Portal:Feminism

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The Feminism Portal

Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that societies prioritize the male point of view and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women.

Originating in late 18th-century Europe, feminist movements have campaigned and continue to campaign for women's rights, including the right to vote, run for public office, work, earn equal pay, own property, receive education, enter contracts, have equal rights within marriage, and maternity leave. Feminists have also worked to ensure access to contraception, legal abortions, and social integration and to protect women and girls from sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Changes in female dress standards and acceptable physical activities for females have also been part of feminist movements.

Many scholars consider feminist campaigns to be a main force behind major historical societal changes for women's rights, particularly in the West, where they are near-universally credited with achieving women's suffrage, gender-neutral language, reproductive rights for women (including access to contraceptives and abortion), and the right to enter into contracts and own property. Although feminist advocacy is, and has been, mainly focused on women's rights, some feminists argue for the inclusion of men's liberation within its aims, because they believe that men are also harmed by traditional gender roles. Feminist theory, which emerged from feminist movements, aims to understand the nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles and lived experiences; feminist theorists have developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues concerning gender.

Numerous feminist movements and ideologies have developed over the years, representing different viewpoints and political aims. Traditionally, since the 19th century, first-wave liberal feminism, which sought political and legal equality through reforms within a liberal democratic framework, was contrasted with labour-based proletarian women's movements that over time developed into socialist and Marxist feminism based on class struggle theory. Since the 1960s, both of these traditions are also contrasted with the radical feminism that arose from the radical wing of second-wave feminism and that calls for a radical reordering of society to eliminate male supremacy; together liberal, socialist, and radical feminism are sometimes called the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought.

Since the late 20th century, many newer forms of feminism have emerged. Some forms, such as white feminism, have been criticized as taking into account only white, middle class, college-educated, heterosexual, or cisgender perspectives. These criticisms have led to the creation of ethnically specific or multicultural forms of feminism, such as black feminism and intersectional feminism. Some feminists have argued that feminism often promotes misandry and the elevation of women's interests above men's, and criticize radical feminist positions as harmful to both men and women. (Full article...)

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Proserpine is a verse drama written for children by the Romantic writers Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary wrote the blank verse drama and Percy contributed two lyric poems. Composed in 1820 while the Shelleys were living in Italy, it is often considered a partner to the Shelleys' play Midas. Proserpine was first published in the London periodical The Winter's Wreath in 1832. Whether the drama was ever intended to be staged is a point of debate among scholars. The drama is based on Ovid's tale of the abduction of Proserpine by Pluto, which itself was based on the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone. Mary Shelley's version focuses on the female characters. In a largely feminist retelling from Ceres's point of view, Shelley emphasises the separation of mother and daughter and the strength offered by a community of women. Ceres represents life and love, and Pluto represents death and violence. The genres of the text also reflect gender debates of the time. Percy contributed in the lyric verse form traditionally dominated by men; Mary created a drama with elements common to early nineteenth-century women's writing: details of everyday life and empathetic dialogue. Proserpine is part of a female literary tradition which, as feminist literary critic Susan Gubar describes it, has used the story of Ceres and Proserpine to "re-define, to re-affirm and to celebrate female consciousness itself". However, the play has been both neglected and marginalised by critics.

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Credit: Bain News Service

A portrait of Lillian Gish from 1921. Gish was one of the first female movie stars, called "The First Lady of the Silent Screen", starting in 1912 and continuing to appear in films until 1987. The American Film Institute named Gish 17th among the greatest female stars of all time and awarded her a Life Achievement Award, making her the only recipient who was a major figure in the silent era. Remarkably, she never won an Academy Award for her work, although she did receive a Special Academy Award in 1971.

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In this month

July 1843 – First publication in The Dial of Margaret Fuller's essay The Great Lawsuit, one of the first American feminist works
July 1923 – Foundation of the People's Party of Women in the Republic of Turkey by Nezihe Muhiddin
14 July 1858 – Birth of Emmeline Pankhurst, the driving force behind women's suffrage in the United Kingdom
15 July 1907 – Execution of Qiū Jǐn (秋瑾) (pictured), a Chinese anti-Qing Empire revolutionary, feminist and writer.
19 July 1848 – Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights convention in the United States, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others, where she presented her Declaration of Sentiments and advocated women's right to vote

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I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormate or a prostitute.

— Rebecca West

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Anna Laetitia Barbauld (née Aikin) (1743 - 1825) was a prominent eighteenth-century English poet, essayist, and children's author. A "woman of letters" who published in multiple genres, Barbauld had a successful writing career at a time when female professional writers were rare. She was a noted teacher at the celebrated Palgrave Academy and an innovative children's writer; her famous primers provided a model for pedagogy for more than a century. Her essays demonstrated that it was possible for a woman to be publicly engaged in politics, and other women authors emulated her. Even more importantly, her poetry was foundational to the development of Romanticism in England. Barbauld was also a literary critic, and her anthology of eighteenth-century British novels helped establish the canon as we know it today. Barbauld's literary career ended abruptly in 1812 with the publication of her poem Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, which criticized Britain's participation in the Napoleonic Wars. The vicious reviews shocked Barbauld and she published nothing else within her lifetime. The rise of feminist literary criticism in the 1980s renewed interest in her works and restored her place in literary history.

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... that attending the first Women in Print Conference inspired Carol Seajay to create Feminist Bookstore News?
... that Chava Shapiro published the first feminist manifesto in Hebrew, lamenting the absence of women's voices in the language's literature?

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...that Soviet sniper Roza Shanina's (pictured) declaration "I shall return after the battle" would be paraphrased in a book title?
...that feminist American magazine Ms. has not carried advertisements since 1989?
...that the feminist group Women on Waves, which built a gynecology unit on a ship, performs abortions in international waters?

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The following are images from various feminism-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Yellow mimosa is the symbol of IWD in Italy, Russia, Ukraine and in many others ex Soviet Union republics (from International Women's Day)
Image 2Simone de Beauvoir (from History of feminism)
Image 3Emily Davison (from History of feminism)
Image 4Camilla Collett (from History of feminism)
Image 5Suffrage parade in New York, May 6, 1912 (from History of feminism)
Image 68M 2018 in Pamplona (from International Women's Day)
Image 7Frances Cobbe (from History of feminism)
Image 8The Nineteenth Amendment (from History of feminism)
Image 9Lucy Stone (from History of feminism)
Image 10Women's Liberation march in Washington, D.C., 1970 (from History of feminism)
Image 11Germaine Greer in June 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 12Sylvia Pankhurst (from History of feminism)
Image 13Author and scholar Helen Kendrick Johnson opposed women's suffrage. (from History of feminism)
Image 14Margaret Sanger (from History of feminism)
Image 158M 2019 in Spain (from International Women's Day)
Image 16bell hooks (from History of feminism)
Image 17Matilda Joslyn Gage (from History of feminism)
Image 18British poster for Women's Day March 1974 (from International Women's Day)
Image 19Poster for Women's Day March in London, 1975 (from International Women's Day)
Image 20Gloria Steinem at news conference, Women's Action Alliance, January 12, 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 21John Neal (from History of feminism)
Image 22Catharine MacKinnon (from History of feminism)
Image 23Irena Krzywicka (from History of feminism)
Image 24Betty Friedan 1960 (from History of feminism)
Image 25Women on the street celebrating International Women's Day in Cameroon (from International Women's Day)
Image 26Huda Shaarawi, founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union (from History of feminism)
Image 27Board of directors of "Jam'iat e nesvan e vatan-khah", a women's rights association in Tehran (1923–1933) (from History of feminism)
Image 28First edition print of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (from History of feminism)
Image 29
  Official holiday
  Holiday for women
  Non-official holiday
(from International Women's Day)
Image 30Wealthy Chinese women with bound feet (Beijing, 1900). Foot binding was a symbol of women's oppression during the reform movements in the 19th and 20th centuries. (from History of feminism)
Image 31Elizabeth Cady Stanton (seated) and Susan B. Anthony (from History of feminism)
Image 32Clara Zetkin (left) and Rosa Luxemburg (right) in January 1910 (from International Women's Day)
Image 33Bessie Rayner Parkes (from History of feminism)
Image 34Ida B. Wells (from History of feminism)
Image 35Florence Nightingale (from History of feminism)
Image 368M 2020 in Spain (from International Women's Day)
Image 37Nellie McClung (from History of feminism)
Image 38Marie Stopes (from History of feminism)
Image 39Cover of WSPU's The Suffragette, April 25, 1913 (after Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, 1830) (from History of feminism)
Image 40Christine de Pizan presents her book to Queen Isabeau of Bavaria. (from History of feminism)

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This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Feminism}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.

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Alice Manfield - Guide Alice, Mt Buffalo, c1900-30, SLV
Alice Park - Records of the National Woman's Party
Alice Paul (1915) by Harris & Ewing
Anne Dallas Dudley LOC
Avril de Sainte-Croix - Restored, cropped
Bertha Lutz 1925
Cabinet Card of Sojourner Truth - Collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Convicts Lunatics and Women! Have No Vote for Parliament, ca. 1907-1918
Dr. Caroline Spencer 275029v
Ethel Smyth
Frances Benjamin Johnston, Self-Portrait (as "New Woman"), 1896
Fredrikke Mørck
George Charles Beresford - Virginia Woolf in 1902 - Restoration
Henrietta Rodman from the George Grantham Bain Collection
Henry Mayer, The Awakening, 1915 Cornell CUL PJM 1176 01 - Restoration
Hester Jeffrey
Hubertine Auclert 1910
Iris Calderhead
Joy Young Rogers outside the White House
Lucretia Mott, signed photo, by F. Gutekunst
Mabel Vernon, c. 1917, by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Marguerite Durand 1910 - Restoration
Marie Stopes in her laboratory, 1904 - Restoration
Mary Garrity - Ida B. Wells-Barnett - Google Art Project - restoration crop
Millicent Fawcett
Mrs. Crystal Eastman Benedict by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Mrs. Lillian Ascough, chairman of the Connecticut branch of the Woman's Party
Mrs. Pauline Adams 147002v
Portrett av Gina Krog (6276081582) - Restoration
Poster by Anna Soós Korànyi for the Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance
Ray Strachey restored
Sojourner Truth, 1870 (cropped, restored)
Victoria Claflin Woodhull by Mathew Brady - Oval Portrait
Voltairine de Cleyre (Age 35)
We Can Do It! NARA 535413 - Restoration 2