FEMINISM

BY AROKIYA ANBAZHAGI.J
M.A, M.PHIL

I myself have never been able to find out

precisely what feminism is: I only know that

people call me a feminist whenever I express
sentiments that differentiate me from a
doormat.
Rebecca West

Definition:
Unlike any other isms Feminism does not

have a theoretical conceptual base. The term

Feminism is derived from the Latin word.
However a broad definition of feminism is an

awareness of womens oppression and

exploitation in society, at work and within the
family and conscious action by men and
women in changing the situation.

Evolution of the concept of feminism:

Feminism meant one thing in the 17th century
and meant something else in the 19 & 20 th
centuries.

For

the

former

feminist,

the

struggle was fought for the democratic rights

of women, it included the Rights to education
& employment, right to own property, the
right to vote the right to enter parliament.
On the whole they fought for legal reforms;
the struggles were essential outside home

Today the feminist have gone beyond mere reforms to

end discrimination. They work more towards their

emancipation. Feminism therefore now includes the
struggle against womens subordination to the male
within the home, against their exploitation by the
family, their continuing low status at work & in burden
in production and reproduction.
In essence the present day feminism is a struggle for

the achievement of womens equality, dignity &

freedom of choice to control their life and bodies
within and outside home.

Feminist consciousness arose in Asia during the early 20 th

th

century. These voices demanded widow remarriage, ban on

polygamy, and ban of sati, purdah and demand for legal
emancipation. In the earliest agitator for womens rights were
men. Although women today are becoming economically
independent and are educationally & occupationally mobile,
we can still compare their emotional world to that of Sita.
A siege has been laid on women they have been captured by

the very institution which attempt to safeguard the life and

interest namely family, marriage, educational institution,
employment establishment, police outfits, legal machinery,
etc.

Whether it is child marriage, infanticide,

feticide, wife-battering, sati, widowhood,

bigamy, polygamy, sexual harassment (eveteasing), physical torture, mental cruelty, rape
(by strangers, police, army, paramilitary),
dowry extortion, dowry murders. Pre-marital
and post-marital suicide all these forms of
oppressions of Indian women manifest in the
decadent, capitalist, consumerist, corrupt,
casteist, communal, criminal and patriarchal

Theories of Feminism

Social scientist and women activist both accept

that women are not biologically inferior and her

lower status to man is man-made. However
their approach to the cause of womens
liberation differs. These approaches have
resulted in the formulation of different theories.

They all maintain that the social inequalities

between man and women as creation of sociocultural tradition. These theories have inspired
several women liberal movement all over the
world.

Moderate or Liberal Feminism or Individual

Feminism:
The inferior position of women according to
the supporters of this theory is due to cultural
and psychological factor. J.S. Mill one of the
earliest thinkers of this school championed the
cause of feminism. He was a liberal and
individualistic thinker. His book Subjection of
Women (1861) has become a landmark in the
History of womens movement. According to
him the inferiority of women in the domains of
mental and intellectual production were not
natural but artificial.

The Historical origin of Liberal feminism goes back to

th century
century The enlightenment period of western
the 18th
Europe it was the age of reason. The thinkers of this
period touched upon the nature and the role of
women. An important aspect of liberal feminism was
individualism, by which it was meant that individual
possess the freedom to do what one wishes without
interference of others.

Mary Wollstonecraft as a liberal thinker is well known

for her ardent support for womens cause. Her work

was known as A Vindication of the rights of women
(1791). Her basic idea is that Women are first and
foremost human beings and not sexual beings women
are rational creatures. They are capable of governing
themselves by reason.

MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

In The feminine mystique (1963) by Betty

Friedan one of the founders of the liberal

womens movement in USA analyses the cause
of the traditional male, female division of labor.
She says if they are equal why one role fix for
man and other for women. Such fixation which
is social makes one superior or inferior.
Each suburban wife struggles with it alone. As she

made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched

slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with
her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay
beside her husband at night- she was afraid to ask
even of herself the silent question-- 'Is this all?
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique

Gandhi also took some of similar approach

towards womens problems. He strongly

criticized excessive subordination of the wife
to the husband. He said that women should
enjoy equal status with man. Sex
discrimination keeps half the population
unproductive therefore women should be
brought out from the four walls of the house.

The liberal feminism which flourished in 1960s did not

provide more insight into the roots of womens inferior

status. However the feminist began to extend the concept
of equality beyond the earlier emphasis on formal equality
in the civil and political sphere. Liberal feminism argued for
equal rights for women but accepted the existing social
order as valid and advocated for the improvement of social
customs, institutions, and laws. Without altering the social
structure particularly in family. They also subscribed to the
hope and accumulation of reforms will transform society,
but radical restructuring is not necessary.

Radical Feminism:
Radical feminism is an offshoot of moderate

feminism. The radical feminist believes that

the womens subjection is due to sexual
aggression by men.
Male supremacy is the oldest, the most basic
form of domination, all other forms of
exploitation and oppression. (Racism,
Capitalism, Imperialism, etc) are extension of
male supremacy.
Radical feminist also argued that the History
of the world was not the struggle of the
classes but it was a struggle between men
and women.

RADICAL FEMINISM

For radical feminist The roots of

subordination lies in the biological family.

Radical feminist main plea is not only the
removal of sex distinctions but the removal of
men in their life sexual preferences, control
over ones body, free sex experience and
collective child care are some of the action
programs outlined by the radical feminist.

The radical feminist argue that women have always

been economically exploited for them marriage turns

to be a contract where by sex and service (house
work) are provided by women to men in return for
support.
The same thing happened in the feudal society where
the lord provided security to the slaves in return for
their services. Women and slaves are equivalent due
to sexual politics.

Similarly virginity is held important and

essential for the female only.

When a woman marries the custom requires
her to change the title from miss to mrs.
All this she has to do in order to proclaim her
belonging to a man which implies that she
has no independent existence of her own.
Her income is regarded as part of husbands
income. Moreover when both partners earn it
is a wife who is expected to take care of the
domestic work such as cooking and
housekeeping.

In the west the radical feminism adopted

novel protest methods to draw the attention

of the male oppressors.
In the 1970 an army of women marched
through the New York streets and placed what
they thought freedom trash cans at
important points. In this they threw their
cosmetics and false eyelashes.
Through this they wanted to show that
women cannot be considered as sex objects.
They also shouted slogans marriage if
legalized rape.

In India the Delhi University girls students

formed a society called Power Progressive
Organisation for Womens Equal Rights. The
posters reading we are not chapathi making
machines were pasted on the walls of the
college.

Among the radical feminist the very aggressive

group formed societies whose chief aim was not

only liberation of women but also the annihilation of
men.
Valarie Solanas was given 3 years imprisonment for
shooting men. She also started a society called
SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men).
Another such society was called WITCH (Womens
International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell). In UK
the feminist picketed the Miss World contest and
carried banners displaying miss used, miss
conception and miss guided.
Man being the enemy of the radical feminist, they
stood to put an end to the subordination and they
seem to be no place for men in their life.

Socialist or Marxist Feminism :

Another approach to the status of women is

Historical materialism or Socialist feminism.

All to this approach the root cause of the
lower status of women lies in the family.
The family is the result of the private property
in the means of production therefore complete
equality of women is possible when private
property in the means of production is
abolished.
The concept of private property brought a
basic change in the family.

Men are from Earth, women are from Earth.

Deal with it.

George Carlin

In a capitalist society, family relations are

reduced to more money relations. Karl Marx

and Engels observed that by abolishing
private means of production the family system
will be abolished this is the only way in which
the status of women can be raised.
Feminist within the socialist fold have been
struggling to come to grips with the reality of
gender oppression in society.
According to socialist view power is derived
from sex and class and this is manifested
materially and ideologically in patriarchy and
class relations. The major task is to discover
the interdependence of class and patriarchy.

It would be necessary to organize struggle

simultaneously against capitalism and

patriarchy.
Patriarchal system cannot vanish by nearly
abolishing private property.
A struggle against patriarchal is a struggle
against the present structure of the family
system dominated by men.
The liberation of women would not be
complete without a change in the patriarchal
social system and all the social values that go
with them.

The socialist feminist have also raised the whole

debate of domestic work. They argue that womens

oppression is based on unpaid house work.
Child bearing, child care and house work are material
activities resulting in products.
Like radical feminist the socialist feminist are not
anti-man. But they believe in collaborating with men
if the latter support their cause.
Feminism has never been about getting a job for one
woman. It's about making life more fair for women
everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie;
there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a
new pie.
Gloria Steinem

CONCLUSION
These 3 main approaches have been used for
understanding womens subordinate status and also
for evolving strategies to establish womens
equality.
In India feminism and nationalism was closely interlinked. The womens movement in India had none of
the man-women antagonism characteristic of
womens movement of the west.
In the Indian context the dominant approach has
been liberal feminism, moreover Indian women
could not come out of their homes to fight
oppression because it is the family that is a sole
supportive institution. Hence it is not possible for
many women to leave the security of the family.

A woman without a man is like a fish without

a bicycle.
Gloria Steinem

Indian feminism is entirely different from

western feminism. Indian women in the

absence of economic independence have to
depend solely on the family.
While in the west 50 to 5 % of the women are
employed and those who are unemployed get
benefits from social welfare schemes provided
by the state.
Hence they have an alternative if they decide
to come out of oppressive family situations.

Moreover the higher level of education of the

women in the west makes them more

confident to struggle against social odds while
in Asia the high level of illiteracy, sheer
struggle for survival, make women extremely
helpless to fight against oppression with the
family.
This is one of the major reasons why Indian
feminist had to confine their struggle mainly
to issues like rape, dowry, murder, sexism in
the media, etc.,
The feminists seek the removal of all forms of

inequality, domination and oppression through

the creation of a just, social and economic