Difference between American and european feminism

Résumé du document

The history of feminism is marked by continuity as well as by change. According to Ginette Castro, 'feminism is a cyclic phenomenon, each cycle brings its fruit'. Consequently, we will begin by different definitions to this movement of feminism, then we will discuss the main movements of feminism, which are multiple because the most important Feminists have different points of view and also common ideas. Then we will compare and explain the difference and common ideas of American and French feminism. Are these differences just cultural or more specific to the feminism movement? What are the common values of these two types of Feminism?

Extraits

[...] As far as I am concerned, birth control and women body can be considered as one of the major issues for women's rights advocates. The fight for the right to contraception, the struggle to obtain the lawfulness of abortion, the claim for femininity without any reproductive duty, all those demands were realized thanks to the will of Women. Hence, implemented actions took different forms but before analysing those one, there is a sort of controversy as to the demand of recognition through the right to their body's control. [...]

[...] This threats individual's liberty and integrity and abolishes the frontier between the private and public spheres. To me, multiculturalism doesn't make any sense insofar as individuals must take part to a movement that defines oneself in the absolute but in which one doesn't want to get involved. What to think about Right for Privacy”? As French feminists fears it, multiculturalism may lead to drifts and riskinesses that dragoons individuals. From this point, my last word would be on “affirmative action” in the United-States versus parité” in France. [...]

[...] What are the common values of these 2 types of Feminism? Etc. I. Definition and theory of Feminism According to Wikipédia: “Feminism comprises a number of social, cultural and political movements, theories and moral philosophies that are concerned with the impact of cultural, political, and economic practices and inequalities on discrimination against women. Feminism is also described as an ideology focusing on equality of both sexes. Some have argued that gendered and sexed identities, such as "man" and "woman", are social constructs. [...]

[...] Women decided to organise separately from men, believing that a movement for women's rights could only succeed if women organised in women only groups. Despite this, the uprising of 1968 was at the origin of a new feminist wave. This asserts our first statement insofar as there is a relationship between both movements. However, the French model remains an integrative model, which rejects communautarism. Last but not least, feminism is often linked with gay, lesbian and transgender studies. Some feminists mistrust this last one movement because they view it as a challenge to the distinction between men and women. [...]

[...] On the other side of the Atlantic, the United States counts the most powerful movements; they are at the origin of the first convention of the women's rights in the State of New York. At the Seneca Falls convention in 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton modeled her Declaration of Sentiments on the Declaration of Independence. In this one, men were said to be in the position of a tyrannical government over women. This separation of the sexes into two warring camps become very popular in the feminist thought. But the United-States aren't free from intellectual thought. Indeed, American feminism, even if active and turned towards the action, cannot go without theories emitted by intellectuals. [...]