Feminist Movement

Feminist Movement Feminism movement is a movement started by women to gain reforms in their reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity problems, equal employment, female genital mutilation, sexual harassment and violence problems etc. This movement basically consists of three waves started in late 19th century in various western countries. However, major development was achieved in twentieth century. The third wave of feminism also involves world politics by women for showing greater influence upon the world forces. This paper will focus upon its effects bringing various social developments, language issue and womens health. The feminist movement brought various social developments for women particularly in the western society. They were given the right to vote. They are now allowed to take the divorce initiatives and no fault divorce. Women are now allowed to take decisions about their regarding their pregnancy independently. For instance, they were allowed to get their children aborted or to use contraceptives. They were given the right to own property on their own. The feminist movement has also taken women to various universities and eventually in the employment field. They were also given equal rights in terms of employment. Moreover, various laws have been passed regarding sexual harassment and domestic violence especially in the western countries in order to give women equality in every field of life. These social developments also suggested various progressive factors in the world. A UN Women report claims that women are performing 66 percent of the whole world (Messer-Davidow, 2002). One of the major social changes which this feminist movement brought is the use of nonsexist language. They endorsed the use of Ms. for married and unmarried women.

Similarly, they also condemned the use of herstory in place of History. Feminist promoted the gender-inclusive language so that women may not be discriminated. For instance, they supported the use of humanity replacing mankind and he or she instead of he so that the gender may not remain unknown to the reader. Basically, feminist movement aimed at promoted the usage of gender neutral language so that the assumptions taken for the sexual category of human beings may be minimized. According to Emily Martin, there are various metaphors that shape the mentality of the people in a certain way. For example, when we talk about the aggressive sperm and passive egg, people tend to think in a gender discriminating way. So a gender neutral approach in language is needed to be introduced in the feminist movement (Anonymous, 2001). Feminist movement has also contributed for creating awareness regarding womens health which was lacking historically. There were a few basic effects seen in terms of health awareness after feminist movement. Women became politically active. Health equality act and affirmative action were passed in terms of legislation. Affirmative action was taken to acknowledge the unawareness people had historically regarding womens health. Professional women were allowed to speak about their health issues in public without any fear. Moreover, academic women studies were also offered to promote this awareness. The major social changes of feminist movement were mostly seen in the western society. Therefore, it is required from the concerned authorities to spread this circle of awareness and womens progress in the whole world especially in the underdeveloped countries.

References

Feminist Movement

Anonymous, (2001). "Gender Neutral Language." University of Saskatchewan Policies. Messer-Davidow, E. (2002). Disciplining feminism: from social activism to academic discourse, Duke University Press.