feminism

feminism
   A doctrine or movement that promotes the social role of women and advocates equal rights. Feminist aspirations can be dated back to the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), but feminist ideas only really made an impact when women’s suffrage organisations began to emerge some fifty years later (first-wave feminism). Second-wave feminism developed in the 1960s, in the form of the reformist campaign for equal opportunities and equal pay, and the more radical bid for more gender equality and the destruction of male power which characterised the Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM).
   Three strands within feminism can be distinguished. Liberal feminists are of the reformist type and urge equal rights, including a general improvement in the legal and political status of women and in their educational and career opportunities. Socialist feminists link female subordination to capitalist working methods, arguing that too often women are confined to family life and the rearing of the next generation of capitalist workers whilst their male partners are freed from domestic travail and able to enjoy a richer, more fulfilling life. Radical feminists see gender divisions as representing a fundamental cleavage in society, in which the female half of the population is controlled by the male other half. They want a sexual revolution to restructure personal, family and social life, a tiny element among them wishing to boycott male society altogether.

Glossary of UK Government and Politics . 2013.

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  • feminism — 1851, state of being feminine; sense of advocacy of women s rights is 1895, from Fr. féminisme (1837); see FEMININE (Cf. feminine) + ISM (Cf. ism) …   Etymology dictionary

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  • Feminism — Feminists redirects here. For other uses, see Feminists (disambiguation). See also: feminist movement and feminism in the United States …   Wikipedia

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