On the eve of International Women's Day, one needs to know the struggle women have put forth for the last so many centuries to achieve the identity and status today.
The word Woman connotes compassionate, loving, sacrificing,
empathetic, dutiful, obedient and tolerant – the list goes on. Who have linked
these adjectives to the word Woman and why? These adjectives are not chosen by
women themselves but by men. With these
very adjectives women have been conditioned physically, mentally,
psychologically and emotionally for centuries by men, the superior sex. These
very adjectives glorify woman’s soul and ego and have been misleading the women for centuries and have led them to servitude finally. Men have
been clever in selecting these adjectives which have emotionalized and
sentimentalized women to oblige and do things,
which no doubt benefited men unendingly for centuries. The process of conditioning
starts the moment the girl is born. What to do and what not to do – are
dictated from parents. The discriminatory guide lines are set from parents from
the childhood for the girl child. In this conditioning process, a girl starts
growing, which certainly diminishes her confidence and positivity. Over centuries, efforts have been made to
bring equal status to women, but the rate of success seems very marginal even
today.
One needs to go through the
history of feminism to note what kind of efforts have been made and since when.
A brief look into the history shows how women have fought continuously to get
fundamental rights and to seek and establish their existence and identity.
History
of Feminism
If the word Feminism had not been invented and not popularized,
things would have been quite different for women even today. With the movement of
feminism, an awareness was brought into women, which certainly helped women to
move on new lines and find their own identities. Feminist movements spread across the world creating a consciousness
among women about their existence and identity. Enlightening women, these movements emboldened
them to assert their fundamental rights hitherto neglected and denied to
them. In the course of time, women
resolved to switch their roles and to change the age old perception of them.
Slowly, gracefully, with determination, women started liberating themselves.
Feminist movements, no doubt, made women conscious of their rights – political, social and
economic rights – voting in general elections, getting
education, holding jobs, getting good payment – raising their voices against
domestic violence, against rape and so on—formed the basis of their agenda.
Mary
Wollstonecraft was the first one to raise the question of
gender equality at the time of Enlightenment.
Rousseau, the father of
Enlightenment, defined about a democratic state where all men were equal. Here
the Mary Wollstonecraft questioned the discriminatory
attitude of Democracy towards women —and tried to
expand the concept of democracy by equaling women with men. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was her first published
feminist treatises.Wollenstonecraft's insights led further to feminist movement which was called suffragetts.
The Feminist History can be divided in to three phases such as the First Wave , the Second Wave,the Third wave.
The
First Wave : The first wave occurred in the 19th and early 20th
century and this movement mainly focused on the Right to Vote in the General
Elections.
The second wave : The second wave was at its
height in 1960s and 1970s and it focused on women's liberation.
The
third wave : The Third Wave feminist movement started in 1990 and has continued
up to the present time. During this phase, the movement focused on issues like
financial, social and cultural inequalities.
The First Wave: The first wave started in 19th
century. British women and men had made efforts to secure voting right to women
in 1860 itself. But it was in 1906, first time, the word “Suffragett” appeared in a British Newspaper. It was a campaign
held by women demanding their right to vote. When a leader like Emmelike Pankhurst and her daughters Christable and Sylvia founded the Social and Political Union(WSPU), in 1903, the movement got an impetus. Its slogan read like this “ Deeds not Words”. As the years rolled
by, the movement became aggressive and militant in nature. When Suffragett
movement was going strongly, the breaking of war in 1914 curtailed its movement
suddenly. Emmelike Pankhurst and
others joined war to serve. As a result, around one million women joined war. May be the participation of women in war was an eye opener for many and for many transitional things that took subsequently. In Feb 1918, Government permitted women to vote who are over the age of 30, or
either owned property or rented. As a result, 8.5 million women were entitled
to vote in 1918. On 2nd July 1928, a law was passed allowing women
over the age of 21 to vote.
The
Second Wave: 1960s and 70s –
The second wave feminist movement concentrated on eradicating the inequalities
in the social and cultural spheres. Not only that, it touched on every aspects
of woman’s experience—politics, jobs, the nature of woman’s work, family, woman
sexuality, domestic responsibility and so on. The movement got double force
with the college educated mothers who wanted to have fundamental rights for
their children. The educated mothers initiated their children into feminist
movements. When women got education and began to read, the
movement took a different colour and became more popular. The book, The Second Sex, written by Simone De Beauvoir, became very popular
during that period because it clearly mentions the problems of women – no
chance to make money, domestic responsibility, and lack of support from the
society -- which hinders the growth of women.
Through the second movement, women got the right to education, right to
work, and right to vote. Betty Friedan,
an American feminist writer, was a key player in the second wave. Her book
the Feminine
Mystique,1963, gives a new horizon for women. She argues --how
false it is that woman is satisfied only with child bearing and homemaking and
the woman’s identity is fixed by father, husband and sons—this is completely
wrong. The book is
considered to be one of the most influential books of 20th century. Betty
Friedan launched modern feminism, an intellectual movement of the 20th
century. Betty Friedan advocated career oriented independence for women instead
of domestic life which limited her scope of growing and establishing her
identity independently.
On the other hand, women
faced some other disheartening issues like banning of abortion and contraception—which
was indeed a violation of women’s rights. Way back
In 1918 , an American lawyer,
socialist,feminist named Crystal
Eastman had written that birth control was the fundamental right of a
woman. The movement had become so strong at that time that even the President of America was
compelled to address the issue. So, President John.F.Kennady had created
President’s Commission on The Status of Women and Eleanor Roosevelt was to lead
it. This report supported nuclear family and preparing woman for motherhood.
The
Third Wave: It started in 1990 and has continued till today. It
began in United States.
This wave focused its
attention on financial, social and cultural inequalities and how to equalize
them. Second and third wave feminists
now focused on developing individuality and identity. The third wave feminism
concentrated on Consciousness-raising—making women to understand that male
domination would hamper the individual growth of women and identity and these
feminists engaged in Micro-Politics.
Third wave feminists used personal narratives as form of feminist theory. With
these personal narratives, they stated that the definition of feminism differs
from period to period.
With right to education, right to vote, right to work, women have excelled in many fields. Education has given them confidence,
security and identity. Women now are holding better positions and their status
too has changed both economically and socially —more independent and identity
conscious they have become. Women on par with men have entered into all fields
– navy, army, air force, which were not open to women earlier. Now we are
seeing some real changes, but still a long way to go.