FEMINISM

INTRODUCTION

Feminism refers to a broad range of ideas, approaches, and ideologies directed towards

advocating for gender and sex equality for women. Feminism is a movement that seek

to achieve equality and social rights for women in all key areas which includes

education, personal, economic, employment, and cultural sphere of human endeavours.

Activists of the feminist movements have used social and political theories to campaign

for women’s rights and freedom where sexuality and gender-based political thinking

have created imbalances for the womenfolk in the society.

The feminist movements have also campaigned for the protection of the girl-child and

women from sexual harassment, rape and violence within the home. The campaigns

and the activities of feminist activists over several centuries have greatly improved the

lots of women in several areas and in several societies. Feminist activists have

successfully used campaigns for the rights of women to secure a broad range of

opportunities such as the right to vote and be voted for, the right to own property, the

rights to equal pay or fair wages, the right to hold public office, the right to enter legal

contracts, and the right to have maternity leave and equal rights within marriage.

Though feminist movements have achieved a lot for the womenfolk yet some categories

of feminism continued to be criticized for being ethnic and class-specific.

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF FEMINISM

The origin of feminism could be traced to France when in 1837, Charles Fourier, a

French philosopher coined the word and by 1910, feminism has appeared in most of the

countries in Europe and in the U.S., although feminist movements were triggered by

different causes and were aimed at different goals in many of these countries. At the
early stage in the U.S and the UK, feminism movements started with a focus on the

campaign for the rights of women to entre contractual agreements, agitation for equality

within marriage union, parenting rights, and the rights to own property. The next stage

centred on the campaign for the rights of women to gain political power and at the

moments, feminism movements will stop at nothing short of complete freedom for the

womenfolk in all ramifications.

THE PLACE OF FEMINIST THEORY IN FEMINISM

Feminist theory extends feminism into the fields of philosophy and theoretical ideology.

The theory of feminism encompasses the fields of sociology, economics, anthropology,

and philosophy. The theory focuses on the study of gender inequality and the

understanding of power relations, sexuality and gender politics

Feminism refers to a broad range of ideas, approaches, and ideologies directed towards
advocating for gender and sex equality for women. Feminism is a movement that seek to
achieve equality and social rights for women in all key areas which includes education,
personal, economic, employment, and cultural sphere of human endeavors. It gives chances to
women to prove themselves and show capabilities. A lot of people today doesn’t approve of
feminism, they say men and women will never be the same So a lot of people disagree of
feminism because of this misinterpreted information and they think that feminism advocate for
woman to be the same with man. In other words, because their bodies are different (many say
“weaker” and smaller), and because men and women have different physical capabilities, these
physical differences mean equality is not possible. but we all need to understand that Feminism
at its core is about equality of men and women, not “sameness.”
It’s critical to understand that “same” does not mean “equal.” The issue here is about equal
rights and equal access to opportunities.  Men and women don’t have to be the “same” in
physicality to have the right to equality. X