexual harassment, and sexual violence.

First-wave feminism (1850s-1900s)

The first wave refers to the feminism movement from the 18th to the

early 20th centuries, which mainly dealt with the Suffrage.It points at the white women in the middle and upper class, calling for women to participate in elections and political equality. It tends to the promotion of equality of contract, marriage, parenting, and women's property rights.

Writers such as Virginia Woolf are associated with the ideas of the First Wave of feminism. In her book A Room of One's Own, Woolf "describes how men socially and psychically dominate women". One of her famous remark is that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." The argument of the book is that "women are simultaneously victims of themselves as well as victims of men and are upholders of society by acting as mirrors to men”. She realized the social structure, and showsit to other women by literature.

Second-wave feminism (1900s-1960s)

The second wave was concerned with gender inequality in laws and culture，such as gender discrimination.Women were encouraged to have a profound understanding of their personal life, their political and power structures which reflects gender discrimination.

Simone de Beauvoir, the most influential woman in French and one of the greatest and most popular philosophers of the 20th Century, in her book The Second Sex, argues that women throughout history have been defined as the "other" sex, an aberration from the "normal" male sex.

Third-wave feminism (1960s-)

The movement arose as a response to perceived error of the second-wave. During the third-wave, feminists pay attention to"micro-politics", challenge the second wave's paradigm and tend to use a post-structuralist interpretation of gender and sexuality.

Feminist leaders in the second wave like Gloria Anzaldua, bell hooks, Chela Sandoval, Cherrie Moraga, Audre Lorde, Maxine Hong Kingston, and many other colored feminist, tried to negotiate a space within feminist on race-related subjectivities.

The feminism movement effects on society

The feminism movement and feminist theory have great impact on Western society, including women's right to participate in politics, get more education, more close to the fair payment, the right to divorce proceedings, the right of women to make individual decisions regarding pregnancy and the right to own property.

Feminism in China

In China, however,prior to the 20th century, men and women were treated unequally just because of gender difference

In feudal society, women were unlikely to accept education.Each school refused women, believing that innocence is the virtue for women. The women had to follow"the three obedience and the four virtues", including obedient to father when they were unmarried; obedient to husband whenthey were married and obedient to son when their husband is dead.

Wu Zetian, the only female monarch of China, was known as the first Chinese feminism and deemed to an excellent woman politician in Chinese feudal time. During her reign, women were allowed to have their own property and the talent women could be employed.

From 1840 to 1949, missionaries introduced the Western civilization. Reformists re-evaluated Confucian values such as foot binding and gender segregation, and began to reject traditional gender ideas as hindering progress towards modernization. During the 1898 Hundred Days' Reform, reformers advocated women's education and equality, and the end of foot binding.In Xinhai revolution, Sun Yat-Sen established the Chinese republic, he made laws against women's

foot-binding, and the monogamy fixed in the form of law. There appeared women school.

Law of Marriage in 1950 was an important milestone in the Chinese women's liberation. It abolished the feudal marriage system and patriarchal feudal ethnical order and established new marriage and family relations. In the people's communes, women and men achieved equal status, and established a wage system to enable women to achieve economic independence. During the reform movements of the early 20th century, feminism was adopted by those various movements in order to achieve their goals.

Conclusion

From the ancient times to today, a lot of people strive for women's rights and devote themselves to feminism. However, in modern society, even though laws have been promoted to protect women’s rights, there still existedsexual discrimination.So far, feminism is still a hot topic. It's hard for women to get honorable jobs even if they have high academic qualifications. In today's society, in the field of science, women are much weaker than men, so we should pay more efforts to change this situation. It is also very universal for women to be abused in the family.This phenomenon implies that the feminism in china still has a long way to go. Only after women are able to have their rights in all spheres of society, are they able to exert their rights in the world.