The Feminism Book

2019·201.13 MB·English

by  Dorling Kindersley

CONTENTS
HOW TO USE THIS EBOOK
INTRODUCTION
THE BIRTH OF FEMINISM • 18TH–EARLY 19TH CENTURY
Men are born free, Women are born slaves • Early British feminism
Our body is the clothes of our soul • Early Scandinavian feminism
Injured woman! Rise, assert thy right! • Collective action in the 18th century
It is in your power to free yourselves • Enlightenment feminism
I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves • Emancipation from
domesticity
We call on all women, whatever their rank • Working-class feminism
I taught them the religion of God • Education for Islamic women
Every path laid open to Woman as freely as to Man • Female autonomy in a male-dominated
world
THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUAL RIGHTS • 1840–1944
When you sell your labor, you sell yourself • Unionization
A mere instrument of production • Marxist feminism
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal • The birth of
the suffrage movement
I have as much muscle as any man • Racial and gender equality
A woman who contributes cannot be treated contemptuously • Marriage and work
Marriage makes a mighty legal difference to women • Rights for married women
I felt more determined than ever to become a physician • Better medical treatment for women
People condone in man what is fiercely condemned in woman • Sexual double standards
Church and state assumed divine right of man over woman • Institutions as oppressors
All women languishing in family chains • Socialization of childcare
Woman was the sun. Now she is a sickly moon • Feminism in Japan
Take courage, join hands, stand beside us • Political equality in Britain
We war against war • Women uniting for peace
Let us have the rights we deserve • The global suffrage movement
Birth control is the first step toward freedom • Birth control
Men refuse to see the capabilities of women • Early Arab feminism
There is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind • Intellectual
freedom
Resolution lies in revolution • Anarcha-feminism
THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL • 1945–1979
One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman • The roots of oppression
Something is very wrong with the way American women are trying to live • The problem with
no name
“God’s plan” is often a front for men’s plans • Feminist theology
Our own biology has not been properly analyzed • Sexual pleasure
I have begun to make a contribution • Feminist art
No More Miss America! • Popularizing women’s liberation
Our feelings will lead us to actions • Consciousness-raising
An equalizer, a liberator • The Pill
We are going all the way • Radical feminism
Feminism will crack through the basic structures of society • Family structures
Women have very little idea how much men hate them • Confronting misogyny
Ms. authors translated a movement into a magazine • Modern feminist publishing
Patriarchy, reformed or unreformed, is patriarchy still • Patriarchy as social control
Uterus envy plagues the male unconscious • Uterus envy
We are always their indispensable workforce • Wages for housework
Health must be defined by us • Woman-centered health care
There is no beginning to defiance in women • Writing women into history
The liberty of woman is at stake • Achieving the right to legal abortion
You’ve got to protest, you’ve got to strike • Women’s union organizing
Scream quietly • Protection from domestic violence
The male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female • The male gaze
Rape is a conscious process of intimidation • Rape as abuse of power
Womyn-born-womyn is a lived experience • Trans-exclusionary radical feminism
Fat is a way of saying “no” to powerlessness • Fat positivity
Women’s liberation, everyone’s liberation • Indian feminism
Our voices have been neglected • Feminist theater
All feminists can and should be lesbians • Political lesbianism
Woman must put herself into the text • Poststructuralism
THE POLITICS OF DIFFERENCE • 1980s
The linguistic means of patriarchy • Language and patriarchy
Heterosexuality has been forcibly imposed on women • Compulsory heterosexuality
Pornography is the essential sexuality of male power • Antipornography feminism
Women are guardians of the future • Ecofeminism
“Woman” was the test, but not every woman seemed to qualify • Racism and class prejudice
within feminism
The military is the most obvious product of patriarchy • Women against nuclear weapons
Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender • Black feminism and womanism
The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house • Anger as an activist tool
Half the population works for next to nothing • Gross domestic product
White society stole our personhood • Anticolonialism
A community of sisters in struggle • Postcolonial feminism
Let us be the ancestors our descendants will thank • Indigenous feminism
Women remain locked into dead-end jobs • Pink-collar feminism
Women’s issues have been abandoned • Feminism in post-Mao China
Forced marriage is a violation of human rights • Preventing forced marriage
Behind every erotic condemnation there’s a burning hypocrite • Sex positivity
Everyone has the right to tell the truth about her own life • Survivor, not victim
Unearned privilege is permission to dominate • Privilege
All systems of oppression are interlocking • Intersectionality
We could be anyone and we are everywhere • Guerrilla protesting
A NEW WAVE EMERGES • 1990–2010
I am the Third Wave • Postfeminism and the third wave
Gender is a set of repeated acts • Gender is performative
Feminism and queer theory are branches of the same tree • Feminism and queer theory
The beauty myth is prescribing behavior, not appearance • The beauty myth
All politics are reproductive politics • Reproductive justice
Society thrives on dichotomy • Bisexuality
The antifeminist backlash has been set off • Antifeminist backlash
Girls can change the world for real • The Riot Grrrl movement
Figures of women constructed by men • Rewriting ancient philosophy
Theological language remains sexist and exclusive • Liberation theology
Disability, like femaleness, is not inferiority • Disability feminism
Women survivors hold families and countries together • Women in war zones
A gender power control issue • Campaigning against female genital cutting
Raunch culture is not progressive • Raunch culture
Equality and justice are necessary and possible • Modern Islamic feminism
A new type of feminism • Trans feminism
FIGHTING SEXISM IN THE MODERN DAY • 2010 ONWARD
Maybe the fourth wave is online • Bringing feminism online
Feminism needs sex workers and sex workers need feminism • Supporting sex workers
My clothes are not my consent • Ending victim blaming
Femininity has become a brand • Anticapitalist feminism
We should all be feminists • Universal feminism
Not a men vs women issue • Sexism is everywhere
We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back • Global education for girls
No female leaders, just leaders • Leaning in
When you expose a problem you pose a problem • The feminist killjoy
Women are a community and our community is not safe • Men hurt women
Equal pay is not yet equal • The pay gap
Survivors are guilty until proven innocent • Fighting campus sexual assault
Driving while female • The right to drive
#MeToo • Sexual abuse awareness
DIRECTORY
GLOSSARY
CONTRIBUTORS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
COPYRIGHT
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FOREWORD
Fresh out of university, I applied for a job in the city. The older of the two men
who interviewed me looked at my resumé and, seeing that I had written about
women’s issues for the student paper, asked: “Are you a feminist, then?” I could
practically see the thought cloud full of heavily dungareed women yomping
around the streets with placards but I wanted a job, so I replied cautiously,
“Well, I’m my idea of a feminist. I doubt whether I’m yours.” He acknowledged
my diplomacy with a nod but kept returning to the subject and—despite
attempted intervention by his younger colleague—badgering me about it. In the
end, in exasperation, I said, “Oh for God’s sake! I shaved my legs for this
interview, if that makes you feel any better!” His colleague froze but he laughed.
I got the job.
All of which is by way of saying: it’s a complicated business, feminism.
Ignorance abounds, as do stereotypes, hostility, and simple confusion. The only
way to dispel any and all of these is to provide greater information. To fill with
facts the void that allows fears, doubts, and prejudices to rush in. Anything, from
mastodons to global socio-political movements, become a whole lot less
frightening when they step out of the shadows and you can see exactly what it is
you are dealing with. This book illuminates feminism on all sides and beats back
ignorance with every page.
The Feminism Book also performs a second vital function—to give women in
particular a sense of their place in history, which is famously written by the
victors. Female activists and their achievements have always been
undercelebrated, underbroadcast, and underacknowledged. And when that
happens, it becomes harder to build on what has gone before. The wheel has to
be reinvented, which is exhausting even when you don’t have to give birth to
and raise the next generation at the same time.
Most of us are not taught the history of feminism in school. If we come to an
awareness of the imbalance between the sexes, it is piecemeal. More often than
not, for me, a tiny but outrageous snippet of news would catch my attention and