According to the Torah (Genesis 2:7), Adam is said to have been formed by God from "dust from the

earth"; in the Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin 38b) of the first centuries of the Christian era he is, more specifically, described as having initially been a golem kneaded from mud. (cf Prometheus) In the Torah, God is described, at Genesis 1:26, as breathing the breath of life into the nostrils of the first man, and this is usually interpreted in JudaeoChristian circles as having brought life immediately to the first man.

 "And God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man" Genesis 2:2122

 According to the Bible, for her share in the transgression, Eve (and womankind after her) is sentenced to a life of sorrow and travail in childbirth, and to be under the power of her husband.

Feminism

Feminism feminism
NOUN: 1. 2. Belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. The movement organized around this belief.

"I'm furious about the Women's Liberationists. They keep getting up on soapboxes and proclaiming that women are brighter than men. That's true, but it should be kept very quiet or it ruins the whole racket." -Anita Loos

Feminism comprises a number of social, cultural and political movements, theories and moral philosophies concerned with gender inequalities and discrimination against women. Feminism is also described as an ideology focusing on equality of the sexes.

Most feminist social movements promote women's rights, interests and issues. Early feminists and primary feminist movements are often called the first-wave feminists, and feminists after about 1960 the second-wave feminists. More recently, some younger feminists have identified themselves as third-wave feminists, although the secondwave feminists are still active. Several subtypes of feminist ideology have developed over the years.

Feminism's many forms

Liberal feminism Radical feminism Individualist feminism Black feminism Socialist and Marxist feminisms Post-structural feminism and postmodern feminism Postcolonial feminism and third-world feminism Ecofeminism Post-feminism

One of the difficulties in defining and circumscribing a complex and heterogeneous concept such as feminism is the extent to which women have rejected the term from a variety of semantic and political standpoints. Many women engaged in activities intimately grounded in feminism have not considered themselves feminists. Likewise, it is assumed that only women can be feminists. However, feminism is not grounded in the basis of one's gender, but in rejecting and refuting sexist oppression politically, socially, privately, linguistically, and otherwise.

Feminism has effected many changes in Western society, including women's suffrage, broad employment for women at more equitable wages, the right to initiate divorce proceedings and the introduction of "no fault" divorce, the right to obtain contraception and safe abortions, and access to university education.

According to studies by the United Nations, when both paid employment and unpaid household tasks are accounted for, on average women work more than men. In rural areas of selected developing countries women performed an average of 20% more work than men, or an additional 102 minutes per day. On average women performed 5% more work than men, or 20 minutes per day. In 2001 it was stated that "in the world as a whole, women comprise 51 percent of the population, do 66 percent of the work, receive 10 percent of the income and own less than one percent of the property."

Context and

As supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment between 1972 and 1982 lobbied, marched, rallied, petitioned, picketed, went on hunger strikes, and committed acts of civil disobedience, it is probable that many of them were not aware of their place in the long historical continuum of womens struggle for constitutional equality in the United States. From the very beginning, the inequality of men and women under the Constitution has been an issue for advocacy.

 In 1776, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John, "In the new code of laws, remember the ladies and do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands." John Adams replied, "I cannot but laugh. Depend upon it, we know better than to repeal our masculine systems." The new Constitutions promised rights were fully enjoyed only by certain white males. Women were treated according to social tradition and English common law and were denied most legal rights. In general they could not vote, own property, keep their own wages, or even have custody of their children.

 The first visible public demand for equality came in 1848, at the first Womans Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, who had met as abolitionists working against slavery, convened a two-day meeting of 300 women and men to call for justice for women in a society where they were systematically barred from the rights and privileges of citizens. A Declaration of Sentiments and eleven other resolutions were adopted with ease, but the proposal for woman suffrage was passed only after impassioned speeches by Stanton and former slave Frederick Douglass, who called the vote the right by which all others could be secured.

 After the Civil War, Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Sojourner Truth fought in vain to have women included in new constitutional amendments giving rights to former slaves. The 14th Amendment defined citizens as "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" and guaranteed equal protection of the laws but in referring to the electorate, it introduced the word "male" into the Constitution for the first time. The 15th Amendment declared that "the right of citizens . . . to vote shall not be denied or abridged . . . on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude" but women of all races were still denied the ballot. To Susan B. Anthony, the rejection of womens claim to the vote was unacceptable. In 1872, she went to the polls in Rochester, NY, and cast a ballot in the presidential election, citing her citizenship under the 14th Amendment. She was arrested, tried, convicted, and fined $100, which she refused to pay. In 1875, the Supreme Court in Minor v. Happersett said that while women may be citizens, all citizens were not necessarily voters, and states were not required to allow women to vote.

 The 19th Amendment affirming womens right to vote steamrolled out of Congress in 1919, getting more than half the ratifications it needed in the first year. Then it ran into stiff opposition from states-rights advocates, the liquor lobby, business interests against higher wages for women, and a number of women themselves, who believed claims that the amendment would threaten the family and require more of them than they felt their sex was capable of. As the amendment approached the necessary ratification by three-quarters of the states, the threat of rescission surfaced. Finally the battle narrowed down to a six-week seesaw struggle in Tennessee. The fate of the 19th Amendment was decided by a single vote, that of 24-year-old legislator Harry Burn, who switched from "no" to "yes" in response to a letter from his mother saying, "Hurrah, and vote for suffrage!" The Secretary of State in Washington, DC issued the 19th Amendments proclamation immediately, before breakfast on August 26, 1920, in order to head off any final obstructionism.

Thus mainstream and militant suffragists together finally won the first, and still the only, specific written guarantee of womens equal rights in the Constitution the 19th Amendment, which declared, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." It had been 72 years from Seneca Falls to victory, and ironically, the most controversial resolution had been written into law first. But many laws and practices in the workplace and in society still perpetuated mens status as privileged and womens status as second-class citizens.

 In the early 1940s, the Republican Party and then the Democratic Party added support of the Equal Rights Amendment to their platforms. Alice Paul rewrote the ERA in 1943 to what is now called the "Alice Paul Amendment," reflecting the 15th and the 19th Amendments: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." But the labor movement was still committed to protective workplace laws, and social conservatives considered equal rights for women a threat to the existing power structure. In the 1960s, over a century after the fight to end slavery fostered the first wave of the womens rights movement, the civil rights battles of the time provided an impetus for the second wave. Women organized to demand their birthright as citizens and persons, and the Equal Rights Amendment rather than the right to vote became the central symbol of the struggle. Finally, organized labor and an increasingly large number of mainstream groups joined the call for the ERA, and politicians reacted to the power of organized womens voices in a way they had not done since the battle for the vote.

Freedom from legal sex discrimination, Alice Paul believed, required an Equal Rights Amendment that affirmed the equal application of the Constitution to all citizens. In 1923, in Seneca Falls for the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the 1848 Womans Rights Convention, she introduced the "Lucretia Mott Amendment," which read: "Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction." The amendment was introduced in every session of Congress until it passed in reworded form in 1972.

THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

 The Equal Rights Amendment passed the U.S. Senate and then the House of Representatives, and on March 22, 1972, the proposed 27th Amendment to the Constitution was sent to the states for ratification. But as it had done for every amendment since the 18th (Prohibition), with the exception of the 19th Amendment, Congress placed a seven-year deadline on the ratification process. This time limit was placed not in the words of the ERA itself, but in the proposing clause. Like the 19th Amendment before it, the ERA barreled out of Congress, getting 22 of the necessary 38 state ratifications in the first year. But the pace slowed as opposition began to organize only eight ratifications in 1973, three in 1974, one in 1975, and none in 1976.

 As the 1979 deadline approached, some pro-ERA groups like NOW coordinated a successful march of 100,000 supporters in Washington, DC. Bowing to public pressure, Congress granted an extension until June 30, 1982. The political tide continued to turn more conservative. In 1980 the Republican Party removed ERA support from its platform, and Ronald Reagan was elected president. Although pro-ERA activities increased with massive lobbying, petitioning, countdown rallies, walkathons, fundraisers, and even the radical suffragist tactics of hunger strikes, White House picketing, and civil disobedience, ERA did not succeed in getting three more state ratifications before the deadline. The country was still unwilling to guarantee women constitutional rights equal to those of men.

Feminism in Literature
Feminism in Literature comprises more than 60 significant authors and 10 important topics.

Heung, Marina. DaughterText/Mother-Text: Matrilineage in Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club. Feminist Studies 1993; 19 no. 3: 597-613.

 Heung argues an issue that is not widely discussed in the other journals and books, the relationships between the mothers in The Joy Luck Club and their mothers. Her recap of their background and parental figures gives light to why the mothers may act the way they do to their daughters. She mentions the story of Lindo Jongs childhood and first marriage. An important feature of this story is the fact that her parents had arranged for her to be married at the age of two.

Lindo bestows a very different attitude on Waverley than her mother bestowed on her. Lindo recalls that her mother did not see the changes in her face over the years. This memory is confronted again with her daughter Waverly when Mr. Rory is cutting Lindos hair. They see Waverly and Lindos reflection in the mirror and admire their similarities and changes in face. The final characteristic that Heung discusses is how Lindo acknowledges that Waverly is not completely Chinese. She states that inside-she is all American-made (603). Marina Heung's study is a very useful source when looking for information on mother-daughter relationships in The Joy Luck Club. Her study reflects more on the relationship the mothers had with their mothers rather than the mother-daughter couples seen in the book. The source was reliable because it brought up many examples from the story. The study was helpful in providing me information about the mothers in Tan's novel.

Now

 Each year hundreds and perhaps thousands of newborn girls are murdered by their mothers simply because they are female. Some women believe that sacrificing a daughter guarantees a son in the next pregnancy. In other cases, the family cannot afford the dowry that would eventually be demanded for a girl's marriage. And for many mothers, sentencing a daughter to death is better than condemning her to life as a woman in the Third World, with cradle-to-grave discrimination, poverty, sickness and drudgery. ``In a culture that idolizes sons and dreads the birth of a daughter, to be born female comes perilously close to being born less than human,'' the Indian government conceded in a recent report by its Department of Women and Child Development.

 While women in the United States and Europe often measure sex discrimination by pay scales and seats in corporate board rooms, women in the Third World gauge discrimination by mortality rates and poverty levels. ``Women are the most exploited among the oppressed,'' said Karuna Chanana Ahmed, a New Delhi anthropologist. ``I don't think it's even possible to eradicate discrimination, it's so deeply ingrained.''

 The Chinese Constitution and other laws provide equal rights for men and women in all spheres of life, including ownership of property, inheritance and educational opportunities. Equality between the sexes has been a part of the CCP's agenda from its early days, and women's rights are perceived to be in a separate category from human rights. Therefore, women's organizations in China, even though they remain under CCP control, are able to advocate effectively on some issues involving abuses of women's human rights. However, when women's rights or interests conflict with Party or government policy, the latter takes precedence. This means, for example, that abuses related to the family planning policy are not reported in the media or discussed publicly. Information about other issues, such as the extent of domestic violence, trafficking in women or abuses directed at lesbians, is effectively prevented by the CCP's injunction that most news should be positive. Thus, the controls on freedom of expression and association, which so affect democracy and human rights activists, have a strong impact on women's human rights as well.

 Violence Against Women: According to some researchers, spousal abuse is far too common and, in many parts of the country, still socially acceptable. However, comprehensive statistics about the extent of domestic violence are not available or have not been made public. The official All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) has been studying this problem and seeking solutions. Few battered women have the opportunity to escape abuse, because shelters and other resources are not available. Women are under considerable social pressure to keep families together regardless of the circumstances. Legal action is not taken against batterers unless the victim initiates it, and if she withdraws her testimony, the proceedings are ended.

 Abduction and Trafficking of Women: Trafficking and sale of women as brides or into prostitution is a serious problem in certain parts of China, and Chinese women have been sold into brothels in Southeast Asia. The PRC government has enacted various laws to combat the sale of women, but the statistics released by the government do not reliably indicate the scale of the problem. PRC officials stated that there were 15,000 cases of kidnapping and trafficking in women and children in 1993. Yet according to one estimate, 10,000 women were abducted and sold in 1992 in Sichuan Province alone. Until recently, the authorities have not prosecuted men who purchase women as wives; thus, the trade has continued unabated. Official action to rescue victims of trafficking is generally initiated only if a complaint is made by the woman or her family. Local officials often turn a blind eye, even formally registering marriages into which the woman has been sold.

Discrimination in Employment and Education: The PRC ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1980 and enacted the Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests in 1992. However, open discrimination against women in China has continued to grow during the period of reform of the last 15 years. According to PRC government surveys, women's salaries have been found to average 77% of men's, and most women employed in industry work in lowskill and low-paying jobs. An estimated 70 to 80% of workers laid off as a result of downsizing in factories have been women, and, although women make up 38% of the work force, they are 60% of the unemployed. At job fairs, employers openly advertise positions for men only, and university campus recruiters often state that they will not hire women. Employers justify such discrimination by saying that they cannot afford the benefits they are required to provide for pregnant women, nursing mothers and infants. The proportion of women to men declines at each educational tier, with women comprising some 25% of undergraduates in universities. Institutions of higher education that have a large proportion of female applicants, such as foreign language institutes, have been known to require higher entrance exam grades from women. Although China has a law mandating compulsory primary education, increasing numbers of rural girls are not being sent to school. Rural parents often do not want to "waste" money on school fees for girls who will "belong" to another family when they marry. According to official statistics, about 70% of illiterates in China are female.

Then

 Chinese culture buried women's personalities and lives under the weight of the "three bonds of obedience": to obey one's father when young, one's husband when married, and one's adult sons when widowed. For centuries, treatises endlessly memorized and recited exhorted females to servility, passivity, and self-effacement. Elite ideals of female propriety encouraged the ultimate act of self-negation--suicide--as an honorable response to violations of chastity.

 The life and death consequences of being born female in traditional China can be gleaned from traditional literature, travelers' tales, personal recollections, and scattered statistics, mostly from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They include a female suicide profile that exceeded men's at all ages and bulged during the painful years of betrothal and early marriage, relatively high rates of female infanticide in times of economic hardship, and significantly higher mortality rates among the numerous young girls who were "adopted" in childhood for marriage. The unbalanced and sometimes seriously skewed sex-ratios that have been reported among the population (as high as 156 males to 100 females in one Shaanxi county in 1829) reflect in part, at least, these types of horrors

 Throughout their lives, women were supposed to be only slightly more than chattel, routinely bought and sold in marriage, concubinage, or outright slavery.

 The social position of women was reflected in a practice of female mutilation known as footbinding, a thousand-year-old institution that, among other things, stood as an expression of one of history's most powerful sadomasochistic male fantasies.

A pair of small feet -- threeinch golden lilies -- were once the male-designated yardstick for feminine beauty in China. A young girl's feet were broken and bound inwards along the instep, a process that caused excruciating pain. Systematically bound, day after day, the stunted feet began to take on the coveted look of that profoundly sensuous image, the lotus bulb.

 Foot binding began between the ages of four and seven. A strip of bandage ten feet long and two inches wide was wrapped tightly around the foot. The four small toes were broken and bent under the sole. The arch of the foot was bowed to make the foot shorter. The bandage was tightened each day and the foot was put into smaller and smaller shoes. In two years, the process was finished. By then, the foot was useless for walking very far.

 In the 10th century, in China, legend says a prince began the practice of foot binding because he loved the small "Lily Feet" of his concubine. The tiny foot became the mark of a wealthy and well-born woman. For over 1000 years, rich women had their feet bound. The new Republic banned foot binding in 1912, and the custom finally died out in the 1930's.