RUNNING HEAD: FEMINISM ISSUES

FEMINISM ISSUES, Sisterhood

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2nd April, 2011.

Sisterhood

Introduction

Feminism is a term that describes a set of movements that advocated for the rights of “women” in various spheres of life; socially, politically as well as economically. The movements only focused on issues pertaining to women and as such there were a lot of contradictions of it activities. Women have been seen as rational human being who should enjoy the basic right of human being and should never be viewed as “sub category” of human beings. Feminists’ activities have resulted in the rise of waves of feminism.

Waves of Feminism

First-wave feminism is a period of the activities of feminists’ activities in the nineteenth century and went on to the early twentieth century. Their activities towards advocating for women were characterized by seeking equal rights for women in family affairs; for example they discouraged domestic violence towards women, property rights as well as employment opportunities. This wave was basically campaigning for equality and differences that existed among men and women. The main focus here was “who woman should be equal to a man” depending on what they have in common. They also advocated for equal rights in favor of men and women suggesting that women could also do what men did (Mandell, 2005).

The second–wave started in 1960s until late 1980s. This wave challenged the first-wave of using men as a measure of how women have to live their lives. That is it, used the men to be the norm by which women’s various rights and privileges should be measured. Both the waves thus, attempted to equalize men and women. The difference in men and women was to be minimized in the best way possible. The emphasis here was the “woman who is different from a man” (Lister, 2005).

Third-wave started in 1980s to present; as a result of the first waves. There were a lot of contradictions, antagonisms and even irrationality that characterized the first and second waves. This wave opposed the general categorization of “women” as such, but recognized that there existed various categories of women and thus who the “woman” is a matter of debate. It also recognized the role of men in feminist activities besides letting women to freely define themselves and accommodate diversity that existed within women. In addition it also discouraged racism, as well as binary within gender. This wave therefore dismantled the “woman” on man. These are the reasons why the category “woman under scrutiny.

Sisterhood is no longer powerful. The claims of global sisterhood has been rejected as a universal western created “woman” whose perceived oppression was seen in the eyes of western feminists ( whites). This was perception was brought about by non-western feminists and Western-Black feminists; who provided a platform to advocate for a comparative, and rational global feminist (Lister, 2005).

In conclusion, there exists various differences in women for example; we have Black women, Black-Western women, and white women. Besides, there are those differences in women that are brought about by social, economical and political factors. The global socio-economic between women in the west and those in third world is an example of various differences that exist between women. Besides, there are those racial differences, ability difference; for example, those that have special needs.

References

Lister, R. (2005). Being Feminist .Government & Opposition. 40 (3). 442-463.

Mandell, N. (2005). Feminist issues: race, class and sexuality. Canada: Pearson Education.