Portal:Feminism

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The Feminism Portal

Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern societies are patriarchal—they prioritize the male point of view—and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women.

Originating in late 18th-century Europe, feminist movements have campaigned and continue to campaign for women's rights, including the right to vote, run for public office, work, earn equal pay, own property, receive education, enter into contracts, have equal rights within marriage, and maternity leave. Feminists have also worked to ensure access to contraception, legal abortions, and social integration; and to protect women and girls from sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Changes in female dress standards and acceptable physical activities for women have also been part of feminist movements.

Many scholars consider feminist campaigns to be a main force behind major historical societal changes for women's rights, particularly in the West, where they are near-universally credited with achieving women's suffrage, gender-neutral language, reproductive rights for women (including access to contraceptives and abortion), and the right to enter into contracts and own property. Although feminist advocacy is, and has been, mainly focused on women's rights, some argue for the inclusion of men's liberation within its aims, because they believe that men are also harmed by traditional gender roles. Feminist theory, which emerged from feminist movements, aims to understand the nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles and lived experiences. Feminist theorists have developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues concerning gender.

Numerous feminist movements and ideologies have developed over the years, representing different viewpoints and political aims. Traditionally, since the 19th century, first-wave liberal feminism, which sought political and legal equality through reforms within a liberal democratic framework, was contrasted with labour-based proletarian women's movements that over time developed into socialist and Marxist feminism based on class struggle theory. Since the 1960s, both of these traditions are also contrasted with the radical feminism that arose from the radical wing of second-wave feminism and that calls for a radical reordering of society to eliminate patriarchy. Liberal, socialist, and radical feminism are sometimes referred to as the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought.

Since the late 20th century, many newer forms of feminism have emerged. Some forms, such as white feminism and gender-critical feminism, have been criticized as taking into account only white, middle class, college-educated, heterosexual, or cisgender perspectives. These criticisms have led to the creation of ethnically specific or multicultural forms of feminism, such as black feminism and intersectional feminism. Some have argued that feminism often promotes misandry and the elevation of women's interests above men's, and criticize radical feminist positions as harmful to both men and women. (Full article...)

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Mary: A Fiction is the first and only complete novel written by the eighteenth-century British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. It tells the tragic story of a heroine's successive "romantic friendships" with a woman and a man. Composed while Wollstonecraft was a governess in Ireland, the novel was published in 1788 shortly after her summary dismissal and her momentous decision to embark on a writing career, a precarious and disreputable profession for women in eighteenth-century Britain. Inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's idea that geniuses are self-taught, Wollstonecraft chose a rational, self-taught heroine, Mary, as the central character of her novel. Helping to redefine genius (a word which at the end of the eighteenth century was only beginning to take on its modern meaning of exceptional or brilliant), Wollstonecraft describes Mary as independent and capable of defining femininity and marriage for herself. It is Mary's "strong, original opinions" and her resistance to "conventional wisdom" that mark her as a genius. Making her heroine a genius allowed Wollstonecraft to criticize marriage as well: geniuses were "enchained" rather than enriched by marriage.

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Credit: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Mary Pickford (1892-1979) was an Academy Award-winning Canadian motion picture star. She was a co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In consideration of her contributions to American cinema, the American Film Institute named Pickford 24th among the greatest female stars of all time.

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In this month

12 October 1810 – Birth of Nísia Floresta Brasileira Augusta (pictured), considered the "first Brazilian feminist", she wrote the first Brazilian book to discuss women's rights
16 October 1869 – Girton College, Cambridge, first residential college for women in England, established by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon
16 October 1916 – Margaret Sanger opened the first family planning and birth control clinic in the United States.
17 October 1947 – Birth of Brinda Karat, an Indian activist within the labor and women's movements, she gained prominence reforming rape laws and became the first female member of the CPI(M) Politburo.
24 October 1929 – First publication of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, a book-length essay which includes the famous dictum "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction"

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In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: Either she's a feminist or a masochist.

— Gloria Steinem

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Sir John Vanbrugh was an English architect and dramatist, best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restoration comedies, The Relapse (1696) and The Provoked Wife (1697), which have become enduring stage favourites but originally occasioned much controversy. Vanbrugh was in many senses a radical throughout his life. As a young man and a committed Whig, he was part of the scheme to overthrow James II, put William III on the throne and protect English parliamentary democracy, dangerous undertakings which landed him in the dreaded Bastille of Paris as a political prisoner. In his career as a playwright, he offended many sections of Restoration and 18th-century society, not only by the sexual explicitness of his plays, but by their messages in defence of women's rights in marriage. His architectural work was as bold and daring as his early political activism and his marriage-themed plays, and jarred conservative opinions on the subject.

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... that after dying in her daughter's arms in an asylum in 1897, Maria Trubnikova was remembered as the "heart and soul" of feminist activism in Russia?
... that Margareth Rago seeks to establish a methodology for what she calls "feminist science"?

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...that Soviet sniper Roza Shanina's (pictured) declaration "I shall return after the battle" would be paraphrased in a book title?
...that feminist American magazine Ms. has not carried advertisements since 1989?
...that the feminist group Women on Waves, which built a gynecology unit on a ship, performs abortions in international waters?

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The following are images from various feminism-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Clara Zetkin (left) and Rosa Luxemburg (right) in January 1910 (from International Women's Day)
Image 2Women's Liberation march in Washington, D.C., 1970 (from History of feminism)
Image 3A veil-burning ceremony in Andijan on International Women's Day in 1927. (from International Women's Day)
Image 4First edition print of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (from History of feminism)
Image 5Yellow mimosa is the symbol of IWD in Italy as well as in Russia, Ukraine and many other ex-Soviet Union republics (from International Women's Day)
Image 6Suffrage parade in New York, May 6, 1912 (from History of feminism)
Image 7Germaine Greer in June 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 8María Elena Oddone holding a banner, on International Women's Day in 1984 in Argentina. The banner says "No to motherhood, yes to pleasure". (from International Women's Day)
Image 9An Antimonumenta, installed in Mexico City on International Women's Day 2019, as photographed the day after. The circle part says "In Mexico 9 women are murdered daily" and the cross part says "Not one more!" On the opposite side, the Antimonumenta reads "We demand a national gender alert", and in the central part "No + Femicides". (from International Women's Day)
Image 10
  Official holiday
  Holiday for women
  Non-official holiday
(from International Women's Day)
Image 11Nellie McClung (from History of feminism)
Image 12Author and scholar Helen Kendrick Johnson opposed women's suffrage. (from History of feminism)
Image 13Cover of WSPU's The Suffragette, April 25, 1913 (after Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, 1830) (from History of feminism)
Image 14Board of directors of "Jam'iat e nesvan e vatan-khah", a women's rights association in Tehran (1923–1933) (from History of feminism)
Image 15bell hooks (from History of feminism)
Image 16Frances Cobbe (from History of feminism)
Image 17Christine de Pizan presents her book to Queen Isabeau of Bavaria. (from History of feminism)
Image 188M 2020 in Spain (from International Women's Day)
Image 19Camilla Collett (from History of feminism)
Image 20Margaret Sanger (from History of feminism)
Image 21Catharine MacKinnon (from History of feminism)
Image 22Sylvia Pankhurst (from History of feminism)
Image 23Florence Nightingale (from History of feminism)
Image 24John Neal (from History of feminism)
Image 25Gloria Steinem at news conference, Women's Action Alliance, January 12, 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 26Simone de Beauvoir (from History of feminism)
Image 27Emily Davison (from History of feminism)
Image 28Lucy Stone (from History of feminism)
Image 29Betty Friedan 1960 (from History of feminism)
Image 30Huda Shaarawi, founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union (from History of feminism)
Image 31Wealthy Chinese women with bound feet (Beijing, 1900). Foot binding was a symbol of women's oppression during the reform movements in the 19th and 20th centuries. (from History of feminism)
Image 32Bessie Rayner Parkes (from History of feminism)
Image 33Female members of the Australian Builders Labourers Federation march on International Women's Day 1975 in Sydney (from International Women's Day)
Image 34Marie Stopes (from History of feminism)
Image 35Irena Krzywicka (from History of feminism)
Image 36Women on the street celebrating International Women's Day in Cameroon (from International Women's Day)
Image 37The vandalized Concepción Feminist Mural in Spain, which was vandalized on International Women's Day 2021. (from International Women's Day)
Image 38Elizabeth Cady Stanton (seated) and Susan B. Anthony (from History of feminism)
Image 39Ida B. Wells (from History of feminism)
Image 40The Nineteenth Amendment (from History of feminism)
Image 418M 2018 in Pamplona (from International Women's Day)
Image 42Matilda Joslyn Gage (from History of feminism)

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This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Feminism}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.

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Alice Manfield - Guide Alice, Mt Buffalo, c1900-30, SLV
Alice Park - Records of the National Woman's Party
Alice Paul (1915) by Harris & Ewing
Angela Davis in a half-length portrait by Bernard Gotfryd - crop
Anne Dallas Dudley LOC
Avril de Sainte-Croix - Restored, cropped
Bertha Lutz 1925
Cabinet Card of Sojourner Truth - Collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Convicts Lunatics and Women! Have No Vote for Parliament, ca. 1907-1918
Dr. Caroline Spencer 275029v
Ethel Smyth
Frances Benjamin Johnston, Self-Portrait (as "New Woman"), 1896
Fredrikke Mørck
George Charles Beresford - Virginia Woolf in 1902 - Restoration
Henrietta Rodman from the George Grantham Bain Collection
Henry Mayer, The Awakening, 1915 Cornell CUL PJM 1176 01 - Restoration
Hester Jeffrey
Hubertine Auclert 1910
Iris Calderhead
Joy Young Rogers outside the White House
Lucretia Mott, signed photo, by F. Gutekunst
Mabel Vernon, c. 1917, by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Marguerite Durand 1910 - Restoration
Marie Stopes in her laboratory, 1904 - Restoration
Mary Garrity - Ida B. Wells-Barnett - Google Art Project - restoration crop
Millicent Fawcett
Mrs. Crystal Eastman Benedict by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Mrs. Lillian Ascough, chairman of the Connecticut branch of the Woman's Party
Mrs. Pauline Adams 147002v
Portrett av Gina Krog (6276081582) - Restoration
Poster by Anna Soós Korànyi for the Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance
Ray Strachey restored
Sojourner Truth, 1870 (cropped, restored)
Victoria Claflin Woodhull by Mathew Brady - Oval Portrait
Voltairine de Cleyre (Age 35)
We Can Do It! NARA 535413 - Restoration 2