France and the United States: Two different approaches to feminism

Résumé du document

Feminism is defined by the Cambridge dictionary as "the belief that women should have the same economic, social, and political rights as men" . However, there is not a single definition for feminism. This notion is rather complex and controversial, and it cannot be fully comprehended in a few lines. This essay will deal with feminism and in the United States and in France. These countries are two of the most important in the history of feminism. However, they have rather different approaches of feminism. There is not just a single type of feminism but a number of different types of feminism, as implied by the titles of many books about feminism(s) such as New French Feminisms: an Anthology, edited by Elaine Marks in 1981. Feminism comprises of a range of social, political and cultural theories, movements, and moral philosophies in relation with gender inequalities and with equal rights for women.

Extraits

[...] A wide range of women got involved in American first-wave feminism. Some belonged to Christian groups, such as the feminist Frances Willard, who created the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Others resembled the radicalism and the diversity of much of second-wave feminism (Matilda Gage for example). The activism of many associations, such as the National American Woman Suffrage Association or the National Woman's Party, led to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, in 1919, granting women the right to vote. [...]

[...] However, they have rather different approaches of feminism. I Definition It is first worth noting that there is not a single feminism but a number of feminisms, as implied by the titles of many books about feminism(s) such as New French Feminisms: an Anthology, edited by Elaine Marks in 1981[2]. Feminism comprises a range of social, political and cultural theories, movements, and moral philosophies in relation with gender inequalities and with equal rights for women. Generally speaking, feminism refers to the “belief in the need to secure rights and opportunities for women equal to those of men, or a commitment to securing these”[3]. [...]

[...] By the middle of the 1960's, many of these women started to react to the contradiction within social movements, which claimed for equality and self-determination and yet which denied these basic rights in their own ranks. In the Civil Rights Movement, first, with Mary King and Casey Hayden, and afterward in the movement against war and other social movements, radical women started to demand respect and equity. These reactions launched the second-wave feminism. This movement considered political and cultural inequalities as inextricably entwined. It encouraged women to see aspects of their personal lives (relationships with friends, lovers, political comrades ) as deeply politicized and as reflective of a sexist structure of power. [...]

[...] The slogan personal is political” reflects this idea. If first-wave feminism concentrated on absolute rights such as the right to vote, second-wave feminism was mainly concerned with issues of equality end to discrimination for example. Betty Friedan, with the publication of The Feminine Mystique in 1963 and the creation of the National Organization for Women in 1966, was one of the main feminist of the second-wave. Second-wave feminism led to many successes. The decades of the 1960's and the 1970's were characterized by enormous change concerning choices and behavior opened to women in the society. [...]

[...] 39-41 Websites Article “feminism”, http://dictionary.cambridge.org (last access : at 09.30 ) Article “feminism”, http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/dictionaryhome.aspx (last access: at 14.40 ) Article “feminism”, www.wikipédia.com (last access: at 15.20 ) Francine COMTE: “Luttes des femmes et féminisme” http://lesverts.fr/article.php3?id_article=2592 (last access: at 18.40 ) Article “feminism”, http://dictionary.cambridge.org (last access : at 09.30 ) Elaine MARKS New French Feminisms: An Anthology, New York: Shocken Article “feminism”, http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/dictionaryhome.aspx (last access : at 14.40 ) Elizabeth CADY STANTON, Eighty years and more. Reminiscences 1815-1897, Boston : Northeastern U. Press p. 82-83 Susan FALUDI, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women, Vintage Rebecca WALKER, 'Becoming the Third Wave' in Ms., January/February pp. [...]