Readings and Resources
Part 1
Read the Lesson 02 Lecture: Introducing Feminism
Read GVFV (Gendered Voices, Feminist Visions by S. Shaw and J. Lee): Women’s and Gender Studies: Perspectives and Practices (pp. 1-22)
Read FIFE (Feminism is for Everybody by b. hooks): Introduction (pp. vii-x)
Part 2
Read GVFV text:
A Day Without Feminism (pp. 29-31)
Feminist Consciousness (pp. 26-29)
A Transnational Black Feminist Framework (pp 32-38)
L02 Lecture: Introducing Feminism
So what is feminism, anyway? How many times have you heard someone say “I’m not a feminist, but…” and go on to identify with some feminist position? So what does “being a feminist” really mean? What, exactly, is feminism?
There really is no single definition for what feminism means. This is both the beauty and the challenge of feminism, which more accurately might be referred to as ‘feminisms’, to indicate its plural meanings! Feminisms are fluid and encompass a range of different issues. At the risk of being too limiting, it is useful to have a working definition of feminism (or feminisms, if that resonates better with you). There are some common themes that run through the various definitions that characterize feminism.
Here’s the short version:
Feminism is a social movement to eliminate gendered oppression.
Feminism requires is a critical perspective and a more analytical way of looking at the world and our lives.
Feminism includes and builds on other critical theoretical work.
Feminism has been criticized for being primarily for privileged women.
And now for the longer version! Here are some more detailed characteristics of feminism(s):
1. Feminism is a social movement to eliminate gendered oppression.
This involves making major social, economic, political and cultural changes in our society. And though it may seem overwhelming, feminists have made significant progress already throughout history (aka herstory).
For example, in terms of women’s rights, the US celebrates the centennial of women’s suffrage! Did you know that when early feminists fought for women’s right to vote, this social justice movement originated out of abolitionism? Women fought in radical ways to earn the right vote, including being arrested for protesting at the White House and then being force-fed in prison when they refused to eat until they could lobby President Wilson for women’s rights!
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LEFT: Protest: Members of the National Women’s Party (NWP) stood outside the White House (pictured) with signs
addressed to new U.S. President Woodrow Wilson which read: ‘Mr President how long must women wait for liberty’.
RIGHT: Women’s rights protestor being force-fed while in prison.
We’ll learn more about women’s right to vote (passed via the 19th amendment) next lesson.
2. Feminism requires is a critical perspective and a more analytical way of looking at the world and our lives.
Think of this in conjunction with “#1. Feminism as a social movement” and it makes more sense. For the last century, feminists have agitated against gender inequality in society, and recognizing this unfair treatment unveiled new perspectives on the world and how our actions impact others. One of the most powerful revelations that have grown out of the feminist movement is the realization that “the personal is political.” Feminists learned early on in the movement that women’s private lives reflect the larger power relations and inequalities that exist in society. Issues that have long been thought of as “private matters” such as domestic violence or sexual harassment are actually public issues, as we are increasingly learning through movements like #metoo and #BlackLivesMatter, which was started by 3 Black women organizers: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. These 2 political movements illustrate the feminist principle that inequalities and oppression in private lives often indicate a larger social problem that needs to be addressed. This ‘personal is political’ is a strategy that we’ll regularly use in this class; we will use the experiences of women and other marginalized folks to understand and examine inequalities in society by listening to their voices.
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LEFT: #MeToo banner. RIGHT: Citizen University Links to an external site., Alicia Garza Links to an external site., CC BY 3.0 Links to an external site.
3. Feminism includes and builds on other critical theoretical work.
Feminism includes and builds on other critical theoretical work so that there is feminist scholarship (and related disciplines like Women’s Studies, Gender, Studies, and Feminist Studies, Queer Studies, LGBTQA+ studies, or a combination of these) and also a feminist movement that is inherently political and activist-based.
Feminist scholars have noted that our everyday vocabulary is inadequate and often just plain incorrect, and this makes it difficult to re-imagine a more equitable society. For example, take the word ‘sex.’ For the longest time, sex referred to the differences in anatomy, but also to the differences in social behavior—there was no separating the two. So, for example, it was thought (and today is still thought by some) that women underperformed in subjects like math, science, and STEM disciplines because of the mysteries of female biology. As if women’s reproductive capabilities somehow made them less able to understand certain types of information. It is true that women are underrepresented in STEM fields, however, is this because of their ‘sex’? The use of the concept ‘gender’ to refer to the fact that there are a number of socially constructed behaviors and characteristics that are associated with each females, males and folks who don’t identify as either or as both, explains much of the disparity in who enters certain fields and even how much they are paid for those jobs… but more on that later in the semester. Feminists have argued that the distinction between gender and sex is important to understand to illustrate how our behaviors are constructed by our society, not determined by our anatomy. Gender is ‘what you do’ to be a man or a woman—how you sit, what you say, why you do what you do. The distinction between sex and gender allows us to see that the particular expectations for women and men in our culture are neither absolute nor universal. Things can be changed if we change the way we are socialized. We will learn a variety of new words, concepts and theories over the course of the semester to help us investigate inequality. This new vocabulary and conceptual framework will become instrumental in shaping the ways in which we think about the experiences of marginalized individuals. It’ll allow us to clearly articulate our perspectives, to argue them into activism and interventions into society, and this is how the theory can inform political movements.
4. Feminism has been criticized for being primarily for privileged women.
If you have ever heard about feminism before, it’s likely that what you know is from a white woman’s perspective, and this is largely because feminism has historically been for and by white women. Feminists like Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton have made great progress for women in the US! But, other women have fought hard for equal rights too, and their voices have not been heard. Women of color, trans women, lesbians, and women with disabilities have not been equally represented in feminism, especially in the early years of the feminist movement in the US. Thus, many folks have felt left out of feminism because their experiences have not been included. The critique of feminism as racist originated at least as early as the fight for the vote, and criticisms of feminism as xenophobic can still be seen today. Such criticisms even made the mainstream news when there were concerns that the March for Women’s Lives was co-opted by white women.
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LEFT: League of Women Voters members participated in the Women’s March on January 21, 2017.
Photo credit: League of Women Voters of California LWVC Links to an external site. RIGHT: Photo courtesy of Ragesoss / Wikimedia.
It’s important to remember that feminism is a movement, a perspective, and a set of theories, and that each of these fuels the others. Lessons from the movement are used to generate theory and feminist theory makes interventions and directs the movement in new ways. Feminism is always changing as new scholars, teachers, activists, and every day folks move feminism along its trajectory
