Gender and Society

Prepared by: Madonna Z. Salas

Lesson: The Western Women’s Movement

Where does Liberation Begin?

The origin of women’s oppression seen far removed from our lived realities. When speaking of women’s
history, the Western women movement may come to mind. Why? This movement exposed the structural inequality
faced by women in particular eras. More importantly, this movement identified women as an oppressed group. While
this movement are distinct from the Philippine women’s movement, it is, nonetheless, part of larger story that shaped
the global women’s agenda today.

When asked about the society general reception to feminism and women’s movement, some university students
do not see the point behind the feminist movement. The prevalent perception among male and female students is
that gender equality has been achieved, and that fighting for gender rights is unnecessary. Some professors even
feel that women no longer need gender-specific rights because can already do what they want. Given the many won
freedom of women, many say that some feminists have become unnecessarily aggressive or too sensitive on their
claims. As shown in the previous modules, there is a societal imbalance in the power structures that dictate what
men and women have access to, based on both their biology and gender roles. This imbalance can be both limiting
or liberating. The sectoral situationer on women shows that the power imbalance of gender roles is mostly limiting.

Much of these students’understanding of gender justice is influenced by social media posts and popular culture.
Most of these social media websites, however, may have misconceptions about the true meaning of feminism and
gender equality. While there are “social justice warriors” who write various issues---including women’s issues---on
social media platforms, their lack of knowledge on history history of women’s movement and struggle makes for a
weak call for a social change. Without knowing the historicity of an issue, one will not understand its root and cannot
address it in a holistic manner.

People have been pushing for gender justice and equality, but where do these ideas emerge? Has this
struggle for equality always existed? Was there a time that both sexes were equal? Have the concerns of women
today changed or remained the same compared to what other women faced in history?
This module serve as an introduction to the history of women’s movement, both in the Philippines and
abroad.

What is Feminism
Feminism is a way of looking at the world through a women’s perspective. The previous module explained that a
women’s perspective is socially constructed and based on how society views femininity or womenhoodas a whole. The
patriarchal nature of society has driven feminism to concern itself on issues in relation to women’s oppression, with an
end of liberating women through gender equality. Feminism is a concept popularized by Western societies, with many
feminist issues articulated by Western educated women and even men. It is deeply rooted in the Western concept of
liberal democracy and philosophy of equal rights for all as defined by thinkers such as Kant and Mill. The evolution of
Western women’s movement in recent history can be summarized in to three waves, each wave characterized by
particular aspects of the struggle toward emancipation. The next section will look at women’s movement and its brief
history in the Western World. Because this movement has been around for for more than a century, the module will
focus on issues that steered women’s movement instead of the situation of women at a particular time period. It will
then be juxtaposed with the Philippines’ women’s movement and the development of women’s right in the local context
in the next module.
Western Women’s Movement: A Brief History
 Discussing Western women’s movement involves looking at what many feminist historians and theories call as
“waves” of feminism. Like any wave, there is a distinct rise in the movement, its apex being the height of the issues
surrounding the movement at a given time. Like a wave, there is also a decline in the involvement after the issue
was resolved or if another more urgent issue arose. There are three distinct waves of feminism in the Western
world, each associated to a different school of thought. The first wave of feminism involves the call for women’s
equal rights, focusing on the women’s right to vote. It is largely rooted in the liberal political thought which prioritized
the power of reason and the mind. The next wave is known as radical feminism, a post World War II era of feminism
were women were already recognized as having distinct biological needs from men, such as for reproductive health,
and needs that arose from their being socialized as women. The last wave of feminism is rooted in the recognition of
various theories and various modes of being. To be truly free and patriarchy, the recognition of intersectionality
considers women’s struggle from different parts of the globe--such as that of the Black and Latin Women--to be
distinct struggle that are different from women struggles in the Western World. This feminist thought helped shape
our own local feminist thinking, the Philippine Women’s Movement. While the discussion of the waves of feminism
ends in the 1990, it does not mean that newer waves do not exist. This module will conclude with a discussion on a
direction of the women’s movement.

The First Wave of Feminism: Women and Civil Rights

The first wave of women’s movement is characterized by the women’s struggle for equality. This phase,
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which occured from the latter part of the 18 century until the first half of the 20 century, was the period when
women articulated their equality with men. The development of the liberal political thought by philosophers like Kant,
Mill and Rousseau underscoring the equal rights of all men (but not women) inspired women to craft their own
philosophy of equality with men. After all, all men were created equal with equal inherent rights, then all women were
created equal to men with inherent rights as well.
One can pinpoint the start of the documented feminist movement during the French Revolution in the late
1970s. the French Revolution was a movement that overthrew the Borbourne monarchy, a powerful family that ruled
France for over a century and controlled most of the French resources. Under the Bourborn Dynasty, most of
France are poor and starving. The right to bread was the starting point of the French Revolution. Thousands of
women in Paris, housewives, mothers, and workers, marched to the Paris City Hall in 1789 to demand the right to
cheaper bread, a right they were deprived of under the Bourborn monarchy. The French Revolution was a triumph
for the poor and the oppressed, with both women and men fighting for their rights in this movement, showing the
power of the people over the elite. While there was no women-specific issue addressed during this movement, it
inspired the seminal text for the Western women’s movement: Revolutionary Rebublican Women’s Citizens.
Olympia de Gouges was a French Feminist, writer, and political activist wgo believe strongly on justice and
equality for all. She responded to the National Assembly’s Declaration by publishing in 1791 her own Declaration of
the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen. She included woman’s rights in her manifesto, defending the right
of women as a sentient human being. Her progressive thinking also led her to write against slavery, the
discrimination against children borne out of wedlock, and ill treatment of orphaned children.
The manifesto of De Gouges inspired what can be considered the keystone text of liberal feminist thought,
a Vindication of the Right of Women in 1792 by Mary Woolstonecraft. Considered the mother of Western and Anglo-
Saxon feminism, Wollstonecraft advocated for the uplifting of women’s rights through the valuation of their work
within the family. Her works highlights the need for women’s education, and that women are not merely objects to
be married off but are also educators and caregivers of their children. This work declares that women deserve the
same fundamental feminism that inspired modern feminist writings. Wollstonecraft was concerned on the elimination
of domestic tyranny and women’s denial of political rights, education and equal work--issues that still permeate
present society. Wollstonecraft connected these concerns to critical issues of their time, reinforcing her own call for
equality. His ideas influenced other women to press policymakers in creating women-inclusive policies for their
needs, specifically their education. Both Wollstonecraft and de Gouges’ work articulate the rights of a Western
women as a person endowed naturally and equally with human rights. The texts were written by women, and
demanded women’s rights in a male-dominated world where women seldom has a voice or an identity separate
from their husbands. Unfortunately, both women would not live to see the advances their works inspired.
While these documents show an insight as to why the rights of women were denied under existing laws,
Friedrich Engels, a collaborator of Karl Marx in writing the communist manifesto, provide a plausible reason why
women were oppressed. Given the Marxist focus on materials conditions and the accumulation and production of
resources as keys movers of societies, Engels show the relation between women and goods as the root to women
subjugation. Engels texts, The Origin of the family, Private Property and the State, published in 1884, describe
marriage as a process of gaining control of women. Monogamy was a creation necessary to pass on wealth to one’s
offspring. In non-communal societies, marriage was a way for groups with more material resources, such as the
bourgeoisie, to keep their money within the family through through inter marriage and inheritance. After all, a women
can be sure of her offspring because she bore them thorough her pains of labor. This idea of property and
inheritance---and of marriage as social contract--prevented women from being free to decide on whom to marry. A
man needed his wife to be monogamous to know his kin. Perhaps, this practice reinforced the already dominant
patriarchal system that allowed men to be polygamous and forced women monogamous. Thus, a women’s chastity
was heavily guarded. This type of oppression guaranteed that women had no choice on matter concerning their
bodies, hence marriage became a sort of lifetime slavery. This oppression has repercussion up to the present day.

Women and the Anti-Slavery Movement

The idea that a women is a property of her husband may explain the strong connection between women’s
liberation movement and the anti-slavery movement in the Western world. The beginning of the of women’s
movement drew its spark from the emancipation movement. Various women, often white with a high social status,
attended forums and seminars on slavery to advocate for the liberation of the slaves. However, women are not
taken seriously during discussions about the right of slaves. Women had no political voice in this matter. During the
1840 World Anti-slavery Convention in London, women delegates were even made to listen to proceedings behind
curtains. Two prominent figures of the American’s women’s movement who attended the convention -- Lucretia Mott
and Elizabeth Cady Stanton-- were moved by this insulting experience. Being behind the curtain highlighted the
similarity of women’s situation with that of slave. Mott and Straton’ s involvement in the advocacy against slavery
paved the way for them to realize that women too were suppressed by certain social structures and laws. One such
limited status involved the right to participate in the public sphere.
Women and the Right to Vote
Women’s role in the domestic sphere meant that everyday women were invisible to the public eye. These
realities pushed women from Western Europe and Northern America to expand their struggle toward their own
emancipation. Participants in the first wave of the women’s emancipation movement fought for the right to vote,
equal opportunity for employment and commerce, and the right to education. The struggle for equality was most
prominent in the campaign for the right to vote, but it was accompanied by struggles for women’s educatio, equality
at work, and freedom of expressions in various literary and artistic genres. Women fought for equal access to
various opportunities as formalized in the Declaration of Sentiments that emerge from the Seneca Falls
Convention-- the first women’s rights convention--in New York City in 1848. Stanton enumerated in this Declaration
various women’s issues that eventually led to what would be known as the suffrage movement.
The suffrage movement was the major struggle of women, uniting the Northern American and Western
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European women’s movement during the 19 and 20 centuries. When upper class women, i.e., household and
college educated, won the right to vote in the 1920, the movement splintered into various groups like the labor
movement and the right to education movement.

The Second Wave of Feminism And Women’s Liberation

 Women in the Western World eventually earned the right to vote. While more and more gains identified for
women, there was still a large gap between women’s and men’s freedoms. Despite women attaining the right to
vote, they were still viewed as second-class citizens.

The second wave of feminism is more concerned with the idea of womanhood and the issues that came
with the social constructions of a women’s role with the social construction of women’s role, and therefore her
identity. Thus, a deeper understanding of womanhood, its implication and the issues surrounding women emerged.

The second wave of feminism was rooted in the movement of liberation in the 1960s and 1070s and the
heightened feminist consciousness. One work that awoke across America was Betty Friedan’s book, the Feminine
Mystique, published in 1963. The second wave of feminism also founded in such works as Simone de Beauvoir’s
the Second Sex, Kate Millet’s Sexual Politics, and Shulamith Fireston’s The Dialectic of Sex. These books,
published between 1949 and the 1970’s, marked the spirit and ideology of the second wave of feminism because
they articulated the heart of a new struggle. Feminists in this wave did not only seek quality but also examined the
very ground of inequality. According to these feminist, inequality is deeply rooted in the existing patriarchal system,
or the system of belief that male the male as the dominant gender. The second wave sought to transform the
structural and political roots of inequality and aimed for the liberation of women from oppressive institutions.
Betty Friedan’s the Feminine Mystique describe the growing discontent of white and middle-class during the
post World War 2 period. Her idea of the “problem with no name” united housemakers across America regarding the
growing helplessness that women felt due to their lack of power as they remained trapped in the domestic sphere
and lacked representation in the public sphere.
Simone de Beauvoir, a French Feminist best known for her work, The Second Sex, explored how women
were not seen as equal by men and that the very realization of women’s existence as persons was structured to be
inferior. They were reduced to an object at every turn, as a wife, a daughter, a lover, a mistress, and a whore.
Women were constructed by society to be servants of men and to be the producers of children. A women was
always and defined in relation to man. Her work claims that patriarchy and patriarchal structures further reinforce the
wrong notion that women are secondary to men despite women and men being treated equally in the eyes of
existing laws. Until a women is seen as a women in her own right, de Beauvoir asserts that a woman will not attain
true freedom.
Shulamith Firestone, in her text The Dialectic of Sex, called for a feminist revolution that could help liberate
women from the inequality brought about by their biology, specifically those concerning conception, childbirth, and
child rearing. Fireton believed that society must change to help address woman’s concern--the limitation of their
biology, specifically child care, the right to economic independence and self-discrimination; their integration into all
aspects of society; and their freedom in relation to their sexuality--before women can be liberated.

Kate Millet’s text focuses on politics as power structures and the relation of sex--thus, creating the
fundamental link between gender socialization,the patriarchal system, and the formation of woman as oppressed.

Third Wave of Feminism

The 1990’s brought about the recognition of the different expressions women face around the globe. The rise
of communism and the new global order along with biomedical and technological advances shaped the issues of
this era. The feminist movement shifted focus to include the needs of women from developing countries in light of
the effect of globalization and neoliberal economic policies.

The third wave wave were “motivated by the need to develop a feminist theory and politcs that honor
contradictory experiences and deconstruct theoretical thinking.” What characterizes this feminism is its “local,
national, and transnational activism in areas such as violence against women, trafficking, body, surgery, self-
mutilation, and the overall “pornofication’ pf the media,” issues that affect different women from various countries.
 Third-wave feminists were raised by the second-wave feminists. They lived by the principles of gender equality
and women’s empowerment. They had access to the resources that previous movements had won for them. The
feminists of this time had numerous publications on women and gender issues, gained academic niches in
universities that include women’s studies in their curriculum, and had greater opportunities in terms of economic
capabilities and work. The exploration of womanhood and gender came at the expense of the previous endeavor pf
women activists. Because of this, the feminist movement of yerteryears was critiqued and questioned.
The idea of postfeminism manifested during the third wave of feminism, in which the second wave was
assessed for purporting a universal feminism that created one truth for all women, with one answer of all issues and
directing the movement’s concern to target one dominant group--the white and Western feminists. According to the
book by Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake, Third Wave Agenda, postfeminism sought to critique previous
feminisms with regard to what work had yet to be done.

Feminists of the third wave not only critiqued previous feminisms, they also questioned the idea that were
present during the previous women’s movement. Womanhood as an identity was more major movement that was
scrutinized. This movement that questioned, renamed, and reclaimed the concept of womanhood was called
postmodern feminism. Gender, beauty, sexuality, and the concepts of feminine and masculine were also
questioned. The notion that gender is an absolute market of identity was suddenly challenged. The theme of
“gender as a social construct” was prevalent during this time due to the pivotal text Gender Trouble: Feminism and
the Subversion of Identity by Judith Butler published in 1990. the challengefor feminists in this period was to be
conscious of how one could express his or her gender identity in a manner that truly represented his or her. Identity
politics was a driving force for discussion.
The transformation of notions of the self was also supplemented by the transformation of structures and
processes that could be deemed oppressive to women. There were moves to reclaim other social structures that
deemed oppressive, such as the media that sexualized women, or language that was used to oppress women. The
words “girls”, “bitch” and other condescending terms used against women were reclaimed by the feminists of this
movement. Different ideas were challenged. Instead of a head-on attack against these structures, a societal
transformation that aimed to reconstruct the idea of womanhood in a woman’s own light took place.

A notable women during the third wave of feminism is Judith Butler. She is an American philosopher and
academic whose book Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, brought to light the fluid nature of
Gender. Here, the challenges notions of rigidity and pre-determined nature of gender. She assumed that gender is
not an essence whose origin is drawn from one’s characteristic and behavior. Instead, the repetition of certain
characteristics and behavior. Instead, the repetition of certain characteristics created the idea of gendered behavior.

One of the many key words that explain Judith Butler’s philosophy is performance. Gender is performed,
and one’s identity is shaped through the performance of traits that are gendered. The performance of gender further
proved that it was a social construct that should not limit a person’s identity
Additional Learning Materials:

https://www.slideshare.net/snlmyeni/feminist-theory-54482790
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phUw0Dyteiw