century. The first wave of feminism
required equality between men and
women, including life equality, gender
equality, civil and political rights. It
fought against aristocratic privileges,
polygamy, and emphasized the equality
of ability and intelligence between men
and women.
The second wave of feminism was
between 1960s --70's. It is believed that
the
second
women's
liberation
movement originated in the United
States. The movement continued until
the 1980s. It emphasized on eliminating
the unequal labor division between men
and women. It also required to dispel the
differences between men and women.
The second feminist movement has
brought another result which was the
gender studies and also the amount of
feminists had risen. Therefore, a number
of different kinds of feminisms emerged.
And they were all predecessors of the
modern feminism.
To sum up, feminism exists as an
indispensable factor in the current world,
has a long history and causes due to the
political and historical reasons. It is
believed that the amount of feminists will
rise compared to the past, since more
and more women have chosen to stand
up and let their voices be heard.
Current situation of Feminis
written by Emily van den Heuvel
In the 20th century we had Simone de
Beauvoir and in the 21st century we have
Emma Watson. Feminism is in the 21st
century still very much alive. And after
the wonderful speech of Emma Watson
(at the UN as ambassador for the UN’s
HeforShe Campaign in 2014 red.),
feminism took back its spotlight.
Unequal by birth
In the modern society we live in
today, there still isn’t equality between
men and women. Neither in the working
field nor in social life. Inequality within
the work field appears in the difference
in salary between women and men
(even if they do the exact same job) and
in the division of gender within a
company. Also, different studies have
shown that men are often chosen over
women, even if a woman is more
competent in doing the job. This shows
that gender inequality is still alive in
today’s society. But this problem isn’t an
easy problem to solve. The problem is in
the way society thinks. People
compartmentalize other people foremost
by gender. Whereas women are
stereotyped as soft, emotional and
caring in contrast to men who are
stereotyped as tuff, businesslike,
technical
and
hunting.
These
‘stereotypes’ of the sexes, have been
existing for a long time already, which
makes it harder to change them. Women
used to be seen as housewives, wives
and mothers up till the 1960’s, with the
life purpose of getting married and
starting a family. The image of women
as businesswomen and being capable of
doing other things than the household, is
an image that came into existence much
later.
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