We explain what the feminist movement is, when it emerged and what its characteristics are, its evolution, the role of men and more.
Feminism is a movement that fights for equal rights.
What is the feminist movement?
The feminist movement It is the fight for an essential democratic principle which is the equality of rights between women and men.Feminism is not the opposite of machismo, which prioritizes the rights of a single gender, but rather seeks to achieve equality.
Feminism calls for the liberation of women and the elimination of hierarchies and privileges imposed by men on men under a patriarchal system that has long been perpetuated through cultural structures.
It is an international movement that has been fighting for the recognition of women for centuries. The last 30 years are considered the fourth wave of the movement.However, throughout the world there continue to exist various realities of injustice and rejection that do not respect the equal rights of all beings.
It is estimated that it will take another 200 years before women achieve democratic equality, gender violence is significantly reduced and they achieve equal opportunities and economic participation.
See also: International Women’s Day
Origin of the feminist movement
Beginning in the 20th century, women gradually began to vote around the world.
The origin of the feminist movement dates back to the 18th century during the Age of Enlightenment, when the bourgeoisie fought against the absolutism of the nobility. It was an influential historical period for Western culture, in which science and democracy took center stage over the Church and the monarchical system of government.
In the French Revolution of 1789, women were protagonists alongside men. of a revolutionary movement against monarchical absolutism and in defense of rights and freedoms. However, after the declaration of the Rights of man and of the citizen Women were excluded from political and civil rights.
The deprivation of women’s rights had been experienced for centuries and was due to the oppression of patriarchal systems (in which the authority of men predominates) that exercised various methods of slavery and submission to people of different races, the humble lower class and women, among other groups.
The French writer, playwright and philosopher Marie Gouze (1748 – 1793), who used the pseudonym Olympe de Gouges, wrote feminist and revolutionary texts against slavery in all its forms. She defended equality between women and men and rights such as the right to education, the right to vote, public employment and equal roles in the family. However, she was sentenced to death for her ideas.
The first women’s rights convention was held in 1848. in the city of Seneca Falls, United States, which culminated in the Seneca Falls Declaration, the first collective document of feminism that established the demand for social, civil, political and religious rights for women. It was a key event for the feminist movement.
However, From the 19th century onwards, women’s demands became formalised. through demonstrations, such as the one in 1913 in New York, United States, in which women demanded the right to vote and be elected to public office.
In 1948, the United Nations approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which included in Article 21 the right of every person to participate in the government of their country and to express themselves through suffrage.
Milestones of feminism
Among the main milestones of the feminist movement are:
- The first women of whom there is information that They rebelled against the oppressive culture between the 15th and 17th centuries They were Christine de Pizan, Marie de Gournay and Mary Astell.
- The French Revolution of 1789 It meant, for the first time, the union of women in order to demand their rights. Although they fought alongside men against monarchical absolutism, it provoked a general awakening of women in order to demand equal rights.
- In 1791 The writer and revolutionary activist Olympe de Gouges wrote an essay that turned out to be the first declaration of women’s rightswhich included freedom, equality and political rights to vote, but which was rejected by patriarchal leaders.
- At the end of the 18th century, women who demanded equal rights or met in clubs to propose political improvements were silenced or annihilated by men who held positions of power.
- Mary Wollstonecraft rebelled against arguments about the inferiority of women that came from men like Jean-Jacques Rousseau who said that women should be weak and passive, and that they were made to please men.
- The inequality of rights between women and men was not biological, but It was a product of education and established social norms by men.
- In the demonstrations of the feminist movement the right of access to education was demanded because it was key for women to achieve autonomy and economic independence.
- The idea was defended that Both men and women have the same capabilities to feel, think and reason.
- In 1848 the first collective document of feminism was made called the Seneca Falls Declaration, a name that refers to the city in the United States where it was made.
- Following the American Civil War, known as the Secession War, Between 1861 and 1865, freed slaves were allowed to vote, but not women..
- In 1903 the leader of the British feminist suffragettes Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Social and Political Union of Women and encouraged other women to demand their right to equality. Many of these women were imprisoned.
- March 8, 1909 was the first time that International Women’s Day was commemorated. in New York, United States, to recognize women’s struggle for their rights.
- During World War I in 1914, British women replaced men in their jobs. because they had to march to the front of the war. Aware of their capabilities, women intensified their demand for access to the female vote.
- In 1920, women’s suffrage was included in the United States. in the modification of the American constitution.
- In 1928 the British constitution was amended and women were able to vote on equal terms with men.
- At the beginning of the 20th century the second wave occurred of the feminist movement. From 1960 onwards, with the influence of the British writer Virginia Woolf, who lived her sexuality with absolute freedom and publicly declared that she was bisexual, more demands for feminism were generated.
- The way women dressed was one of the conventions of ancient times, which oppressed them with corsets and uncomfortable dresses. Part of the revolution advanced through fashion.
- The French designer Coco Chanel created clothes that contributed to women’s liberationadapting men’s clothing to the woman’s body. She made comfortable clothing and flat shoes to allow greater freedom of movement.
The sexual revolution of the 60s
The revolution of the 60s externalized the subject of sexuality, which until then had been considered taboo.
The sexual revolution of the 1960s marked a before and after in the history of further boosted the women’s liberation movementIt was a social movement started by young people that defended the concept of freedom for men and women that was expressed through sexuality, an aspect that until then had been forbidden and was hardly talked about.
The sexual revolutionary movement It had its heyday between the 70s and 80s and was visible in all cultural aspectssuch as music, film, art and literature, from all over the world.
One of the main aspects of the revolution was that Sexuality was disconnected from reproduction and understood in terms of pleasureIt was not considered something prohibited or only necessary for reproduction.
Some characteristics of the sexual revolution were:
- The exhibition of bodies.
- The use of more comfortable, informal and colorful clothing.
- The men grew long hair and beards.
- Women stopped wearing heels and bras.
- Women wore miniskirts, Oxford-style jeans and light dresses.
- The hippie movement was represented by young pacifists who fought against social injustice.
- The idea of free love that opposed the structures established by the Church and culture.
- The freedom to choose about their own bodies, to choose motherhood and to fight for gender freedom.
- The claim to the right to access contraceptive methods, such as the contraceptive pill and condoms.
- The idea that sexual pleasure also concerns women and not just men.
- The motto: “make love, not war.”
Despite the impact of the sexual revolution, the pressure of the patriarchal system around the world resisted change. The demand for freedom based on sexuality for men and women was transformed into a new hidden cultural conception: the objectification of women and femininity.
Women became consumer objects shaped based on stereotypes of beauty and supposed liberation, through which many men could become financially rich.
Evolution of the feminist movement
In the 18th century, during the first wave of feminism, women’s demands were based on the right to equality, access to public office and suffrage.
Over the centuries, the movement continued its struggle and went through the so-called second and third waves of feminism, in which more rights were demanded and more women, such as African-American women, and other genders, were taken into account.
Among the main characteristics of the evolution of the feminist movement are:
- In 1949 the Frenchwoman Simone de Beauvoir published the essay The second sex which shook France. It was considered a scandal and inappropriate, especially by religious sectors. However, it turned out to be one of the works that founded the second wave of feminism. A couple of decades later it was considered a reference book by the women’s liberation movement.
- Liberal feminism until the mid-twentieth century called for reforms in the lawsHowever, laws alone were not enough to change society because the root of the problem was even deeper, with a deeply rooted social and political structure: the patriarchal system in which men exercised dominion over women.
- Since the 1970s, radical feminism has focused its fight against patriarchy. that…