Riassunto di Feminism: A Very Short Introduction, Sintesi del corso di Filosofia Politica

Scarica Riassunto di Feminism: A Very Short Introduction e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Filosofia Politica solo su Docsity! “FEMINISM: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION” By MARGARET WALTERS | Introduction In the 1890s, the word feminism had a negative meaning in ordinary usage. In the Three Guineas (1935), Virginia Woolf rejects the word affirming that it is a vicious and old word that should be eliminated (by the way she is historically inaccurate when she writes that it is an “old” word, as it was unknown in the 19th century). She argues that the main aim of feminism, which according to her is the “right to earn a living”, has been accomplished, and therefore there such a movement is no longer necessary. In England, at least until the 1960s, the word “feminism” had a pejorative connotation. Moreover, when women began to organise themselves in movements, they were referred to as “Women’s Liberation” (women’s lib). Still, these years also saw the term “feminism” rise back up again. This new movement tended to focus on the roles of women in their reproductive and social roles and later sought to reach movements abroad. | CHAPTER 1: RELIGIOUS ROOTS OF FEMINISM  Some of the first European women to speak out for themselves did so within a religious framework and in our mainly secular societies, their efforts are hardly recognised. For centuries, families with unmarriageable daughters would send them to convents, where the girls lived as nuns: life there could be like a prison. Yet, for some girls such a life was actually positive because it allowed them to develop their talents, like thinking, reading and writing.  By the late 16th century more and more women, like Hildegard of Bingen, were beginning to argue their case more consistently, but always within a religious framework.  Jane Anger wrote that Eve was superior to Adam (as it was a second and thus improved model) and also that it is thanks to women that men are fed, cleaned and clothed. Nevertheless, religious women who wanted to defend their sex had to firstly deal with the negative scriptural depictions of women, especially that of Eve, deemed responsible for human race’s fall from Eden. Furthermore, many people thought it was a shame for women to speak in Church. Gradually, some women found enough confidence to defy these scriptural prohibitions, for instance by asserting that Adam was as much to blame as Eve for the fall because he went along with it. In the 17th century women found more freedom: they felt inspired to preach and to prophesy. It is also of relevance the role of women amongst the religious separatists who went from the Elizabethan England to America or the Netherland. Notably, women were active in small dissenting groups that managed to survive in England during the Civil War, for instance, congregations like the Quakers. They all believed in the necessity for a spiritual regeneration or Inner light and no sexual distinction. Still, when women felt moved, divinely inspired to speak in meetings or at service, they were criticised because they were seen as usurping men’s authority. They were thus at times allowed to speak and to prophesy, though men were often uninterested by their speeches and treated them with contempt. As a matter of fact, John Bunyan, an English writer, affirmed that women were just a simple and weak sex and in public gatherings they had to hold their tongue and learn in silence.   In the 1670s, Quaker Margaret Fell still continued to defend women’s independence of conscience and their active role in worship. In the 17th century women were still tried for witchcraft and female prophets could be easily dismissed as crazy  Example: Lady Eleanor Davis claimed divine inspiration for years, but her husband burnt her books and finally, she was imprisoned in 1633  Example: the case of a prophetess called Anna Trapnel who said that God’s message was addressed both to women and men and the authorities labelled her as mad The appeal to divine inspiration was of limited value for female emancipation, in fact the feminism of the future will not be based on women’s spiritual equality, but more on natural rights and on the denial that there is any intellectual difference between sexes.     There were also political implications from religious fervour: women from the congregations styled as Levellers were highly active even though they were treated harshly because they weren’t supposed to meddle in things beyond their understanding. Petitions were presented to the House of Lords to free their husbands in prison but they were rejected by the duke of Lennox who said that women should be at home washing dishes.   Among the Quakers, particularly, women found a way to set up their meetings in the 1650s concentrating on various matters, but primarily on “feminine” areas such as welfare and moral problems. However, by the 1680s women were confining themselves to womanly matters like helping young men to find work, instructing young women to look after husbands children and homes and behaving in a sober and discrete manner.   | CHAPTER 2: THE BEGINNING OF SECULARISM  Speaking in public or writing (deemed unfeminine acts) were better seen when they were done under the Lord’s cause because they could be seen as the products of the divine inspiration, but they were negatively seen when they were just products of personal ambition.   In this period there was a paradox: no great respect for women even though the most powerful person in England was a woman: Queen Elizabeth. Despite her sex, she was not supportive of other women, and preferred to make a distinction between being a woman and a monarch. Commenters of her time would say that her perseverance was equal to that of men. Similarly, she identified herself as a king, in spite of her body. Still, her existence still worked as an encouragement for other women to trust themselves and develop their talents.  (COLLEGAMENTO CHE VI POTREBBE ESSERE UTILE) Natasha Walter in The New Feminism (1998) argued that, whilst not being a feminist, Margaret Thatcher could be seen as “the great unsung heroine of British feminism”, since by being a female prime minister she had a positive impact on young British girls that thus grew up “able to imagine leadership as a female quality” (Margaret Thatcher: a feminist icon? | Margaret Thatcher | The Guardian) so similarities between the two cases In this period, Bathsua Makin, a governess of a daughter of Charles I, in one of her works wrote that it was important for women to receive an education (she even argues that the fact that eve brought sin into the world was a clear example of why everything belongs to the husband; she is in a similar situation to slaves (POSSIBILE COLLEGAMENTO to the fact that in the US the feminist movement emerged from anti-slavery movements and took inspiration from the latter’s claims). Thompson says that husband and wife are equal and criticises the unjust situation. He calls upon women to make their demands for education and for civil/political rights. Mill believed that in an ideal world woman and man would resemble each other and men will be less selfish. He also talks about the fact that married women had no legal existence. Some modern feminists have criticised Mill for having been too focused on married women. CAROLINE NORTON: married woman. Violence against her by her husband; no right to her own property; no contact with her children, denied by her husband. She was the focus of scandal when her husband accused her of adultery and her reputation was tarnished. There was a group known as ‘The Ladies of Langham Place’ who created the Married Women’s Property Committee and it was the first organizsd feminist group in England. But Norton did not take part because she felt she had been too much in the public eye.   FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE: she refused to be associated with the emerging women’s movements. On the one hand she said that if women are unemployed it’s because they do not work but on the other she also said that she was against society which divides sexes. On the other hand, she was only able to work because her father decided to give her some money, in spite of her other relative’s complaints, as they wanted her to stay at home and care for them. She was thus finally freed from domestic tyranny and went on to became a nurse. She worked in the Crimean war and was remembered as the ‘lady with the lamp’ and as a national heroine for having participated in it. Nightingale was celebrated for her tenderness and compassion (feminine characteristics!), rather than for her talent of administration and organisation (masculine features). Her example made the idea of a woman training for some specific occupation and working outside the home or family business acceptable (so important for feminism and women). In the 19th century, North American feminism emerged out of the anti-slavery movement in which women were active. STANTON and MOTT (two examples of feminists): they organised a women’s convention in NY and campaigned for the rights of both black people and women (remember that in 1920 women were enfranchised and in 1970 the vote was given to all blacks).  Marriage remained a central theme for 19th century novelists but relations between husbands and wives were rarely seen as particularly fulfilling.   | CHAPTER 5: LATE 19TH CENTURY AND CAMPAIGNING WOMEN.  A true women’s movement really began to emerge in England. Ladies of Langham Place created more organised campaigns around issues like need for better education, more possibilities for employment, improvement of the legal position of married women. They reacted against a narrowing definition of femininity and the conventional notion of a womanly sphere. Sadly, some women with impressive achievements of their own seemed to shy away from the emerging feminist movement   BARBARA SMITH: she considered the contradictions limiting women’s life: they were allowed to vote at parish, but not at parliamentary elections. Moreover, it was said that a man and a woman in a marriage are like one person in law because the wife loses all her rights as a single woman and her existence is absorbed into the one of her husband’s. Smith and other women formed the MARRIED WOMEN’S PROPERTY COMMITTEE (England’s first organized feminist group). They managed to alleviate the financial situation of married women but this did not radically redefine their rights. She insisted on the value of work for its own sake and she mentioned Queen Victoria saying that she was both a mother and a working monarch; people should also recognise the value of the very real work that many women did at home and raising their families.   Very few employment possibilities were available to women and many men did not want women to enter their trades because they would lower wages for everyone and they might cause unemployment. In addition to this, there was the weight of discouragement produced by being told that, as women, nothing much was expected from them.   In London some colleges began awarding degrees to women in 1878, but Oxford women became full members of the university only in 1919, and in Cambridge only in 1948.   Agitation against the Contagious Diseases Acts which exposed the cruel hypocrisies of the double sexual standard. According to this act, police were given the authority to arrest any woman suspected of being a prostitute. So, women began protesting against it. In 1869 there was the creation of Ladies National Association for the repeal of contagious diseases acts: these women were against those specific brutal laws addressed to prostitutes or suspected prostitutes. | CHAPTER 6: FIGHTING FOR THE VOTE: SUFFRAGISTS* *suffragist = someone who wants suffrage for women In the course of the 19th century the vote became central to the feminist demands: it was important both symbolically (as a recognition of women’s rights to full citizenship) and practically (as a necessary way of furthering reforms and making practical changes in women’s lives by electing representatives that could protect women’s interests). There had been some early demands for women’s suffrage (Thompson, the Quaker Anne Knight, Harriet Taylor who was Mill’s wife, Mill). Suffrage was seen as a guarantee of just and equal consideration.   There was nothing like complete male suffrage at this period: even in 1870s only a third of adult men could vote. The reform Act of 1884 increased that number but only 68% of men could vote. The act of 1832 made worse the condition of women: it excluded women by substituting ‘male person’ for the word ‘man’ which could have been interpreted as ‘human being’.   Orator Hunt presented a petition to the parliament saying that every unmarried female possessing necessary pecuniary qualifications should be allowed to vote. Since they could be punished by law, they should be given a voice in the making of laws and the rights to serve on juries.   There was also disagreement about which women should be enfranchised. Moreover, some women affirmed that the vote was not that important to them. E.g., Florence Nightingale said that she thought it was important, but there were more urgent problems for women. Similarly, Beatrix Potter said that she was a sort of anti-feminist because she had never suffered the disabilities assumed to arise from her sex. Instead, Violet Markham said that many women are superior to men and they do not need to become men’s equals.   The Langham Place around Barbara Smith played an important role for the vote: they organised a suffrage petition which said that person should be substituted for man and all householders should be enfranchised (it was defeated but it was welcomed as an encouraging start).   In 1866 Smith and other friends met at Elizabeth Garret’s home to form suffrage committees which became the London Society for Women’s Suffrage. They organised petitions and formed a similar society in Manchester. Pro-suffrage groups soon followed in Bristol, Birmingham and Edinburgh. The largest vote for women’s enfranchisement came in 1873 with 157 men in agreement, but before their presence in parliament was seen as the creation of hasty alliances, schemes, cries, permissive legislation.   Many women were taking active roles in local government and other public bodies and they were learning to speak in public, but by the 1890s as many men were enfranchised the sense of disparity grew (paradox: illiterate and poor men had been given the vote, whilst well-educated and tax-paying women had not achieved full citizenship).  In some countries female suffrage had already been granted. In New Zealand women could vote from 1893, in Australia during the 1890s, in the US women could vote in 11 states by 1914, Denmark in 1915 and the Netherlands in 1919   | CHAPTER 7: SUFFRAGETTES* *suffragettes = activists and militants of the movement for the female suffrage The term suffragette was coined in 1906 by the Daily Mail. Some women had come to realise that they were achieving little by peaceful means. Some women were taking the idea of no taxation without representation and they were refusing to pay taxes. Changes began when in 1903 there was the creation of the WOMEN’S SOCIAL AND POLITICAL UNION founded by the Pankhurst family. One of them, Emmeline Pankhurst thought that the vote was both a right and a necessity. This group was the most effective and best-known, but there were also others like Women’s Freedom League. One of the founders, Christabel Pankhurst. was thought to be dictatorial and ruthless just like her mother Emmeline and many people rebelled against her. There was a SHIFT TOWARDS MILITANT ACTION: the suffragettes began heckling politicians at public meetings, organised their own meetings and marches, and spread the cause through propaganda (with effective posters and postcards and the best known has two layers: on the one hand there is written ‘what women may be and not yet have the vote’ where there are figures of a mother, a doctor, a nurse and a factory hand and on the other side there is ‘what a man may have been and yet not lose the vote’ where there are a lunatic, a slaver, a drunkard) MILD PHYSICAL CONFRONTATIONS like banging at politicians’ doors or creating masses to protest or sporadic acts of violence (ex. They set fire to the house of a minister who was hostile to the cause) and Emmeline was arrested in 1914 outside Buckingham Palace after trying to present a petition to the king. Emily Davison sacrificed herself for the cause and died after throwing herself under the king’s horse on derby day 1913. Many women were going to prison.  Teresa Billington denounced the adoption of violence since it led to women going to prison or to suicide (the best way to achieve emancipation is not through fanaticism, tyranny and emotionalism). Some women who had been imprisoned, began to protest by going on hunger strike and the authorities began to force-feed them; many women were seen as martyrs.  With the beginning of WW1, the campaign to achieve the vote for women was suspended and. In 1918 women were given the right to vote in the UK and 10 years later they won it on equal terms with men.   Another problem for women was rape and male violence. People justify pornography claiming that it is liberating for women and for men: it is the freedom of erotic energy. Many people think that rape is like a conscious process of intimidation used by all men against all women. Crimes of violence against women were often dismissed with crude commonplaces like ‘no woman can be raped against her will’ or ‘if you are going to be raped you might as well relax and enjoy’.     | CHAPTER 10: FEMINISTS ACROSS THE WORLD.   Inevitable moments of failure of communication between feminists – they should be accepted as a starting point for a more modest feminism taking into account the limits to the idea of sisterhood this way there is a greater gain than in the case in which we try to break barriers in the name of an idealized unity.   Many people think that white middle-class women seem to dictate a feminism concentrated on gender discrimination, while overlooking the class differences and racial discrimination that complicate the ideas about gender. Brazilian women for example have argued that feminism is Eurocentric, so it is not concerned with their local problems, like health issues, difficulties for black women when they try to find work and racial violence. Women in the West have struggled against sexism and social and political inequalities, whilst those in the 3rd world have had and still have to deal with more serious problems, because the battle for their issues has been combined with the struggle for the establishment of democratic government and for the most basic freedoms. Additionally, the lives of women in the 3rd world have been affected by colonialism and neo-colonialism. The term ‘Third world’ is often seen in a negative way, meaning underdeveloped or undemocratic when used by people in the west. Third world women are women of colour, implying a native ‘other’ in contrast with the norm of western feminism  postcolonial feminism. For example, in Latin America, Spanish and Portuguese occupation has left profound ethnic and class inequalities and feminists have to struggle with the patriarchy established by the Roman Catholic Church. In Mexico, the first wave feminism was born during a revolution against the dictatorship of Diaz: here women had an active role as they established camps, they provided food and looked after the wounded, but there were also female soldiers who took up arms. The revolution was supported also by women intellectuals like De Topete who fought for sex education in schools, women’s suffrage and the right to divorce and she said that the catholic church was a major obstacle to the advance of feminism in Mexico. De Topete was the first woman to run for a seat in the chamber of deputies. Equal rights were granted to women in 1927 in Mexico and in 1952 they were finally allowed to vote . In 1970s, the Movimiento de Liberacion de la Mujer emerged in Mexico, asking for legal abortion, increased sentencing for rapists and help for battered women. Latin American countries gave women the right to vote in the 1950s but problems like female illiteracy, miserable lives in slums and towns, poverty, poor health care remained. In some Latin American countries’ abortion is still forbidden even when it can save the mother’s life.   The Brazilian constitution of 1988: equal wages, gives women generous maternity leave, minimum wages and organizations to educate women.   In 1975 the UN held an International Women’s Year Conference in Mexico City bringing together feminists from all over the world, Since 1981, women from Caribbean and Latin America have been meeting every 3 years during ‘encounters’ (encuentros) to build solidarity and elaborate discourses to challenge gender-based and sexual oppression. The most important achievement here was the passage of laws punishing violence against women.   In 1995 there was the Beijing Global conference on women: problems like inclusion and exclusion were tackled. Here there was a higher consideration of western complaints rather than a focus on urgent concerns of women from less developed nations.   By the end of the century young women, student activists, others emerging from university programs on feminism were attracted by the movement and they criticised the elders and they celebrated diversity and pluralism.  Third-world women affirmed that their agenda had been hijacked by European and American women who were solely interested in contraception and abortion, and that even when they did tackle third-world issues, they did so in a patronising and racist manner  problem of cross-cultural misunderstanding! In some African countries, genital mutilation as a way of suppressing female sexuality is still carried out and more often it is a practice adopted by certain fundamentalists.   Veiling remains an important and controversial issue in some Muslim societies: a Lebanese woman said that veil is an insult to men and women, whereas many women find the veil liberating because it allows women to observe and not be observed and some affirm it helps them to avoid sexual harassment. Many Muslim women, especially in big cities are comfortable unveiled. Some Turkish women said that it is the veil that allows them to enter public life and gives them freedom to work. In Saudi Arabia veiling is compulsory for women and they cannot even walk on the streets if not accompanied by a man. They need male permission to travel and work. Conversely, Iran has a long history of women taking independent political action.   In 1936 women had the right to ask for divorce and in the next decade an educational system was established. Additionally, in 1936 the first women students attended Tehran university and by 1978 women made up 33% of the workforce. In 1978 during the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini wanted Iranian women to wear the veil, and he dismissed women judges, eliminated a family protection law, banned contraception and abortion as well as the right for women to ask for divorce. Plus, women had no longer rights over their children. Despite all of this, women’s education was not different from the one of men and women could still vote and work outside home. After the revolution the veil became obligatory and some women saw it as a rejection of westernised lifestyle.   Some feminists have argued that the relationship between sexes supported by Iran as well as by Islamic fundamentalists is un-Islamic given that Islam has traditionally respected women and given them dignity. The one advocated by fundamentalists is an interpretation not shared by many Muslim feminists. Women in Russia and Eastern Europe say that they reject western feminism and they owe nothing to it. In Russia women wanted to escape the double oppression of housework and factory work. After the revolution in 1905 women were involved in the struggle to win the right to vote in the Duma: here for working women the right to vote allowed greater participation in the struggle for the conquest of political power on the part of the proletariat with the aim of going beyond the capitalist order and building a socialist one (this would allow women to solve their problems). After the dissolution of the Soviet Union some women wanted to retreat back home and some of them wanted to become full-time mothers or housewives.   Recently feminists have begun to recognise and explore the problems of those women from poorer and less developed countries who travel to the West to work: some are legal immigrants and are not particularly vulnerable, then there are women who work as nannies, cleaners, maids or fall into prostitution. For some foreign women migration is a way to improve their lives, but for some others who dot even speak the language they get insecure and poorly paid jobs and they rarely have support network.   CONCLUSION  Feminists have been experiencing what is a backlash according to Susan Faludi (1992), with women who benefited from feminism now remarking it had gone too far. In the 20th century first-wave feminists demanded civil and political equality, whilst in 1970s second wave feminists concentrated on sexual and family rights for women and these demands have become the real target of action now.   Natasha Walter in “The new Feminism” (1998) argued that the task of contemporary feminists now is to attack the material basis for economic and social and political inequality: they ought to work with men and not against men. On the domestic level men should take on a fair share of domestic work as more women are working outside. She also praised Margaret Thatcher as the heroine of feminism, though she was little supportive of female politicians. Women must stop complaining and embracing victim feminism and rather embrace power feminism according to Naomi Wolf, whilst Lynen Segal argued that the most radical goal of feminism has yet to be reached. Recently western women have become more aware of other feminisms, not just in Europe but across the world. This increase in awareness is due to technological advances (women in different countries can communicate effectively, share experiences and info through internet), academic feminism (many universities run courses on women’s studies), academic research (which has given insights into women’s lives in other times and cultures).  However, there might be a loss involved which is not often talked about., which is the fact that there’s no real definition of feminism according to Rebecca West. But we should remember that previous feminists had excitement and a feeling of transgression and risk in what they were doing. In addition to this, there has been an excitement to rediscover the past and reinvent something. Women felt that they were making feminism as something new, exploring past and present, committing themselves to something new, adventurous and radical. Now women seem uninterested in feminism partly because they see it as an academic subject and also the language of academic feminism makes sense only to a closed circle of women while others feel alienated.   Feminism should be reinvented on the basis that it is continuously evolving and living. We should not merely find new issues to fight for; rather, we ought to create a new language. Walters (the author of the book) states that, despite everything, she believes that feminism will reinvent itself and that this transformation will originate outside academics