 FEMINISM

“The term feminism can be used to describe a political, cultural or economic

movement aimed at establishing equal rights and legal protection for women.”
 Feminist argued about the inequality and discrimination among the genders
(male and female) and emphasize on the equal rights for women.
 Feminist activists have campaigned for following rights of women:
 Legal rights (rights of contract, property rights, voting rights)
 Protection of women and girls from domestic violence.
 Sexual harassment
 Workplace rights
 Violence
 Former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s ‘UNITE’ campaign to end violence
against women estimated that up to seven out of ten women will experience
violence at some point in their lives – and that approximately 600 million
women live in countries where domestic violence is not yet considered a crime.
 WHY FEMINISM ARISE
 From the very beginning of human evolution, women have always been
discriminated and were not considered equal to men. They did not have any
rights and they were forced to live as slaves. They were buried alive and
people felt ashamed if female child was born.
 Throughout most of Western history, women were confined to the domestic
sphere, while public life was reserved for men. In medieval Europe, women
were denied the right to own property, to study, or to participate in public
life. At the end of the 19th century in France, they were still compelled to
cover their heads in public, and, in parts of Germany, a husband still had the
right to sell his wife.
 Moreover, women had little or no access to education and were barred from
most professions.
 HISTORY OF FEMINISM
 The history of feminism comprises the narratives (chronological or thematic)
of the movements and ideologies which have aimed at equal rights for
women. Feminists around the world have differed in causes, goals, and
intentions depending on time, culture, and country.
 Modern Western feminist history is conventionally split into three time
periods, or "waves", each with slightly different aims based on prior progress:
 First wave feminism (19th and early 20th century), dealing with
property rights and the right to vote; second wave feminism (1960s and
1970s), focusing on equality and anti-discrimination, and third wave
feminism, which started in the 1990s and is the continuation of 2nd
wave.
 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
1. LIBERAL FEMINISM
“A category of feminist theory that sees men and women as equal in skills
and capabilities, and promotes the equal participation of women under
existing political, legal, and social institutions and practices.”
Liberal Feminists have raised objection on the exclusion of women in
international affairs.
2. STANDPOINT FEMINISM
“A category of feminism that sees women as experiencing a very different
reality from that of men, and consequently holding a differ-ent perspective
on international affairs.”
Standpoint feminism, however, focuses particularly on the subordination of
women and how this condition shapes the feminine perspective.