Name: Nagesh Pal Singh

B.A. LL.B [1st Semester] [Regular]

Political Science I
Roll Number- 20185531

Feminism
Definitions:
1-The oxford defines feminism as “The advocacy of women's rights on the
ground of the equality of the sexes.”1
2-The merriam-webster defines it as “The belief that men and women
should have equal rights and opportunities” OR “organised activity in
support of women’s rights and interest”.2
3- Feminism or feminist theory implies the advocacy of equal rights for
women and men, accompanied by the commitment to improve the
position of women in society.3
Origin:
In 1837 the word “feminisme” was coined by a utopian scientist and
French philosopher Charles fourier. The words "féminisme" ("feminism")
and "féministe" ("feminist") first appeared in France and the Netherlands
in 1872, Great Britain in the 1890s, and the United States in 1910, and the
Oxford English Dictionary lists 1852 as the year of the first appearance of
"feminist" and 1895 for "feminism".4
Introduction:
“Every man wants his wife to be beautiful, obedient, dextrous and
intelligent but under his control.” – these were the words of Dr. Ram
Manohar Lohia which he wrote in his book “Bharat maata dharti
maata”(around 50 years back) these words elaborate the basic mentality

1
Feminism , www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com (last modified 2018)
2
Feminism, www.merriam-webster.com (last modified November 4 ,2018)
3
O.P. Gauba, An Introduction to Political Theory p.no-72 (MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS INDIA LTD, fifth
edition,2009)
4
Feminism, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism
of most of the Indian men , these type of thinking has not changed enough
even nowadays.
We have seen women as doctors, lawyers, business women,
sportswomen, teacher, dean etc but the image of the society which we
are seeing now was not the same before. Women has suffered a long
suffering and discrimination to find limited recognition in the society.
feminism has given the power to the women to fight for their rights and
to exact for the equal opportunities which are given to men. Women
passed through many problems, obstacles and barriers to become an
important member in the society. In the past, woman did not have any
kinds of rights, she was isolated, neglected and mistreated by man. By the
coming of Feminism, the profile and the image woman have changed
completely and from being a poppet in the hands of man she becomes a
queen, president, artist and teacher.
Even nowadays many people see a feminine as mother, daughter or sister
only. They don’t like to see a woman as professional, they want women in
their stereotypical character. feminism is also the Medium to break the
stereotypical character of the women. The feminist movement has passed
many obstacles as there were great people who thought that female is
inferior to male. some of the examples are given below:
Aristotle had contended that the relation of male to female is naturally
that of superior to inferior, of the ruling to the ruled. he believed that men
should rule women as the superior sex.5
Both Hippocrates and Galen put forth elaborated arguments about the
inferiority of the female body and the notion of the female as a “defective
“male carried through from ancient Greek thinking into the modern new
world. 6

Types of feminism:

5
Article on feminism, www.bustle.com

6
Article on feminism, www.bustle.com
Liberal feminism:
Feminism has particular relation to liberalism. ”it has been said that all
feminism is liberal at the root.”7 Liberal feminism is a particular approach
to achieving equality between men and women. It emphasizes on the
power of an individual Person to alter discriminatory practices against
women. It is considered as the most important kinds of feminism, which
works within the structure of society to integrate women into it. Its roots
stretch back to the social contract theory of government instituted by the
American Revolution. Liberal feminism aims for individuals to use their
own abilities and the democratic process to help women and men to
become equal in the eyes of the law and in society. The main motive of
liberal feminism is that an individual woman should be able to determine
her social role with as great freedom as does a man. OR they should be
seen as the individual first rather than as a women.
Socialist feminism:
Socialist feminism also known as Marxist feminism or Materialist feminism
is an important movement of feminism. It calls for an end to capitalism
through a socialist reformation of economy. Socialist feminists view
gender inequalities as intrinsic to the capitalist system, which makes vast
profits off women's unpaid labour in the home and underpaid labour in
the workforce. Socialist feminism or Marxist feminism is against
capitalism. Socialist feminism argues that capitalism strengthens and
supports the sexist status because men are the ones who currently have
power and money.
Radical feminism:
Radical feminism is a movement that believes sexism is so deeply rooted
in society that the only cure is to eliminate the concept of gender. It
started to emerge in the late 1960s by the famous leaders T. Grace
Atkinson and Shulamith Firestone. It denies the liberal claim that the lack
of political or civil rights causes women's oppression.
Radical feminists argue that women are oppressed because women are
women, and men are men. Male domination permeates all aspects of

7
John Hoffman and Paul Graham, Introduction to political ideologies(page no -174)( dorling Kindersley
India pvt. Ltd,2016)
society-from sport to literature, dress to philosophy, dress to sexual
mores.8

Waves of Feminism:
First feminist wave:
We see nowadays that every adult citizen has right to vote irrespective of
caste, class, colour, religion, or gender. However, this did not exist
centuries before. The first wave of feminism fought for the rights of
women to vote.
The first Feminist Wave goes back to World War I, when members of the
National Women‟s Party (NWP) made a strike in USA outside the White
House. They were carrying banners and writings about the undemocratic
practices done by the government over women in America. They wanted
to show to the world that they were living in very bad situations in addition
to prove to leaders of the world that there was no dreams and happiness
in the land of dreams. On the other hand, Germany and few other
countries already made a step in the freedom of woman. They granted
women suffrage, freedom and social rights.
The First Wave of Feminism in Europe was mentioned in the famous work
of Mary Wollstonecraft‟s “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” (1792)
that considered as a revolution in its own. In that book, Wollstonecraft
believed that education is the best way to make woman took her position
in society in equivalent with man.

Second Feminist Wave:

The second wave of feminism mainly ignited and initiated due to the anger
of the women against a competition called Miss America Pageants which
was held in 1968 and 1969 in which woman was presented as cattle to
emphasize and highlight that the way woman looks, wears and speaks is
more important from the way she thinks ,believes or acts. They wanted to
prove to the world that woman is an equal creature the same as man not
just a puppet or a marionette in the hands of man. The term second-wave
feminism referred mostly to the radical feminism and mainly to Women’s

8
John Hoffman and Paul Graham, Introduction to political ideologies(page no -183)( dorling Kindersley
India pvt. Ltd,2016)
liberation movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. This activity
considered as the continuation of the previous one.

Third Feminist Wave:

This wave of feminism referred to a group of feminist activity. They were
appeared in the early 1990s and continuing to the present. Rebecca
Walker is the symbol of this wave. She used this term „third wave
feminism‟ at the first time in 1992. This wave came as a reaction of the
second wave ideas and activities like women in pornography, sex work,
and prostitution.
Schneiders describes the third wave feminism as a movement of liberation
:“This movement is concerned not simply with the social, political, and
economic equality of women with men but with a fundamental
reimagination of the whole of humanity in relation to whole of reality,
including non-human creation”.9

Conclusion:
Women has suffered through the ages, the cause of this suffering is man
as well as women itself. The different feminist movements gave voice to
women to fight for their rights and to change themselves from marionette
to a well recognised being. In recent times women have seen many growth
in different aspects. We have seen that the “sabrimala” judgement in the
favour of women, but the saddening fact of this was that many of the men
filed the urgent hearing ,these things show the intolerance of society
towards the progress of women. Even after stringent laws for infant
deaths , female foeticide can be seen ,many of the families can be seen
reluctant toward the girl child ,even now women are seen less in
professional courses ,our judiciary is also no exception of it Recently a
female judge delineated about aversion of male judges in giving the
common societal cases to women judges, they think that women are not
able to handle cases properly.The metoo movement which was originally
started in America and ultimately started in India after the nun from kerala
made an allegation on the bishop of roman catholic .This metoo
movement gave power to women to take stand for themselves against the
powerful people who had done something wrong to them , Many of the
9
Schneiders, S.M.Oil in Their Lamps: Faith, Feminism, and the Future (New York: Paulist Press,2000).
P98.
famous actors, politicians ,producers and directors and even some of the
females are alleged to harass girls in this #metoo movement. In a nutshell,
feminist perspective on justice calls for securing the overall development
of women, including improvement of their health and education as well
as giving them adequate share in economic and political power.