Feminist Movement

We explain what the feminist movement is, its history and what its demands are in different parts of the world.

What is the feminist movement?

The feminist movement is a diverse set of positions and models of political, economic, cultural and social thought, which seeks to achieve equal living conditions between women and men. Currently, we speak of feminist movements in the plural since feminism does not respond to a single political group, leadership or hierarchy.

Feminism, as a belief or way of understanding the world, challenges traditionally assigned gender rolesthat is, the place assigned to men and women in society depending exclusively on their sex and not on their interests, talents or abilities.

In that sense, Feminist movements fight against the patriarchal order of society: a cultural and social model that grants privileges to men and restricts the rights of women.

In the last century, the different feminist movements managed to generally improve the living conditions of women: they allowed greater participation in public affairs, and guaranteed some of their fundamental rights.

However, In many societies in today's world, women are still subject to male controlsee their freedoms overwhelmed and suffer extreme violence. Therefore, these injustices are on the fighting agenda of the different feminist movements of the present.

Characteristics of the feminist movement

Among different characteristics, it is recognized that the feminist movement is:

• Heterogeneous. It is made up of feminist groups of diverse origins, with different political positions and modalities of action, focused on different problems related to the specific context of women in different societies around the world. There is no single body that brings together all feminist organizations or that can impose its vision over that of other feminist groups.
• Pacifist. The political activism and revolution promoted by feminist groups did not take the path of violence. The achievements of feminists in different parts of the world were achieved through public demonstration, political activism and the organization of institutions that fought to obtain rights.
• Multi-disciplinary. From their origins, feminist groups were dedicated to recognizing the inequalities between men and women in different aspects of life. In this sense, feminist approaches cut across all branches of knowledge in the natural and social sciences.

History of the feminist movement

Background of feminism

Since the emergence of the first state organizations, hierarchies and privileges appeared in societies that divided the population. In most cases, women were excluded from any privileges linked to political participation, private life or economic autonomy.

Throughout human history, in many societies, different women have denounced the situation in which they lived because they were women. Later feminist movements highlight these claims of women of the past to visualize the injustices, abuses and oppression of those societies.

However, these complaints are not considered part of the feminist movements, because they did not question the established social order or articulate a slogan, struggle or action to vindicate their social position. Rather, they are clear antecedents that allow us to recognize nonconformity in different societies of the past.

Some of the figures recognized as antecedents of the feminist movements are:

• Christine de Pizan (1364-1430). Author of The City of Ladies (1405), was the first woman to publicly participate in the intellectual and literary debate known as the Women's complaintwhich questioned the intellectual capacity of women. She defended a positive image of the female body, accused the custom of rape and advocated for women's access to knowledge.
• Moderata Fonte (1555-1592). In his literary works Il merito delle donne and Giustizia delle donne, in Spanish “The merit of women” and “The justice of women” (1600), criticizes the customs of men, questions inequality in private relationships and vindicates the importance of women's access to education.
• Marie de Gournay (1565-1645). Philosopher and writer, she published more than ten works in which she argued against inequality between women and men. She actively participated in political clubs and placed the subordination of the female figure at the center of intellectual debate. He denounced male supremacy in areas of both public life (such as political and civil rights) and private life (subjection to men in marriage or economic dependence).
• Poulain de la Barre (1647-1725). As a clergyman and philosopher, in his book The equality of the sexes (1671) argued against male prejudices and in favor of women's education, with the motto “the mind has no sex.”

First wave of feminism

The feminist movements that fought for women's rights from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century are known as the “first wave of feminism.”

Since the end of the 18th century, European and American societies experienced a time of political and economic transition framed by two revolutionary processes: the liberal revolutions and the First Industrial Revolution. Both in the rebellions to defeat monarchies and in the hours dedicated to work in factories, women played a fundamental role.

In 1789, the French Revolution claimed liberty, equality and fraternity as the foundation for the establishment of a new social order that would end the privileges of the nobility. Women participated in popular demonstrations alongside menfighting in the streets and making barricades.

They took part in the “March on Versailles”, which forced the king and queen to return to Paris, a fundamental milestone in the revolutionary process. They founded more than fifty active women's republican clubs that supported the revolution through petitions, demonstrations and organization of the fight.

However, after the triumph of the revolutionaries, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen excluded women from political rightswhich included access to political participation, education, work and property.

In response, Olympia de Gouges published in 1791 the Declaration of the rights of Women and Citizens and He denounced the hypocrisy of the revolutionaries who proclaimed “universal” rights of equality and freedom only for a part of the population.. For her political activism, the same revolutionary government sentenced her to death by guillotine in 1793.

Throughout Europe and America the same scheme was repeated: the democratic governments installed with the revolutions excluded women from political participation and the acquisition of fundamental rights.

Since then, different feminist groups continued their fight and focused on achieve the recognition for women of the same rights that were granted to men: the right to education, the right to work, the right to property, marital and child rights, and the right to vote.

To achieve this, feminist associations turned to political activism through the publication of manifestos, speeches and declarations, the founding of newspapers and associations, and the organization of conventions and public demonstrations.

The first feminist newspapers originated in the early 19th century. and, since then, they were established as the base and headquarters of the new activist associations. From there, women openly questioned the tyranny of institutions and customs that denied their most basic rights.

suffragism

Since the mid-19th century, Feminist struggles focused especially on the recognition of their citizenship and obtaining the vote.; For this reason, this period of feminist history is also known as “suffragism.”

The suffragettes (as feminists of this era are known) achieved the right to vote for the first time in 1861 in South Australia at the provincial level, and at the national level in 1893 in New Zealandbefore the mobilization of thousands of women and men.

After the First World War, given the decisive role that working women played for national economies, the suffragettes obtained the female vote in 1918 in England (with restrictions) and in Germany (in the Weimar Republic), in 1920 in the United States. United States and Iceland, in 1928 in England and in 1931 in Spain.

In Latin America, women's suffrage was achieved at the national level only in 1947 in Argentinain 1949 in Chile, in 1953 in Mexico and in 1955 in Peru.

In Asia, with the Russian Revolution of 1917, women who participated in the struggles managed to pressure the provisional government to obtain the same political rights as all men. In those countries that remained under the influence of the USSR during the following decades, gender equality in political rights was implemented.

Türkiye was the first of the Muslim countries (who were not under the communist regime) in granting suffrage to women, in 1934. In India and Japan, the female vote was obtained in 1947, and in China in 1949 with the communist revolution.

Second wave of feminism

It is called “second wave of feminism” the feminist movements of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s in Western societies. In this period, two very important feminist movements emerged in the United States, which laid the foundations for subsequent movements.

Liberal feminism, whose core was the NOW (National Organization for Women), defined the situation of women as inequality (and not oppression) and stated that it was necessary to reform the system until equality between the sexes was achieved. Liberal feminists worked for the inclusion of women in the public sphere and in the labor market.

Among the main representatives of NOW, Betty Friedan stood out.author of The mystique of femininity (1963). Through her writings, thousands of women around the world were able to recognize that their personal experiences corresponded with the general conditions of gender inequality in society.

On the other hand, other forms of inequality in women's lives began to be recognized: their situation within the families (as daughters, wives and mothers) and their aspirations outside the families (professional, economic, academic, etc.). Traditionally, these aspects of life were considered to belong to the private and personal sphere.

Feminists visualized the inequality between life opportunities for men and women and, When inequality was recognized, they showed the power relations that sustained it. In this way, they redefined the situation of women in terms of oppression and questioned the very foundations of the system.

Under the motto of “the personal is political”, Radical feminism raised the need to reform private space in addition to public space. From the Women's Liberation Movementradical feminism sought to change the reality of female life and the social norms that regulated it.

Radical feminists made three great contributions to the struggle and the improvement of women's living conditions: large public protests, the development of self-awareness groups and the creation of specific institutions and support centers for women.

Third wave of feminism

It is known as the “third wave of feminism”, also called “the feminism of difference”, to the fight that the different feminist movements have carried out from the mid-90s to the present. It is characterized by the recognition of the diversity of the living conditions of women in the world and, therefore, the need to raise a fight that encompasses the needs of different groups of women.

In the eighties, the danger of establishing absolute homogeneity in the identification of female experiences began to be seen. The main feminist movements had gained strength in Western European and American societies. and they focused on claims related to the injustices experienced by women in those cultures.

However, inequality between men and women took different forms in different societies. The needs and urgencies of Arab or Latin American women did not correspond to the European or North American agenda of struggle.

In this way, feminist movements emerged that focused on different objectives, responded to specific cultural needs and the origin of the different societies and took divergent paths of struggle according to the possibilities and urgency of the claims. Among them, we can differentiate institutional feminism, cyberfeminism, ecofeminism, Latin American, Afro-descendant and Arab feminisms, and academic feminism.

The appearance of the different branches of feminism did not mean denial or devaluation of the positions or needs of women in different cultures. On the contrary, third wave feminisms highlighted the need for sorority (brotherhood in the struggle) and support between different movements.

Another fundamental characteristic of the third wave of feminism is the growth of gender studiesin which conceptual and academic development was deepened to understand the mechanisms through which male domination is maintained in different societies around the world.

Fourth wave of feminism

Currently, some feminist groups consider that a “fourth wave” has begun that differs from the movements that emerged in the 1990s. This current is characterized by globalizationthe conception of feminism as a mass movement and the intercultural connection through networks and the Internet.

The development of international organizations focused on women's rights reveals in more detail the consequences of gender inequality. The different UN institutions and other regional NGOs allow a new approach against the injustices and violence suffered by women in different societies around the world.

In turn, The possibilities of digital connection reveal the conditions of oppression in which millions of women live and allow the creation of direct cooperation networks, which escape from state or international institutions or organizations. In this sense, social networks play a key role in the dissemination of information and cooperation between different groups of women.

These characteristics allowed the incorporation of women of different ages and, in this way, an exponential growth in the participation of women in feminist movements worldwide.

Claims of the feminist movement today

At the moment, There are hundreds of feminist movements that advocate for women's rights in different parts of the world. Although in the last century Western societies have recognized many feminist claims, there are still inequalities and injustices that are constantly fought for.

Among the main conflicts that current feminist movements address are:

• Gender violence. According to the UN, one in three women in the world has suffered sexual or physical violence by people close to them. Of this number, 150 million women are girls under 18 years of age who have suffered sexual assault. Every day 137 women die at the hands of their partner or a member of their family. These data do not include complaints of harassment, rape or assault in contexts of war. Currently, there is legislation in more than 20 countries that forces women to marry their rapists.
• Economic inequality. Based on UN Women reports, it is estimated that globally women are paid 23% less than men for work of equal value. This wage gap is worse for non-white women, immigrant women, and women who are mothers. The probability of unemployment among women is higher than among men. Female employment is concentrated in lower-paid jobs (service jobs) and only 4% of leadership positions in private companies are occupied by women. In addition, women carry out 2.5 times more unpaid household and care work than men.
• Sexual and reproductive rights. The UN estimates that 43% of women in the world between 15 and 49 years old cannot decide autonomously about their reproductive health, sexual relations or the use of contraceptives. Forced marriages and child marriages remain common practice in dozens of countries and each year 12 million girls are married off before reaching adulthood. There are 200 million women and girls who have undergone female genital mutilation procedures (a cultural practice carried out in more than 30 countries in Asia and Africa). On the other hand, more than 30% of countries lack legislation for access to information on sexual and reproductive health. Currently, 45% of the world's abortions are performed unsafely or illegally.
• Disparity and lack of political representation. Access to decision-making spaces, government power and political leadership positions has a high rate of disparity: currently, only 13% of countries have a female head of state, only 26% of national parliamentary seats in the world are occupied by women and only 21% of ministerial positions were awarded to women (concentrating in areas related to family, children, parity, disability or the environment).
• Prohibition of fundamental freedoms. Currently, more than thirty countries legally restrict women's right to move outside the home, inherit property, control their income, make decisions about their children or homes, freely assemble with others, dress as they please, or choose their religious practices.

Fundamental ideas of the feminist movement

To explain the origin and functioning of inequalities between the lives of women and men throughout history, the different feminist movements focused on some fundamental concepts.

• Gender inequality is the discrimination that exists between people in relation to their gender.. It is a structural phenomenon of current societies and can manifest itself in legal, economic, social, professional, educational forms, among others.
• Machismo is the belief that men are superior to women.. With this idea, the attitudes or actions that generate conditions of gender inequality are legitimized.
• Misogyny is the direct rejection or contempt for women.. Misogynistic behavior can range from derogatory comments to direct violence against a woman because of her gender.
• Gender violence is any type of violence that is carried out against a person because of their sex, sexual orientation or gender identity.. It can be carried out physically, verbally, psychologically, sexually, socially or institutionally. It covers misogyny, homophobia and any type of violence against people in relation to their gender status.
• Patriarchy is the social system through which the power of men over women is established.. It involves the organization of institutions that maintain gender inequalities. In patriarchy, men monopolize political power, control economic assets and have social privileges that differentiate them from women.

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