feminist movement
商务英语学院
2011-2012学年第二学期
英语国家概况课程论文
Historical development and influence of feminist movement
女权运动的历史发展和影响
姓名阮胜聪学号1206100113
专业商务英语班级 1001
评阅时间：2012 年月日评阅教师：
Historical development and influence of feminist
movement
Abstract:feminist movement do play a important role in women’s life,it frees women’s mind and changes women’s social position.I think all of us should know some information about feminist movement.I want to introduce the historical development of feminist movement in USA and tell some influence of feminist movement towards western. Of course, I will express my view about the feminist movement.
Key words:definition; historical development;influence;USA;western
I. Introduction
feminist movement do play a important role in women’s life,it frees women’s mind and changes women’s social position.I think all of us should know some information about feminist movement.I want to introduce the historical development of feminist movement in USA and tell some influence of feminist movement towards western. Of course, I will express my view about the feminist movement.The feminist movement refers to a series of campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment and sexual violence. The movement's priorities vary among nations and communities and range from opposition to female genital mutilation in one country or to the glass ceiling in another.The feminist movement has been an ongoing presence in American culture,so if you want to know American culture,it is necessary to learn the development of the feminist movement in US and the profound meaning of the feminist movement.Moreover, to a certain degree,we can say that we,all women benefit from the feminist movement.
II .The definition of feminist movement
The feminist movement (also known as the Women's Movement, Women's Liberation.The aim is to fight for equal rights for women, to have a same position as men, and to choose their own career and the freedom of lifestyle.it is a movement that has sought to challenge the political structure, power holders, and cultural beliefs or practices
III.The historical development of feminist movement in US
3.1 feminist movement in the early 19th century
During the early 19th century, with the ongoing reform of religion,the United States gradually were out of the closed family to participate in various social activities , and then began to fight for women rights.women began to realize the gender inequality because they came into contact with widespread ideas of freedom and equality during the War of Independence.And then a lot of intelligent women express their views through community discussions and private communications.July 1792, a women wrote a letter to a women's magazine,said,"I am opposed to a word 'observance' in the marriage....Marriage shoud not be regarded as a contract of the senior and the junior, but should be a two-way power alliance,a self-evident partnership.
due to the appeal of the Finney evangelical principles,middle-class women not only took part in the groups of male leadership, but also set up various women's group for charitable reform.The most influential movement are Female Moral Reform, The Temperance Movement and The Antislavery Movement.
first, female education had slow progress, while “women's secondary school”(female academy) was built in the 18th century , the women's form of “private schools for girls”(female semin ary) was built in the turn of the century. “In these schools, women found themselves intelligent, also experienced a strengthening of women's society, aware of women and men of different special mission.” Second, because of economic development, home economy and operating was sepereted .Menwas out to work to support their families, while women was increasingly being detained at home. At that time, physicians and educators in general think that women's brain and nervous system is not stable enough, not sufficient to maintain the intellectual jobs.Traditional female occupations, such as midwives, have basically been replaced by men.More and more women were not achieving their self-worth, in aera of opportunities greatly increased for men and women's activities are more and more narrow the world. Well-educated middle-class women particular felt their opportunities decline. Middle-class women were frequently detainedin fertility and heavy domestic duties at home. Some of them thus engaged in the Gospel and want to improve their own values reflected in the form of community. New Y ork's women had most high enthusiasm for the reform .
3.2 The rise of feminist movement in USA in 20th
After the Second World War, the contradiction between the conservative gender awareness and development of economic life, the intensification of social contradictions are the reason for the rise of the women's movement again.
Before World War II, marriage for women means that they will focus their energy on the homelife.After the beginning of the World War II,as the scale of war was expanded,more and more men had to take part in the war,which means that women had to go to work gradully.And then women’s work position had changed a lot.
The USA’s economy increased rapidly and in the 20th century gradually developed into the world 's number one capitalist power , the capitalist world of
freedom and equality bring a deep impact on every American, women is no exception. The employment rate of women in big companies surged, especially like the telephone companies,textile industry and so on.Moreover, more and more women achieved economic independence and got rid of dependence on men.And the backbone of the force in the feminist movement can be generated .while women left their home to go to work after the finish of World War II,inevitably lead to the breakdown of traditional family values ,which will lead to opposition from the male-dominated society.If women are to determine their position in the work ,they must fight for the recognition of their important role in the work.
during the development process in the United State, the capitalist mode of production, to a certain degree, distorted people's mind.With the further improvement of people's awareness, a great number of people with breadth of vision realized that the capitalism exists huge crisis and they began to exmaine and reflect the shortfalls in the US.And that was conducive to the development of feminist movement and created favoravle condition for the movement.
IV.The influence of feminist movement towards western
4.1 The language
Feminists are often proponents of using non-sexist language, using "Ms." to refer to both married and unmarried women, for example, or the ironic use of the term "herstory" instead of "history". Feminists are also often proponents of using gender-inclusive language, such as "humanity" instead of "mankind", or "he or she" in place of "he" where the gender is unknown.
Gender-neutral language is a description of language usages which are aimed at minimizing assumptions regarding the biological sex of human referents. The advocacy of gender-neutral language reflects, at least, two different agendas: one aims to clarify the inclusion of both sexes or genders (gender-inclusive language); the other proposes that gender, as a category, is rarely worth marking in language (gender-neutral language). Gender-neutral language is sometimes described as non-sexist language by advocates and politically-correct language by opponents.
4.2 The change in political area
Concern for women's rights can be traced back to the Enlightenment Movement,the idea of freedom,egalitarian and reformist in this period was expanded by the middle class , peasants and urban workers to women.
This period of the early thinking on women's rights was fully elaborated on the book written by Mary Wollstonecraft,"feminist denfense".The book challenged the concept that the existence of women is just to please the male and suggested that women should gained the same opportunites in education,job and politics.However,in the 19th century ,such concept that women are the same with men concentrated in the women's suffrage movement,but do not make fundamental or far-reaching re- estimate in women's social position, the role the women played and the proportion in
economy.In the late 19th century , some women began to work in the professional field. Elizabeth Cady, Stanton ,the National Woman Suffrage Association has repeatedly asked the federal Congress to allow women to participate in politics to vote.But NWSA encountered repeatedly refusion in the 14th and 15th amendments. In the final half of the 20th century, women as a whole, won the right to vote and passed in the Nineteenth Amendment(1920).Although the bill passed,but there is still a obvious limitation in the work that women can be engaged in .To popular belief,women is limited to the traditional role of wife, mother and housewife.But ,today ,many women participate in the politics and play a important role in politics.For example,Hillary Rodham Clinton,the United States Secretary of State,has done many concrete things for Americans and has shone brightly in political area.She is a very powful women and a typical representative of feminism.
4.3 Heterosexual relationships
The increased entry of women into the workplace beginning in the 20th century has affected gender roles and the division of labor within households. Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild in The Second Shift and The Time Bind presents evidence that in two-career couples, men and women, on average, spend about equal amounts of time working, but women still spend more time on housework. Feminist writer Cathy Y oung responds to Hochschild's assertions by arguing that in some cases, women may prevent the equal participation of men in housework and parenting.
Feminist criticisms of men's contributions to child care and domestic labor in the Western middle class are typically centered around the idea that it is unfair for women to be expected to perform more than half of a household's domestic work and child care when both members of the relationship perform an equal share of work outside the home. Several studies provide statistical evidence that the financial income of married men does not affect their rate of attending to household duties.
In Dubious Conceptions, Kristin Luker discusses the effect of feminism on teenage women's choices to bear children, both in and out of wedlock. She says that as childbearing out of wedlock has become more socially acceptable, young women, especially poor young women, while not bearing children at a higher rate than in the 1950s, now see less of a reason to get married before having a child. Her explanation for this is that the economic prospects for poor men are slim, hence poor women have a low chance of finding a husband who will be able to provide reliable financial support due to the rise of unemployment from more workers on the market, from just men to women and men.
Although research suggests that, to an extent, both women and men perceive feminism to be in conflict with romance, studies of undergraduates and older adults have shown that feminism has positive impacts on relationship health for women and sexual satisfaction for men, and found no support for negative stereotypes of feminists.
4.4 The economic position
At the same time ,women’s economic position has improved largely.Women’s
right.
Childbearing was regarded as the fundamental rights of women have been gradually social identity,women can decide whether they give birth to child or not.Women gave birth to fewer babies.As the invention of household appliances , they were free to do many heavy chores. With the rapid development of industrialization ,women were forced to participate in part of the work.In Few decades after the Second World War, the Western world economic development of the service industry has contributed to create lots of jobs that women are capable of like men. the proportion of women in the factory has increased.And women have the right to make their own decisions and the right to own their property.Moreover, women have equitable wages in broad employment and access to university education.
4.5 International Law
International law CEDAW ,The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is an international convention adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. Described as an international bill of rights for women, it came into force on 3 September 1981. Several countries have ratified the Convention subject to certain declarations, reservations, and objections. Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Qatar, Nauru, Palau, Tonga, and the United States have not ratified CEDAW. Expecting a U.S. Senate vote, NOW has encouraged President Obama to remove U.S. reservations and objections added in 2002 before the vote. The CEDAW does not protect men from any form of discrimination.
4.6 Religion
Feminist theology is a movement that reconsiders the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of religions from a feminist perspective. Some of the goals of feminist theology include increasing the role of women among the clergy and religious authorities, reinterpreting male-dominated imagery and language about God, determining the place of women in relation to career and motherhood, and studying images of women in the religion's sacred texts.
The feminist movement has affected religion and theology in profound ways. In liberal branches of Protestant Christianity, women are now allowed to be ordained as clergy, and in Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism, women are now allowed to be ordained as rabbis and cantors. In some of these groups, some women are gradually obtaining positions of power that were formerly only held by men, and their perspectives are now sought out in developing new statements of belief. These trends, however, have been resisted within most sects of Islam, Roman Catholicism, and Orthodox Christianity.
Christian feminism is a branch of feminist theology which seeks to reinterpret and understand Christianity in light of the equality of women and men. While there is no standard set of beliefs among Christian feminists, most agree that God does not discriminate on the basis of biologically determined characteristics such as sex. Their major issues are the ordination of women, male dominance in Christian marriage, and claims of moral deficiency and inferiority of abilities compared to men. They also are
concerned with the balance of parenting between mothers and fathers, and the overall treatment of women in the church.
Early feminists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton concentrated almost solely on "making women equal to men". However, the Christian feminist movement chose to concentrate on the language of religion because they viewed the historic gendering of God as male as a result of the pervasive influence of patriarchy. Rosemary Radford Ruether provided a systematic critique of Christian theology from a feminist and theist point of view.
Islamic feminism is concerned with the role of women in Islam and aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Although rooted in Islam, the movement's pioneers have also utilized secular and Western feminist discourses. Advocates of the movement seek to highlight the deeply rooted teachings of equality in the Quran and encourage a questioning of the patriarchal interpretation of Islamic teaching through the Quran, hadith (sayings of Muhammad), and sharia (law) towards the creation of a more equal and just society.
Jewish feminism seeks to improve the religious, legal, and social status of women within Judaism and to open up new opportunities for religious experience and leadership for Jewish women. In its modern form, the movement can be traced to the early 1970s in the United States. According to Judith Plaskow, who has focused on feminism in Reform Judaism, the main issues for early Jewish feminists in these movements were the exclusion from the all-male prayer group or minyan, the exemption from positive time-bound mitzvot, and women's inability to function as witnesses and to initiate divorce.
V. My view about the feminist movement
I think feminist movement play an important role in the world and the influence is widely even today.This movement has gained more benefit for our women,for instance, the right to vote, the social position,the language and so on .In the past,women just a an accessory for the men and for the society.They can not be independent in economy and many aspect of life. As the matter of fact, the women’s position is very low.And I think the appearance of feminist movement is inevitable. As the develoment of world,many advanced thought emerged, and as long as the world is continue to develop and perfect ,the feminist movement would must taken place.Otherwise, the world can not be advanced.Today,the traditional stereotype of a woman at work in her home is gone.Women began to be independent in economy, and we can see many women participate in politics and they do work better in the politics as men.And in the companies, we can see many female’s manager.And they really do well jobs.I do remember that in acient China,there is a old saying that It’s a virtue for women without knowledge.But now, the environment is totally different. And women can receive university education like men.
Bibliography
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[2]Babara Ryan.Feminism and Women’s Movement.NewYork:Routledge,1992
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