PS 240 Feminism Fall 2007

Feminism Dr. Christopher S. Rice

“ Feminism is an entire world view of gestalt, not just a laundry list of women’s issues.” Charlotte Bunch

“ The true Republic: men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less.” Susan B. Anthony

33% 25%

Americans still support traditional feminist values…
53% of Americans supported affirmative action programs for women.
87% favored “training courses or policies that raise people’s awareness about fairness in hiring women.”
71% favored hiring quotas for women.
Irony: feminist ideals now so accepted that they’re no longer associated with feminism. “I’m not a feminist, but…”.

First Wave Feminism

The Struggle for Suffrage

Second Wave Feminism

Commission on the Status of Women created in 1961 by JFK to report on the status of women in America, in all 50 states.

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited sexual discrimination in employment and the EEOC was charged with enforcing this.

Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique.

Power Feminism a conservative feminism, resembling many of Phyllis Schlafly’s arguments vs. liberal feminism (which holds that liberal feminism portrays women as the innocent victims of male desire).

Lifestyle Feminism An effort to reclaim femininity as “girl power”, portraying the sexualized female not as the image of male desire but as a liberating image of femininity.

Problems with Second Wave Feminism

Postfeminism?

Third Wave Feminism

Fall of the USSR

Third Wave Feminism vs. Second Wave Feminism

Basic Idea: To re-invigorate feminist politics, to overcome a sentiment of postfeminism, by reconceptualizing feminism within a new global/local politics.

Types of Feminists

Liberal Feminists

Equal Rights

Legal Reforms Elections Change

“ The Problem With No Name”

False Universalism: Just Like Men???

Is liberal feminism too white, middle-class, heterosexual?

Radical Feminists

A little bit anarchist, a little bit Marxist…

Women’s oppression historical , not natural

Modes of Production & Matrilineal societies

Marriage is a Bad Deal

The wife differs from the prostitute only in that “she does not hire out her body like a wageworker, on piecework, but sells it into slavery once and for all.” Friedrich Engels

Does liberal feminism begin to look a little ridiculous?

PROBLEMS

Postmodern Feminists

deconstruction

The problem of objectivity

Essentialism

“ Woman” as a Strategic Concept?

The Problem of Political Resistance

“ Strategic Essentialism”

Discussion

PS 240 Feminism Fall 2007

by Christopher Rice

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