Tuesday, 22 July 2014

UPDATE: 22/07/14


WEEK ONE OF RESEARCH: DAY ONE
My research plan for this week is as follows: This week I need to do all of my background research on feminism. I need to discover which experts I would like to contact, read into different types of feminism, choose texts I would like to use for research, and discover which areas of feminism I am most interested in.


Today: I have looked researched the different types of feminism and the history of feminism. I have used a google search, using several articles and sources for each part of my research in order to maximise reliability of information.

Sources used:

RED = USA specific article (but all information does relate to the UK waves of feminism)

British Feminism History Timeline - use for dates on legislation and large events

Pioneers of feminism:
  • Sappho - Ancient Greece (570BC)
  • Hildegard of Bingen - Medieval
  • Christine de Pisan
  • Olympes de Gouge
  • Mary Wollstonecraft
  • Jane Austen

First Wave Feminism:
  • Late 19th to early 20th century
  • Goal: open up opportunities for women
  • Focus on suffrage
  • Formally began with rally at Seneca Falls convention 1848 (300 men and women rallied for equality of men and women)
  • Generally propelled by middle class white women
  • Suffragettes/suffragists trying to gain the vote
  • Legal inequalities

Second Wave Feminism:
  • Began 1960s carried on to 1990s
  • A radical movement
  • Sexuality and reproductive rights were dominant issues
  • Goal: Pass equal rights amendment to the constitution (social equality regardless of sex)
  • Very theoretical movement - Marxism and psycho-analytical theory
  • Drew in many different types of women
  • Social and cultural inequalities
  • Still happening in some countries


Third Wave Feminism:
  • Began mid 90s
  • Dismantled many social constructs - slut, bitch, heteronormativity, sexuality, body
  • Use of the internet
  • Global and multi-cultural movement
  • Combat issues such as women’s influence in politics, female stereotypes and media portrayal of women

Sources:

Branches of feminism:
  • All branches agree on three key things: equal rights & opportunities for women, all recognise that women are oppressed and exploited by virtue of being women, all organise to make change
Liberal Feminism:
  • Views discrimination on women unjust as deprives of equal opportunities
  • Do not think oppression of women is due to capitalism, do not seek to overthrow governmental system
  • Concerned with rectifying the discrimination that grows out of socialisation
  • Works within structure of mainstream society to bring women into that structure
Social Feminism:
  • Aims to integrate issues of gender and class - bring together patriarchy and capitalism
  • Targets state/government as site of ‘patriarchal capitalist’ power
  • Struggles for women's control of reproduction
Radical Feminism:

  • Rejects liberal feminisms willingness to work in the frame of current society
  • Womens oppression is viewed as the fundamental oppression
  • Sees sexism as the root of other issues such as class hatred, racism, ageism, war
  • See the world as men controlling womens bodies, believe women need a women only space where they can nurture each other, gain control over their bodies and develop a women culture
  • Main issues have been violence against women (rape, sexual harassment, incest, pornography, domestic violence)

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