The document outlines the evolution of feminism, highlighting its movement towards gender equality and legal rights for women through three waves: the first focused on suffrage and property rights, the second on broader social issues and personal empowerment, and the third reacting to previous movements while addressing intersectionality and diverse perspectives. Key feminist figures and their contributions are discussed, including works by Mary Wollstonecraft, Simone de Beauvoir, and Betty Friedan, which challenge traditional gender roles and advocate for women's rights. Additionally, it critiques stereotypes of women in literature and the portrayal of femininity, illustrating the societal constructs that limit understanding of women's roles.

1. On Feminism
and
Feminist Literature

3. “Femininity is no more a mere
biological issue instead it has
gained the form of a social
construction stereotyped by
patriarchal patterns of society.
The modern woman has been, and
postmodern is, struggling against
the lopsided texture of the society
where female is considered to be
someone less than male.”

4. Feminism
• a political, cultural or economic movement
aimed at establishing equal rights and legal
protection for women.
• involves political and sociological theories
and philosophies concerned with issues of
gender difference, as well as a movement
that advocates gender equality for women
and campaigns for women's rights and
interests.

5. Feminism
• campaigns for women's legal rights (rights of
contract, property rights, voting rights); for
women's right to bodily integrity and autonomy,
for abortion rights, and for reproductive rights
(including access to contraception and quality
prenatal care); for protection of women and girls
from domestic violence, sexual harassment and
rape; for workplace rights, including maternity
leave and equal pay; against misogyny; and
against other forms of gender-specific
discrimination against women.
• resistance against the marginalization of the
females in all spheres of life.

6. Feminism
• Feminism as a concept seeks to better the lot of
women who are perceived to be sidelined by
men in the prevailing scheme of things in the
society. It also views issues from the woman’s
angle. Putting it in other words, feminism alleges
that woman as “the other” of man, has (since
the genesis of human beings) been at the
receiving end of society’s injustices such as
oppression and suppression. Feminism thus aims
at to establish or assert equality between men
and women in a world which it regards as male-
oriented.

7. Christine de Pizan (15th Century)
• Epitre au Dieu d'Amour (Epistle to the God of
Love)
• the first time we see a woman take up her pen
in defense of her sex"
- Simone de Beauvoir

8. Three Waves of Feminism
First Wave (nineteenth and early twentieth centuries)
- women's suffrage movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries (mainly concerned with women's right to vote)
- promotion of equal contract and property rights for women and the
opposition to chattel marriage and ownership of married women (and
their children) by their husbands.
- by the end of the nineteenth century, activism focused primarily on
gaining political power, particularly the right of women's suffrage.
- Leaders include: Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and
Susan B. Anthony, who each campaigned for the abolition of slavery prior
to championing women's right to vote
- American first-wave feminism is considered to have ended with the
passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
(1919), granting women the right to vote in all states.

9. Second Wave (the 1960s and 1970s)
• ideas and actions associated with the women's liberation
movement beginning in the 1960s (which campaigned for legal
and social rights for women).
• Imelda Whelehan: the second wave was a continuation of the
earlier phase of feminism involving the suffragettes in the UK
and USA.
• Estelle Freedman: compares first and second-wave feminism
saying that the first wave focused on rights such as suffrage,
whereas the second wave was largely concerned with other
issues of equality, such as ending discrimination.
• Carol Hanisch: "The Personal is Political"
• women's cultural and political inequalities as inextricably
linked and encouraged women to understand aspects of their
personal lives as deeply politicized and as reflecting sexist
power structures.

10. Simone de Beauvoir and The Second Sex
- best known for her metaphysical novels, including She
Came to Stay and The Mandarins, and for her treatise The
Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women's oppression and
a foundational tract of contemporary feminism
- As an existentialist, she accepted Jean-Paul Sartre's
precept existence precedes essence; hence "one is not
born a woman, but becomes one."
- She argues women have historically been considered
deviant and abnormal and contends that even Mary
Wollstonecraft considered men to be the ideal toward
which women should aspire.

11. Betty Friedan and The Feminine Mystique
- criticized the idea that women could only find fulfillment
through childrearing and homemaking.
- The Feminine Mystique “ignited the contemporary
women's movement in 1963 and as a result permanently
transformed the social fabric of the United States and
countries around the world”
- women are victims of a false belief system that requires
them to find identity and meaning in their lives through
their husbands and children

12. Third Wave (from the 1990s to the present)
- continuation of, and a reaction to the perceived
failures of, second-wave feminism, beginning in
the 1990s.
- Leaders include: Gloria Anzaldua, bell hooks
(Gloria Jean Watkins), Chela Sandoval, Cherrie
Moraga, Audre Lorde, Maxine Hong Kingston
- Debates between Carol Gilligan (psychologists,
believes that there are important differences
between the sexes) and those who believe that
there are no inherent differences between the
sexes and contend that gender roles are due to
social conditioning.

13. On Post-Feminism
Angela McRobbie
- adding the prefix post to feminism undermines the strides
that feminism has made in achieving equality for everyone,
including women.
- Post-feminism gives the impression that equality has been
achieved and that feminists can now focus on something
else entirely.
- most clearly seen on so-called feminist media products, such
as Bridget Jones's Diary, Sex and the City, and Ally McBeal.

14. Who is a feminist?

15. Feminist Writers
and
Works

16. Mary Wollstonecraft
'Grandmom' of modern feminist writers. She is considered to
be the first feminist in England which was an extremely
patriotic society. Her works on feminism include; 'A Vindiction
of the Rights of Women' published in 1792. It was a great
feminist work where she stressed that 'intellect will always
govern and sought'.
Emily Dickinson
“Success is counted sweetest" and "The bustle in a house", is said
to be too strong and have a common theme of the role of
women and their role in the society. Most of her work
portrayed that the female perspective is of little consequence
to most in a modern, patriarchal society, and traditionally the
roles of women are secondary to those of men.

17. George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans)
a liberated woman. She is also considered as the
role model for many women during her period. Her
literary work 'Middlemarch' has a strong plea for
feminist rights.
Jane Austen
has brought out strong-headed female protagonists
in her novels. Be it the 'Pride and Prejudice' or
'Sense and Sensibility', she always made her female
protagonist a rational thinker.

18. Maya Angelou
'Phenomenal Women', American poet,
written many poems and essays on
women and is also extensively known for
her works related to issues like racism,
identity and family.

19. Virginia Woolf
- 'A Room Of One's Own', always stressed on women's
freedom and also argued that women's experience,
particularly in the women's movement, could be the
basis for transformative social change.
- the feminist canon, led by her, claimed the feminist
version of language based on sexist assumptions. They
endeavored to form the female version of the
language suitable for communication among them, a
kind of in-group linguistic system. Because they felt
that language, like other spheres of human society, is
governed by males. For example the use of the generic
noun “mankind” to describes all human beings.

21. Stereotypes of Women in Literature
“Patriarchal society views women essentially as supporting characters in the drama of life. Men
change the world, and women help them. This assumption has led to an inaccurate literary
terminology and criticism.”

22. When she is “good” she is . . .
1. submissive/totally dependent
2. supportive
3. life-producing/nurturing
4. comforting/healing
5. a workhorse
6. selfless/sacrificing
7. confined
8. kind/sweet
But when she is “bad” she is . . .
1. strict— the disciplinarian/punitive
2. domineering/dominating
3. a nag/shrew/witch-like
4. nasty/harsh
5.
unattractive/matronly/dull/dowdy/not
very sensual
6. driven (always behind her man or her
children)
Mother (Wife)
- differs from the motherly Virgin
role in several ways.
- The Mother (Wife), or the flesh
and bones mother, starts out as all
good, as the provider of life, a
nurturer. Soon, however, her
offspring learn that she can also
deny them her gifts. Thus begins
an arduous love-hate relationship.
- When Mother is being angelic,
according to she is meek and
submissive. When she is angry or
devilish, she becomes a shrew, a
nag or witch-like. (Ferguson)

23. Old Maid
Unattractive
asexual/sexually frustrated
ridiculed/pitied
cold/queer/weird (as viewed by others)
unhappy
nosey
alienated from “real” society
a frustrated mother, sometimes a surrogate
parent
extremely passive—as she never chooses her
role
a tragic figure

24. The Virgin
pure in thought, word and deed
chaste
angelic
Innocent (untouched / ignorant of wordly life)
passive
worshipped in a spiritual way
religious/pious/spiritual
comforting/healing
life-giving
asexual/nonsexual
Symbolically she may be described in terms of lightness, clarity,
whiteness, shapelessness, with an ethereal luminescence.
The Virgin stereotype allows the female to always remain a girl,
to never have to acknowledge her sexuality. She has the ability,
due to her proximity to saintliness, to cleanse, heal and save.
Though she possess not the sensuality of carnal knowledge,
men adore her. As Ferguson notes, she brings life and she
nurtures it.

25. The Goddess
attractive
sexual/sensual—pleasure producing
exalted/adored by men in an earthy way
envied by other women
free of wifely-motherly qualities or tasks
powerful in a limited sense—can bring men to failure or also move
them to great works
somewhat “evil” by nature of her sexuality
the Seductress-Goddess is the opposite of the Virgin. The
Seductress-Goddess takes life away, revels in men’s weakness at
the same time that she, through her great beauty and sensuality,
of a Latin background. They are very resistent to break new
ground where sexual stereotyping is concerned.