Syed Mohammad Ali

BA LLB

• I

_ i' . .

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FEMINISM
ACCKNOWL
EDGEMENT
I would like to express my special
thanks of gratitude to my
PROFESSOR AYAN GUHA who
gave
me the golden opportunity to do this
wonderful project on the topic
FEMINISM- POLITICAL Science.
and I
came to know about so many new
things I am really thankful to them.
FEMINISM
feminism, the belief in social, economic, and
political equality of the sexes. Although largely
originating in the West, feminism is manifested
worldwide and is represented by various
institutions committed to activity on behalf of
women's rights and interests
Throughout most of Western history, women
were confined to the domestic sphere, while
public life was reserved for men. In medieval
Europe, women were denied the right to own
property, to study, or to participate in public life.
At the end of the 19th century in France, they
were still compelled to cover their heads in
public, and, in parts of Germany, a husband still
had the right to sell his wife. Even as late as the
early 20th century, women could neither vote nor
hold elective office in Europe and in most of the
United States (where several territories and
states granted women's suffrage long before the
federal government did so). Women were
prevented from conducting business without a
male representative, be it father, brother,
husband, legal agent, or even son. Married
women could not exercise control over their own
children without the permission of their
husbands. Moreover, women had little or no
access to education and were barred from most
professions. In some parts of the world, such
restrictions on women continue today.
HISTORY

The ancient world

There is scant evidence of early organized protest against such

circumscribed status. In the 3rd century BCE, Roman women
filled the Capitoline Hill and blocked every entrance to the
Forum when consul Marcus Porcius Cato resisted attempts to
repeal laws limiting women's use of expensive goods. "If they
are victorious now, what will they not attempt?" Cato cried. "As
soon as they begin to be your equals, they will have become
your superiors."
THAT REBELLION PROVED EXCEPTIONAL, HOWEVER. FOR
MOST OF RECORDED HISTORY, ONLY ISOLATED VOICES SPOKE
OUT AGAINST THE INFERIOR STATUS OF WOMEN, PRESAGING
THE ARGUMENTS TO COME. IN LATE 14TH-AND EARLY 15TH-
CENTURY FRANCE, THE FIRST FEMINIST PHILOSOPHER,
CHRISTINE DE PISAN, CHALLENGED PREVAILING ATTITUDES
TOWARD WOMEN WITH A BOLD CALL FOR FEMALE EDUCATION.
HER MANTLE WAS TAKEN UP LATER IN THE CENTURY BY
LAURA CERETA, A 15TH-CENTURY VENETIAN WOMAN WHO
PUBLISHED EPISTOLAE FAMILIARES (1488; "PERSONAL
LETTERS"; ENG. TRANS. COLLECTED LETTERS OF A
RENAISSANCE FEMINIST), A VOLUME OF LETTERS DEALING
WITH A PANOPLY OF WOMEN'S COMPLAINTS, FROM DENIAL OF
EDUCATION AND MARITAL OPPRESSION TO THE FRIVOLITY OF
WOMEN'S ATTIRE.

THE DEFENSE OF WOMEN HAD BECOME A LITERARY

SUBGENRE BY THE END OF THE 16TH CENTURY, WHEN IL
MERITO DELLE DONNE (1600; THE WORTH OF WOMEN), A
FEMINIST BROADSIDE BY ANOTHER VENETIAN AUTHOR,
MODERATA FONTE, WAS PUBLISHED POSTHUMOUSLY.

DEFENDERS OF THE STATUS QUO PAINTED WOMEN AS

SUPERRCIAL AND INHERENTLY IMMORAL, WHILE THE
EMERGING FEMINISTS PRODUCED LONG LISTS OF WOMEN OF
COURAGE AND ACCOMPLISHMENT AND PROCLAIMED THAT
WOMEN WOULD BE THE INTELLECTUAL EQUALS OF MEN IF
THEY WERE GIVEN EQUAL ACCESS TO EDUCATION.

THE SO-CALLED "DEBATE ABOUT WOMEN" DID NOT REACH

ENGLAND UNTIL THE LATE 16TH CENTURY, WHEN
PAMPHLETEERS AND POLEMICISTS JOINED BATTLE OVER THE
TRUE NATURE OF WOMANHOOD. AFTER A SERIES OF SATIRIC
PIECES MOCKING WOMEN WAS PUBLISHED, THE FIRST
FEMINIST PAMPHLETEER IN ENGLAND, WRITING AS JANE
ANGER, RESPONDED WITH JANE ANGER, HER PROTECTION
FOR WOMEN (1589). THIS VOLLEY OF OPINION CONTINUED FOR
MORE THAN A CENTURY, UNTIL ANOTHER ENGLISH AUTHOR,
MARY ASTELL, ISSUED A MORE REASONED REJOINDER IN A
SERIOUS PROPOSAL TO THE LADIES (1694, 1697). THE TWO-
VOLUME WORK SUGGESTED THAT WOMEN INCLINED NEITHER
TOWARD MARRIAGE NOR A RELIIGIOUS VOCATION SHOULD SET
UP SECULAR CONVENTS WHERE THEY MIGHT LIVE, STUDY, AND
TEACH.

FEMINISM AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENTS

THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE THAT WE DO NOT NEED

FEMINISM TODAY, BUT NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM
THE TRUTH. WOMEN HAVE STRUGGLED FOR EQUALITY AND
AGAINST OPPRESSION FOR CENTURIES, AND ALTHOUGH SOME
BATTLES HAVE BEEN PARTLY WON - SUCH AS THE RIGHT TO
VOTE AND EQUAL ACCESS TO EDUCATION - WOMEN ARE STILL
DISPROPORTIONALLY AFFECTED BY ALL FORMS OF VIOLENCE
AND BY DISCRIMINATION IN EVERY ASPECT OF LIFE.

IT IS TRUE THAT IN SOME AREAS AND ON CERTAIN ISSUES,

THERE HAVE BEEN IMPROVEMENTS: FOR EXAMPLE, IN SAUDI
ARABIA WOMEN WERE ALLOWED, FOR THE FIRST TIME, TO
VOTE AND RUN FOR OFFICE IN 2015(!). HOWEVER, ON OTHER
ISSUES THERE HAS BEEN LITTLE OR NO PROGRESS: FOR
EXAMPLE, THERE HAVE BEEN INSIGNIFICANT REDUCTIONS IN
CASES OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. WOMEN CONTINUE TO
RECEIVE LOWER PAY FOR THE SAME WORK AS MEN IN ALL
PARTS OF THE WORLD; THERE ARE STILL COUNTRIES THAT DO
NOT HAVE LAWS AGAINST MARITAL RAPE AND STILL ALLOW
CHILD BRIDES, AND

PRACTICES SUCH AS 'HONOUR' KILLINGS AND FEMALE

GENITAL MUTILATION STILL EXIST.

JOKES ABOUT FEMINISM AND STEREOTYPES ABOUT

FEMINISTS PERSIST, AND MANY OF THESE ARE ALSO
HOMOPHOBIC AND ASSUME THAT BEING LESBIAN IS
SOMETHING 'BAD'. IN FACT, BEING A FEMINIST IS NOT
SOMETHING PARTICULAR TO ANY SEX OR GENDER: THERE ARE
WOMEN AND MEN WHO CONSIDER THEMSELVES FEMINISTS,
SOME ARE GAY OR LESBIAN, SOME HETEROSEXUAL, BISEXUAL
OR TRANSGENDER - AND SOME MAY IDENTIFY DIFFERENTLY.

THE CONCEPT OF FEMINISM REFLECTS A HISTORY OF

DIFFERENT STRUGGLES, AND THE TERM HAS BEEN
INTERPRETED IN FULLER AND MORE COMPLEX WAYS AS
UNDERSTANDING HAS DEVELOPED. IN GENERAL, FEMINISM
CAN BE SEEN AS A MOVEMENT TO PUT AN END TO SEXISM,
SEXIST EXPLOITATION, AND OPPRESSION AND TO ACHIEVE
FULL GENDER EQUALITY IN LAW AND IN PRACTICE.

FEMINISM HAS DEVIATED FROM THE BASIC NOTION OF

EQUALITY OF MEN AND WOMEN AND HAS COME DOWN
CONTEMPTUOUSLY FROM PERSONAL REMARKS TO NEGATE
EVERYTHING SAID OR DONE BY'MENBYMEN'. THIS
UNDERSTANDING OF FEMINISM WILL SIMPLY IMPEDE THE
ANTICIPATED PROGRESS AND DELAY IN DESIRED JUSTICE FOR
HALF OF THE HUMANITY.

ALL THESE WAVES OF FEMINIST MOVEMENTS WERE EITHER

ENTREATIES FOR EQUALITY OR HATRED TOWARDS
OPPRESSORS.

THIS HATRED AGAINST MEN MIGHT HAVE LED TO RADICAL

FEMINISM AND AVERSION TO MEN AND SOCIETY WHICH
CULMINATED IN THE FORM OF CERTAIN IDEOLOGIES LIKE
SEPARATIST FEMINISM OR EVEN LESBIAN FEMINISM.

The main dialogue in feminism is about sex industry (which is

considered an exploitative result of patriarchal social structure):
pornography, prostitution and trafficking of women; and
patriarchy. Feminists felt paternity as primary authority figure
and center to social organization which held control over
women, children, and property. It implied the institution of male
rule. They believed it as unjust social system and oppression to
women.

Feminism is used for a dual purpose. One is to get the

privileges which women don't have due to gender disparity and
the next is to settle scores against 'foot soldiers of patriarchy'.
In the movement towards attaining the dual purposes,
sometimes they promote one, holding the other back and vice
versa. This is the reason why

'several feminist rhetoric today do cross the line from attacks on

sexism into attacks on men, with a strong focus on personal
behavior; ranging from the way they talk to the way they sit in
public transport'. The gender antagonism was inherent in
feminism from the beginning but they were directed more at
institutions than at individuals. The rise of radical feminism
brought a wave of female anger at men's collection of individual
misdemeanors. Andrea Dworkin and Marilyn French depicted
ordinary men as patriarchy's brutal foot soldiers.

Feminist PhilosophY
Broadly understood, feminism is both an intellectual commitment and a political
movement that seeks an end to gender-based oppression. Motivated by the quest
for social

justice, feminist inquiry provides a wide range of perspectives on cultural, economic,

social, and political phenomena. It identifies and evaluates the many ways that some
norms have been used to exclude, marginalize, and oppress people on the basis of
gender, as well as how gendered dentities have been shaped to conform and uphold
the norms of a patriarchal society. In so doing, it tries to understand the roots of a
system that has been prevalent in nearly all known places and times. It also explores
what a just society would look like.

The conclusion of feminism wlll be when :

1. When women will feel safe to go out anywhere irrespective of time, place,
irrespective of being alone or with someone, irrespective of cloths they are wearing.
When they wont be stared or harassed by men and seen as a normal human being
instead of an object of lust.

2. When women wont be seen by default as a home-maker and instead be

encouraged by society to earn her own bread.

3. When a birth of girl child be celebrated and she would be given equal
opportunities as a male child in all aspects - education, healthcare, etc. There are
various households where due to shortage of money they compromise on girl child's
education, healthcare, food and reason they give is

"We don't have enough money, can afford education of only one child, so if has to
choose it will be boy, ladhki kya kregi padh ke? (What will girl do by getting
educated?"

4. When we stop assigning gender roles, example "You are a girl, you should know
cooking."

5. When she no longer get to hear sexist comments like "You are a girl, you will have
a happy life even if you don't study or earn."

6. When parents' concern shifts from getting their daughter married after she·
reaches "marriageable age" to getting their daughter highest degree of education
and successful career.

7. When she is stopped being expected to dedicate her life for in-laws, husbands,
children and stop even thinking about herself.

8. When society is able to accept the concept of house husband, in case the couple
decide to do that.
9. When girls are not slut shammed for having a number of affairs and losing her
virginity before marriage and boys are looked upon as a player/Casanova.

10.When girl parents' need not give dowry to get their daughter married.

11.When she is not judged by beauty and cooking skills for marriage.

12.When people will stop praying to God for giving them atleast one male child to
carry their generation forward and cursing their luck for not having one.

13.When she is stopped being viewed as "child producing machine" and taunted with
sexist comments like "A women life is fulfilled only after birth of a child."