Engl 436/636 Feminist Lit Crit
Fall 2001
Clemson U
Class Notes on Feminism
August 2001
Defintions of Feminism| Key Terms that need to be
defined
- Ideology/ Movement/ Way of life -- help women with economic, political, and social inequities
- IDEOLOGY -- a way of thinking, a set of beliefs (often unconscious) assumptions you take for granted, what seems "natural" , whole structure of ideas your view of reality is based on
- EGALITARIAN IDEOLOGY -- idea that society should be totally equal, Problems because everyone is different; and it doesn't exist.
- SUFFRAGE -- the right to vote and participate fully as a citizen (serve on juries etc)
- SEX /GENDER -- SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER -- biology vs. socoety famle/male vs feminine/ masculine
- ESSENTIALISM -- idea that there is some absolute, biological/spiritual sexual identity that determines society and individuals' definitions of masculine and feminine
The
Feminist Agenda | Major Issues
- equality in society --> equal pay; eqaul access to education; cultural equality-- respect;
- originally it was suffrage
- child care
- free contraception
- reproductive rights -- abortion,
- world wide support of women
- recognition that all women life under simpliar conditrions-- that all women should be included in any feminist agenda
- violence against women--> rape, abuse, pornography
Historical Notes and Figures
Chronology
of Third Wave Feminism
Controversies with in Feminism | The Feminist Political
Spectrum
- ESSENTIALISM -- is there a fundamental feminine nature. Are women morally superior to men?