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Feminism is a collection of social theories, political movements and moral philosophies, largely motivated by or concerned with the liberation of women. Most feminists are especially concerned with social, political and economic inequality between men and women (in the context of it being to the disadvantage of women); some have argued that gendered and sexed identities, such as "man" and "woman", are socially constructed. Feminists differ over the sources of inequality, how to attain equality, and the extent to which gender and gender-based identities should be questioned and critiqued. In simple terms, feminism is the belief in social, political and economic equality of the sexes, and the movement organized around the belief that gender should not be the pre-determinant factor shaping a person's social identity, or socio-political or economic rights.

Most modern feminist political activists commonly campaign on issues such as reproductive rights, including the right to safe, legal abortion, access to contraception and quality prenatal care), violence within a domestic partnership, maternity leave, equal pay, sexual harassment, street harassment, discrimination and rape. Many feminists today argue that feminism is a grass-roots movement that seeks to cross boundaries based on social class, race, culture and religion. They also argue that an effective feminist movement should be culturally specific and address issues relevant to the women of the society in question such as female genital cutting, or "clitorectomies", in Africa and the Middle East and the "glass ceiling" issue in developed economies. They also debate the extent to which certain issues such as rape, incest and mothering are universal. Themes explored in feminism include patriarchy, stereotyping, sexual objectification and oppression.

Defining feminism

One of the difficulties in defining and circumscribing a complex and heterogenous concept such as feminism is the extent to which women have rejected the term from a variety of semantic and political standpoints. Many women engaged in activities intimately grounded in feminism have not considered themselves feminists. From a political vantage, the term 'feminism' has been rejected both because of fears of labelling, and because of its innate ability to attract broad misogyny. Historically Virginia Woolf was one of the more prominent women to reject the term early in its history, although it would be easy to overstate Woolf's position, considering that she is regarded as an icon of feminism.

Origins

Asking how long feminism has existed is a different question from that of asking when history chronicles feminism beginning. Feminism, as a construct, has probably existed as long as there have been women, even if the word did not really enter the English language till about 1890 from the earlier French "féminisme". Over time it has been called a number of other things, such as womanism. In the Judaeo-Christian world women found themselves depicted in negative imagery by religious leaders who also set social norms. These extended from Genesis, with the Creation and the Fall, to the teachings of St. Paul in the New Testament. While women's voices were few in relation to men, nevertheless we have records of a number of women who brought uniquely feminine perspectives to the interpretation of religion, and questioned patriarchal models. If a broad concept of feminism includes women acting, speaking and writing on women's issues and rights, then probably the first recorded activities go back at least as far as the 12th century.

Modern feminism as a philosophy and movement is often dated to The Enlightenment with such thinkers as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the Marquis de Condorcet championing women's education. The first scientific society for women was founded in Middelburg, a city in the south of the Dutch Republic in 1785. Journals for women which focused on issues like science became popular during this period as well. Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) is one of the first works that can unambiguously be called feminist.

Feminism became an organized movement in the 19th century as people increasingly came to believe that women were being treated unfairly. The feminist movement was rooted in the progressive movement and especially in the reform movement of the 19th century. The utopian socialist Charles Fourier has been credited with coining the word féminisme in 1837 (but this is disputed.) and had argued that the extension of women's rights underpinned all social progress as early as 1808. The organized movement was dated from the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. In 1869, John Stuart Mill published The Subjection of Women to demonstrate that "the legal subordination of one sex to the other is wrong...and...one of the chief hindrances to human improvement."

Many countries began to grant women the vote in the late 19th century and early 20th century (New Zealand being first in 1893, with the help of suffragist Kate Sheppard), especially in the final years of the First World War onwards. The reasons varied, but they included a desire to recognize the contributions of women during the war, and were also influenced by rhetoric used by both sides at the time to justify their war efforts. For example, since Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points recognized self-determination as vital to society, the hypocrisy of denying half the population of modern nations the vote became difficult to ignore.

Feminism in many forms

Some feminist theories question basic assumptions about gender, gender difference and sexuality, including the category of "woman" itself as a holistic concept, other theories question the male/female dichotomy completely (offering instead a multiplicity of genders). Still other feminist theories take for granted the concept of "woman" and provide specific analyses and critiques of gender inequality, and most feminist social movements promote women's rights, interests and issues. Several subtypes of feminist ideology have developed over the years. Early feminists and primary feminist movements are often called the first-wave feminists, and feminists after about 1960 the second-wave feminists. More recently, some younger feminists have identified themselves as third-wave feminists while the second-wave feminists are still active.

In her book A Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight from Equality, Wendy Kaminer identifies another conflict between forms of feminism: the conflict between what she calls "egalitarian" and "protectionist" feminism. She sees egalitarian feminism as promoting equality between women and men through the granting of equal rights. Protectionist feminists prefer to focus on legal protections for women, such as employment laws and divorce laws that protect women, sometimes advocating restricting men's rights, such as free speech (specifically, the right to produce and consume pornography). Though the book predates third-wave feminism, Kaminer identifies both protectionist and egalitarian currents within first-wave feminism and second-wave feminism.

Some radical feminists, such as Mary Daly, Charlotte Bunch and Marilyn Frye, have advocated separatism—a complete separation of male and female in society and culture—while others question not only the relationship between men and women, but the very meaning of "man" and "woman" as well (see Queer theory). Some argue that gender roles, gender identity and sexuality are themselves social constructs (see also heteronormativity). For these feminists, feminism is a primary means to human liberation (i.e., the liberation of men as well as women).

Most— certainly not all— feminists are women. There are exclusively male organisations sympathetic to the feminist view who believe the dominant model of manhood or masculinity is oppressive to women and limiting for men.

There is debate about feminism concerning which types should exclusively be labeled or considered. There are also overlapping beliefs such as in oppression by patriarchy and/or capitalism, and the belief they are synonymous.

Relationship to other movements

Some feminists take a holistic approach to politics, believing the saying of Martin Luther King Jr., "A threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." In that belief, some self-identified feminists support other movements such as the civil rights movement and the gay rights movement. At the same time, many black feminists such as bell hooks criticize the movement for being dominated by white women. Feminist claims about the alleged disadvantages women face in Western society are often less relevant to the lives of black women. This idea is the key in postcolonial feminism. Many black feminist women prefer the term womanism for their views.

Feminism is often linked with gay, lesbian and transgender studies and Psychoanalytic feminism places focus on psychosexual development. Some feminists are wary of the transgender movement because they view it as challenging the distinction between men and women. Transgender and transsexual individuals who identify as female are excluded from some "women-only" gatherings and events and are rejected by some feminists, who say that no one who was assigned as male at birth can fully understand the oppression that women face. This exclusion is criticized as "transphobic" by other feminists and transgender people alike, who assert that their political and social struggles are linked to those of feminists, and that discrimination against gender-variant people is a facet of the patriarchy. (See transfeminism and gender studies.)

In the 1800s the women's rights movement in the United States splintered over questions concerning the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution granting African American men the right to vote. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, among others, contended that black men should not be franchised unless similar rights were granted to all women. From 1868 to 1870, when the 15th Amendment was passed, this created division in the broader U.S. civil rights movement and, in 1869, caused a schism the women's suffrage movement, leading to the creation of the separate National Woman's Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman's Suffrage Association (AWSA) in the United States.

Modern feminism

Most feminists believe discrimination against women still exists worldwide. But there is disagreement within the movement regarding the severity of current problems, what the problems are, and how to confront them.

Extremes on the one hand include some radical feminists such as Gloria Allred and Mary Daly who argue that human society would be better off with dramatically fewer men. There are also dissidents, such as Christina Hoff Sommers or Camille Paglia, who identify themselves as feminist but who accuse the movement of anti-male prejudice.

Many feminists question the use of the term feminist to groups or people who fail to recognize a fundamental equality between the sexes. Some feminists, like Katha Pollitt (see her book Reasonable Creatures) or Nadine Strossen (President of the ACLU and author of Defending Pornography ), consider feminism to be simply that "women are people." Views that separate the sexes rather than unite them are considered by these people to be sexist rather than feminist.

There are also debates between difference feminists such as Carol Gilligan on the one hand, who believe that there are important differences between the sexes (which may or may not be inherent, but which cannot be ignored), and those who believe that there are no essential differences between the sexes, and that the roles observed in society are due to conditioning.

In Marilyn French's seminal works analyzing patriarchy and its effects on the world at large, she defines patriarchy as a system that values power over life, control over pleasure and dominance over happiness. According to French, "it is not enough either to devise a morality that will allow the human race simply to survive. Survival is an evil when it entails existing in a state of wretchedness. Intrinsic to survival and continuation is felicity/pleasure. Pleasure has been much maligned, diminished by philosophers and conquerors as a value for the timid, the small-minded and the self-indulgent. "Virtue" too often involves the renunciation of pleasure in the name of some higher purpose, a purpose that involves power (for men) or sacrifice (for women). Pleasure is described as shallow and frivolous in a world of high-minded, serious purpose. But pleasure does not exclude serious pursuits or intentions, indeed, it is found in them, and it is the only real reason for staying alive.". This philosophy is what Marilyn French offers as a replacement to the current structure where power has the highest value.

Carol Tavris, author of Anger: the Misunderstood Emotion and The Mismeasure of Woman: Why Women Are Not the Better Sex, the Inferior Sex, or the Opposite Sex, maintains that as long as men's experiences are considered to be the default human experiences, women will always face discrimination in North America or elsewhere. She holds that too much emphasis is placed on innate differences between men and woman, and that it has been used to justify the restriction of women's rights.

Effects of feminism in the West

While a number of feminists argue that there are many battles for equity to be waged, others disagree and observe that many challenges have been overcome. For example, in developed nations, women now outnumber men in both high school graduation rates and university enrollment . Women are admitted to professional schools at rates equal to or greater than males, the only notable exception being dentistry.

Effects on civil rights

Feminism has effected many changes in Western society, including women's suffrage, broad employment for women at more equitable wages, the right to initiate divorce proceedings and the introduction of "no fault" divorce, the right to obtain contraception and safe abortions, and the right to university education.

Effect on language

Many English-speaking feminists are often proponents of what they consider to be non-sexist language, using "Ms." to refer to both married and unmarried women or "he or she" (or other gender-neutral pronouns) in place of "he" where the gender is unknown. Feminists are also often proponents of using gender-inclusive language, such as "humanity" instead of "mankind". Feminists in most cases advance their desired use of language either to promote what they claim is an equal and respectful treatment of women or to affect the tone of political discourse. This can be seen as a move to change language which has been viewed by some feminists as imbued with sexism, providing for example the case in the English language in which the word for the general pronoun is "he" or "his" (The child should have his paper and pencils), which is the same as the masculine pronoun (The boy and his truck). These feminists argue that language then directly affects perception of reality (compare Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis).

In postcolonial feminism the issue of language is often less emphasized as many non-Indo-European languages do not have grammatical gender.

A different tendency can be seen in feminism inspired changes to the French language. Grammatical gender is much more pervasive in French than in English, making it virtually impossible to create inclusive language. Instead, nouns that originally had only a masculine form have had feminine counterparts created for them. "Professeur" ("teacher"), once always masculine regardless of the teacher's sex, now has a parallel feminine form "Professeure". In cases where separate masculine and feminine forms have always existed, it was once standard practice for a group containing both men and women to be referred to using the masculine plural. Nowadays, forms such as "Tous les Canadiens et Canadiennes" ("all Canadians", or literally "all the male Canadians and female Canadians") are becoming more common. Such phrasing is common in Canada and in France, where President Jacques Chirac routinely uses "Françaises et Français" (French women and French men) in political speeches, but is practically unknown in other French-speaking countries.

An equivalent tendency in Germany where male and female terms are both required in the plural is to use the male term, followed by the female plural ending. An example of this is instead of the bulky phrase sehr geehrte Kollegen und Kolleginnen, meaning dear male colleagues and female colleagues, is the use of sehr geehrte KollegInnen, which expresses the plurality of both genders.

Effect on heterosexual relationships

The entry of women into the workplace and the demands of child-rearing has modified gender roles. Some men argue that the de-emphasis on their being a primary provider harms their ability to attract mates. Furthermore, while many women have the choice to try to "have it all," they argue that societal expectations placed upon men preclude them from devoting themselves fully to domestic activities and child-rearing. Several studies support this belief, and point out the fact that although men are derided for not devoting enough time to childrearing and domestic tasks, few women seem attracted to men who engage in these activities to the detriment of their careers. Some argue that men devote less time to household chores because they devote more time to work outside the home. According to the International Labor Organization, "the average American father works 51 hours a week, whereas those mothers of young children who do work full time (themselves in the minority) work a 41-hour week." It has also been argued that women often hold the power in a relationship because they direct the majority of purchases made by a household, whereas men direct the few large purchases.

Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild attempted to counter these arguments with her books The Second Shift and The Time Bind. These books present some evidence that married men might contribute more time to their wives than to child care and housework. However, Hochschild's statistical evidence did not apply to two-career couples. According to the studies she cites, in two-career couples, men and women on the average spend about equal amounts of time working, but women still spend more time on housework. Feminist critiques of men's contributions to child care and domestic labor are typically centered around the idea that it is unfair for women to be expected to perform more than half of a household's domestic work and child care when both members of the relationship also work outside the home. Several studies provide statistical evidence that married men may contribute a smaller share of housework, regardless of whether or not they earn more than their wives. However, in general, in couples where one or both partners do not work outside the home, gender-based division of labor is less of a point of contention for feminists.

It should be noted that the preceding arguments mainly apply to middle-class women.

In her 1996 book Dubious Conceptions, Kristin Luker discusses the effect of feminism on teenage women's choices to bear a child, both in and out of wedlock. She argues that as childbearing without being married has become more socially acceptable for women, young women, while not bearing children at a higher rate than in the 1950s, now see less reason to get married before having a child, especially in the case of poor young women. To explain this, she argues that the economic prospects for poor men are slim, and so poor women have a low chance of finding a husband who will be able to provide reliable financial support.

There have also been changes in attitudes towards sexual morality and behavior with the onset of second wave feminism and "the Pill." Women are more in control of their bodies, and are freer to experience sex with fewer repercussions. This sexual revolution was seen as positive (especially by sex-positive feminists) as it enabled women and men to experience sex in a free and equal manner.

Evangelical (Christian) feminists sometimes argue that life-long monogamy ideally promotes egalitarianism in sex, especially when viewed in light of some other alternatives to monogamy (e.g., polygamy, swinging, open marriages, or infidelity). However, some feminists endorse polyamory, open marriage, cohabitation and swinging as egalitarian lifestyles (see sex-positive feminism).

Friedrich Engels, in his essay The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State expresses his belief that monogamy was originally conceived as a way for men to control women. However, scientific evidence strongly suggests that monogamy evolved as a way to ensure the survival of human infants, who are born relatively vulnerable in comparison to other animal species, and need care from both men and women in their early development.

Effect on religion

Feminism has had a great effect on many aspects of religion. In liberal branches of Protestant Christianity (and, notably, in some theologically conservative dominations, such as Assemblies of God) women are ordained as clergy, and in Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism, women are ordained as rabbis and cantors. Within these Christian and Jewish groups, women have gradually become more equal to men by obtaining positions of power; their perspectives are now sought out in developing new statements of belief.

The leadership of women in religious matters has also been resisted within Roman Catholicism. Roman Catholicism has historically excluded women from entering the priesthood and other clerical positions, limiting women to the roles of nuns or laypeople.

Feminism also has had an important role in embracing new forms of religion. Neopagan religions especially tend to emphasize the importance of Goddess spirituality, and question what they regard as traditional religion's hostility to women and the sacred feminine. In particular, Dianic Wicca's origins lie within radical feminism. Among traditional religions, feminism has led to self examination, with reclaimed positive Christian and Islamic views and ideals of Mary, Islamic views of Fatima Zahra, and especially the Catholic belief in the Coredemptrix, as counterexamples.

Worldwide statistics

The following is a sampling of statistics related to the relative status of women worldwide.

• According to studies cited by the United Nations, on average, women work more than men, when both paid employment and unpaid household tasks are accounted for. In rural areas of selected developing countries, women performed an average of 20% more work than men, or an additional 102 minutes per day. In the OECD countries surveyed, on average women performed 5% more work than men, or 20 minutes per day.
• By population, women are underrepresented in all of the world's major legislative bodies. In 1985, Finland had the largest percentage of women in national legislature at approximately 32 percent (P. Norris, Women's Legislative Participation in Western Europe, West European Politics). Currently, Rwanda has the highest number of women at 49 percent. The United States has 14 percent. The world average is 9 percent. In contrast, half of the members of the recently established Welsh Assembly Government are women. and 40% of members of the Scottish Parliament are female.

• In the US in 2003, for every $1 males earn, women earn 76 cents on average.

Contemporary criticisms of feminism

Criticism of feminism as a whole ideology, criticism of specific types of feminism, and criticism of specific feminist ideas have come from feminists themselves, non-feminists, masculists, social conservatives, and social progressives.

Postcolonial feminists criticize certain ideas of Western forms of feminism, notably radical feminism and its most basic assumption, universalization of the female experience. They argue that this assumption cannot so easily be applied to women for whom gender oppression comes second to, for example, racial or class oppression.

From the perspective of some strands of feminism, as well as the men's movement and queer theory, inequalities and stereotypes based on gender are detrimental to both men and women and both sexes suffer from the expectations of traditional gender roles.

Many who support masculism argue that because of both traditional gender roles and sexism infused into society by feminists, males are and have been oppressed. Marriage Rights advocates oppose feminist aspirations to replace the traditional family, as illustrated by statements made by a variety of feminist leaders such as Shelia Cronan's view that marriage constitutes slavery for women, and the women's movement must concentrate on attacking this institution and that freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage. Dr. Mary Jo Bane, associate director of Wellesley College's Center for Research on Woman suggested that to raise children with equality, they should be taken from families and communally raised. Men and Family rights groups oppose feminists such as Robin Morgan, the openly lesbian editor of Ms. Magazine, who advocated 'man-hating' as an honorable and viable political act and concludes the inequities between men and women cannot be resolved until marriage is destroyed. Family and Men's Rights groups are also critical of Feminist encouragment of Lesbian agendas which undermine the traditional role of men in the family, such as Sheila Cronan's National NOW Times January 1988 interview statements declaring every woman must be willing to be identified as a lesbian to be fully feminist. Many critics of feminism are alarmed by the prevalence of lesbians such as Patricia Ireland, the head of NOW, in feminist leadership roles. Men's Rights advocates view much of contemporary feminist issues "extremist" due to their perception that feminist demands such as equal rights has been achieved. Issues such as the Violence Against Women Act are viewed as discriminatory of men. Father's Rights advocates are critical of feminist efforts to block shared parenting, or joint custody, after divorce.

Ann Widdecombe, a British Conservative politician and former leadership candidate, claimed that feminism slowly evolved into its antithesis. She argues that 1970s rhetoric emphasized equal rights and self-sufficiency, whereas 1990s rhetoric demanded special assistance for women and implied that women could not look after themselves. She identifies with the former variant, and describes the latter as "absolute tosh".

Academic research about feminist issues

Some natural and social scientists have used science in order to question theories of innate social or cognitive differences between men and women; some examples follow:

• Anne Fausto-Sterling's book Myths of Gender explores the assumptions embodied in scientific research that purports to support a biologically essentialist view of gender.

• Carol Tavris, in The Mismeasure of Woman, uses psychology and sociology to voice the failure to identify innate differences between males and females and to pin down how these differences dictate, and account for, perceived differences between men and women. She argues there is a reliance on ever-changing hypothesizes (and the hysteria they create instead of evidence) to justify inequality. She further argues a tendency to punish women for not conducting themselves on traditional male terms, which provides a counter-argument for Warren Farrell's wage-gap ideas.

• Evelyn Fox Keller has argued that the rhetoric of science reflects a masculine perspective, and questions the idea of scientific objectivity. Many anthropologists (Haviland, Prins, Walrather, McBride) noted that a non-masculine perspective is relatively new in studies of human evolution and culture. Primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy (Infanticide: Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives, Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants and Natural Selection) notes the prevalence of masculine-coined stereotypes and theories, such as the non-sexual female, despite "the accumulation of abundant openly available evidence contradicting it" (Hrdy, 1988, p.120).

• Other researchers who have exposed flaws in social and scientific theories cited by some anti-feminist authors include Barbara Ehrenreich, Kristin Luker, and Stephanie Coontz.

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Famous feminists

• See List of feminists

References

1. Cott, Nancy F. What’s In a Name? The Limits of ‘Social Feminism’; or, Expanding the Vocabulary of Women’s History. Journal of American History 76 (December 1989): 809–829
2. Shulman, Alix K. Emma Goldman: 'Anarchist Queen', in Spender 1983 op. cit. at 223
3. ^ Walters, Margaret. "Feminism: A very short introduction". Oxford 2005 (ISBN 0-19-280510-X) Cite error: The named reference "walters" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
4. Mitchell, Julie and Ann Oakley (eds.). "Who's Afraid of Feminism?: Seeing Through the Backlash", New Press, 1997. ISBN 1565843851
5. Woolf, Virginia "Three Guineas" 1938
6. Park SS. Suffrage and Virginia Woolf: ‘The Mass Behind the Single Voice’ The Review of English Studies 2005 56(223):119-134
7. Silver, Brenda. "Virginia Woolf: Icon" University of Chicago Press 1999
8. Cott, Nancy F. The grounding of modern feminism. Yale University 1987
9. Dubois, Ellen C. Introduction, in Spender 1983 op. cit. at x
10. French: "féminisme"
11. Sweeney, Brian (ed.) 2000, 'OPTIMISTS: Kate Sheppard - Suffragist'. Accessed May 23rd, 2006, from http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/sheppard.html.
12. Feminist/Pro-Feminist links, The National Men's Resource Center
13. French, Marilyn (1985). "Beyond Power".
14. "The Perception of Sexual Attractiveness: Sex Differences in Variability" by Townsend J.M.; Wasserman T., Archives of Sexual Behavior, Volume 26, Number 3, June 1997, pp. 243-268(26) McGraw, Kevin J. (2002)
15. "Environmental Predictors of Geographic Variation in Human Mating Preferences." Ethology 108 (4), 303-317. In Defense of Working Fathers Sacks, Glenn.
16. Sacks, Glenn (2006-05-17). "Is Pay a Function of Gender Bias?". {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
17. ReparateMe.com, "Stop Polarizing the Sexes"
18. Scott J. South and Glenna Spitze, "Housework in Marital and Nonmarital Households," American Sociological Review 59, no. 3 (1994):327-348
19. Sarah Fenstermaker Berk and Anthony Shih, "Contributions to Household Labor: Comparing Wives' and Husbands' Reports,", in Berk, ed., Women and Household Labor
20. "The Role of Women in Ministry" (PDF). The General Council of the Assemblies of God. 1990-08-14. p. 7. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
21. Rizvi, Muddassir (2002-10-15). "Women Win Record Seats, But Not Activists' Hearts". Inter Press Service. Retrieved 2006-05-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
22. "Section 28, Gender, Work Burden, and Time Allocation" (PDF). United Nations Human Development Report 2004: Section 28. United Nations. 2004.
23. Women in National Parliaments, November 2004

See also

• Anarcha-feminism
• Brassiere
• Domestic violence
• Equal pay for women
• Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
• Feminazi
• Feminist history in the United States
• Feminist history in the United Kingdom
• Feminist history in Poland
• Feminist history in Latin America
• Feminist theology
• Gender studies
• Gender-neutral language
• History of feminism
• Islamic feminism
• Lesbian feminism
• List of feminism topics
• List of notable feminists
• New feminism
• Radical feminism
• Role of women in Judaism
• Suffragettes
• Women's cinema
• Women's Environment & Development Organization
• Women's music
• Sex/gender distinction
• Circle K International Member Pledge Controversy

Books

• Antrobus, Peggy. "The global women's movement - Origins, issues and strategies", London, Zed Books 2004
• Butler, Judith (1994). "Feminism in Any Other Name", differences 6:2-3: 44-45.
• Chopin, Kate. "The Awakening". 1899.
• Code, Lorraine, ed., "Encyclopedia of feminist theories", Routledge 2000
• Patricia Hill Collins, "Black Feminist Thought. Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment", Second Edition, Routledge 2000
• Echols, Alice. "Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967-1975", University of Minnesota Press 1990
• Faludi, Susan. "Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women". 1992 (ISBN 0-385-42507-4)
• Friedan, Betty. "The Feminine Mystique" 1963
• French, Marilyn. "Beyond Power"; "War Against Women"; "From Eve to Dawn", a 3-volume history of women
• J.F. del Giorgio. The Oldest Europeans:Who are we? Where do we come from? What made European women different?.A.J.Place 2006 (ISBN 980-6898-00-1)
• Gossett, Hattie. "presenting sister noblues" 1989
• Gossett, Hattie. "this bridge called my back: writings by radical women of color", 1981
• Hochschild, Arlie Russell. "The Second Shift" 1990 (ISBN 0-380-71157-5)
• Hochschild, Arlie Russell. "The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work" 1997 (ISBN 0-8050-4470-1)
• hooks, bell. (1984). "Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center". ISBN 0-89608-614-3
• Jacobson, Joyce P. "The Economics of Gender" 1998. (ISBN 0-631-20726-0)
• Kaminer, Wendy. "A Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight from Equality", Addison Wesley 1990 (ISBN 0-201-09234-4)
• Kipnes, Laura, "The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability", ISBN 0-375-42417-2
• Lerner, Gerda. "The Creation of Feminist Consciousness: From the Middle Ages to Eighteen-Seventy", Oxford University Press 1994
• Luker, Kristin. "Dubious Conceptions: The Politics of the Teenage Pregnancy Crisis". (Harvard University Press, 1996) (ISBN 0-674-21703-9)
• Schneir, Miriam. "Feminism : The Essential Historical Writings", New York: Vintage 1994
• Sommers, Christina Hoff. "Who Stole Feminism? - How women have betrayed women" (1996) (ISBN 0-684-80156-6)
• Tavris, Carol. "The Mismeasure of Woman: Why Women Are Not the Better Sex, the Opposite Sex, or the Inferior Sex". Simon and Schuster, 1992. ISBN 0-671-66274-0
• Walters, Margaret. "Feminism: A very short introduction". Oxford 2005 (ISBN 0-19-280510-X)
• Wertheim, Margaret. "Pythagoras' Trousers - God, Physics, and the Gender Wars", W.W. Norton & Co. (1995, 1997)

Collections

• Berk, Sarah Fenstermaker, ed. Women and Household Labor, Sage 1980.
• Mitchell, Julie and Ann Oakley (eds.). Who's Afraid of Feminism?: Seeing Through the Backlash, New Press, 1997. ISBN 1565843851
• Morgan, Robin, ed. Sisterhood Is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Women's Liberation Movement, 1970.
• Spender, Dale (ed.) Feminist theorists: Three centuries of key women thinkers, Pantheon 1983, ISBN 0-394-53438-7

External links

• Unassessed Gender studies articles
• Unknown-importance Gender studies articles
• WikiProject Gender studies articles
• Feminism
• Sociological paradigms