WILL WOMEN SHARING POLITICAL POWER

EQUALLY WITH MEN

CHANGE THE WAY WE LIVE?

Women
Fight
For
Equality

The problem lay buried, unspoken.It was a

strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a
yearning that women suffered in the middle of
the twentieth century in the United States. Each
suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she
made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched
slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches
with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and
Brownies, lay beside her husband at night- she
was afraid to ask even of herself the silent
question- Is this all?
- The Feminine Mystique - Betty Friedan

Different
Ideologies

Different
Strategic
Measures

Different
Political
Goals

First-Wave Feminism

Has its foundation in the Enlightenment

doctrine of human rights, esp. as
expressed in the Declaration of the Rights
of Man and of the Citizen (1789)
Political in focus: works for political
equality in areas such as voting,
ownership of property, inheritance,
education and ability to run for public
office

Mary Wollstonecraft (17591797)

A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman (1792)
Followed up her earlier

book, A Vindication of
the Rights of Man
Focused on the moral
demand of equality,
especially in education
First attribution of
gender differences to
socialization

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

The Subjection of Women
(1869)

Focused on
establishing a right to
vote and to hold
political office
Much of the book was
dedicated to
undermining popular
stereotypes of women
that were used to
justify political
exclusion

John Stuart Mill and Harriet

Taylor (1807-1858)
The Enfranchisement of
Women (1851)

Originally written by Taylor,

later republished with
essays written by her and
Mill
Also focused on arguing for
political enfranchisement
for women
Added essays in later
additions argued for
womens right to sue for
divorce

Second-Wave Feminism

Had its foundation in phenomenology

(and for some psychoanalysis)
Picks up from First-Wave Feminisms
critique of gender differences
Primarily theoretically focused
Aims at identifying and eliminating
sources of sexism and gender
oppression

Simone de Beauvoir (19081986)

The Second Sex (1949)

Denies that gender

differences are
based in biology
Developed the
sex/gender
distinction
Recognizes
femininity and
masculinity as
historically variable

Betty Friedan (1921-2006)

The Feminine Mystique (1963)

The Problem That Has

No Name: unhappiness
despite gains of the
womens rights
movement
Argues that traditional
gender roles stifle
womens development
Treats gender roles as
inherently
dehumanizing

Carol Gilligan (1936-)

In a Different Voice (1982)

Was a student of
developmental psychologist
Larry Kohlberg, who found
gender differences in
approaches to morality
Argues that these
differences are the result of
socialization, not inherent
reasoning differences
Contends that neither mens
nor womens approaches to
ethics is superior; rather,
both are needed for a whole
moral person

Naomi Wolf (1962-)

The Beauty Myth (1991)

Examines the ways in

which beauty standards
are used to both
discriminate against and
physically harm women
Focuses on the way in
which gender norms for
women create doublebindssituations where
both meeting and failing
to meet the norm
become harmful.

Third-Wave Feminism

Often influenced by postmodernism and critical

theory
Extends Second-Wave Feminisms critique of
gender norms by rejecting dichotomous and
hierarchical thinking
Typically seeks to destabilize the very notions of
gender and sex
Examines both the variability within categories
(such as woman) and the complex ways in which
those categories interact [intersectionality]

Angela Y. Davis (1944-)

Women, Race, and Class
(1981)

Inaugurated the
third wave
emphasis on
intersectionality by
examining how
race and class
biases negatively
affected the
feminist movement

bell hooks (1952-)

Aint I a Woman (1981)

Called attention to the

way in which feminist
writings have mainly
reflected the needs
and interests of white
middle-class women
Inaugurated a greater
recognition of and
response to diversity
by feminist thinkers

Luce Irigaray (1932-)

This Sex Which Is Not One
(1977)

Emphasizes the
ambiguous and
variable nature of
womanhood and
femininity
Claims that to
conceive of woman or
the feminine at all is
to engage in an
inherently sexist
approach to
understanding gender

Judith Butler (1956-)

Gender Trouble (1989)

Argues that gender is

a performance, and is
thus indefinitely
variable
Key work in the
development of queer
theory as well
Links gender norms to
languagelanguage
both creates and
reinforces gender
norms