Rachel Finkle

Mr. Lacey
Sociology
February 25, 2016
Feminists
Feminism is the advocacy for equal treatment of women in respect to politics,
society and the economy. Feminist acitivity, while not identified as such at the time, dates
back as far as the 15th century. Feminist scholars define the movement in four "waves".
The first wave with the fight for women's suffrage, the second for income equality and
the women's liberation movement, the third, starting in the 1990s, addressing issues they
believed the second wave failed to, and the fourth using technology and developments in
social media platforms to more easily discuss and share feminist ideas, and with a larger
focus on intersectionality. Feminists differ from mainstream culture by fighting for
women's ability to stray from their traditional roles.
Feminist campaigns are considered to be responsible for major historical changes
for women's rights. They are credited for women's suffrage, gaining of women's
reproductive rights and the rights to enter into a contract and own property. Feminism
also serves to liberate men from harmful stereotypes about masculinity and gender roles.
While many consider feminism and outdated and uneccessary movement modern day
feminism addresses issues like the division of domestic labor, the media's treatment of
women, the wage gap, sexually autonomy, violence against women and the abortion
debate. Feminists have recently adopted issues of race, sexuality, class and gender
identity after much criticism of the movement focusing mainly on white, middle class
women. This has also resulted in ethnically specific subcultures of feminism, like black
feminism.
Feminism has had a hefty impact on our society not only politically, but in science
and in the arts. Sandra Harding says that the "moral and political insights of the women's
movement have inspired social scientists and biologists to raise critical questions about
the ways traditional researchers have explained gender, sex and relations within and
between the social and natural worlds." Feminism in psychology emerged as a critique of
the dominant male outlook on psychological research where only male perspectives were
studied with all male subjects. As women earned doctorates in psychology, females and
their issues were introduced as legitimate topics of study. The feminist movement created
new interest in women's writing. It also prompted a general reevaluation of women's
historical and academic contributions. Much of the early period of feminist literary
scholarship was given over to the rediscovery and reclamation of texts written by women.

Studies like Dale Spender's Mothers of the Novel (1986) and Jane Spencer's The Rise of
the Woman Novelist (1986) insisted that women had always been writing.
Feminists are responsible for movements that have campaigned and continue to
campaign for women's rights, including the right to vote, to hold public office, to work, to
earn fair wages or equal pay, to own property, to receive education, to enter contracts, to
have equal rights within marriage, and to have maternity leave. Feminists have also
worked to promote bodily autonomy and integrity, and to protect women and girls from
rape, sexual harassment, and domestic violence.