FEMINISM

“The right to education as a woman, gender equality, the right to vote and be voted for, to hold and run for elective offices brought about feminism”

Feminism is the advocacy for women’s right on the ground of the equality of the sexes. On the political ideology of this course, it is the belief in full social, economic equality for women. Feminism largely rose in response to Western traditions that restricted her rights of women but feminists thoughts has Global manifestations and variations

In the olden days, women were deprived of so many rights and the access to societal participation. Not just in this part of Africa but it was a global incident that even occurs till date, example the Taliban which is going to put a lot of restrictions on the Afghanistan women and seize their educational rights which we all know is the essential thing as education is the process of receiving knowledge and the act of teaching.

Throughout most of the Western history, women were confined to the domestic sphere, while the public life was reserved for the men. Early marriage was a thing for the female gender while the male counterparts had the opportunity to participate in community activities and attend schools. Girls were trained and raised to be mothers and wives with the responsibilities of the house and the family. In igboland from our local movies, having a male child was like acquiring a large portion of wealth. Respect and honor was given to a man who had many male children like it was an achievement. An Igbo man could go as far as marrying 2-3 wives in search of a son to explain the great significance of the male child in the society.

In Medieval Europe, Women were denied the right to own properties, study to own properties, study or participate in public activities. At the end of the 19th century in France, women were still forced to cover their heads in Public and in Germany a man had the right to sell his wife. It goes down to women starting up or owning businesses. A woman needed the supervision of the male to own a business be it her Husband, Father, Son or Brother. In Europe, and in most places in the United State, women couldn’t vote nor hold elective offices. All this restrictions made the society and unhealthy place for women and tagged women to being housewives/keepers and taking away the rights to leadership from us. This made feminists begin their movements to fight for gender equality, leadership as a woman, the right to education, rights to vote and hold elective offices, speak up and be heard and that’s why you and I can study today in schools, get married at our own time and decision (although this is still prohibited in some places.) and use beauty pageant as a means to speak up and make our voices be heard.

“From the definition of feminism, a feminist is a woman who advocates for gender equality, and women’s right.”

Feminism today has taken a different dimension from the original ideology of what it used to be. When a woman or young girl in the society who stands up for herself or explains why she should be allowed to speak, people tags her a feminist, not for the best but with a wrong understanding of what this course means. People today feel Feminism is when you’re able to meet ends meet as a woman or not dependent on the male gender. As man and woman we need each other. In the reality of life, each gender needs each other. Biblically, it is stated in the book of Genesis where God gave instructions to Adam and Eve to have dominion over the earth and multiply. Most women today who have placed themselves as role models and idols to younger women in the society has also given young women the impression that as a female (mostly wives) when you’re able to foot the bills of your family or take responsibilities of the man in the family they become feminists and demand equal rights in their matrimonial homes whereas the Bible tells every wife to be submissive to their husbands. Women who involves in this, sees themselves superior to their husbands which in turn has broken a lot of homes and left a bad reputation for feminism.

There are other opinions people holds against feminism which drifts away from the main idea of feminism and what the feminist started and this has given room to the opposite gender to manipulate women who stand up for themselves and for other women to be judged as a feminist but with bad intentions. Women find it difficult to admit that they’re feminists due to the concept of today’s feminism.

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The movement for Feminism started due to the problems women were faced with from the olden days. Though most of these things were accomplished and a few of them are yet to be accomplished which we believe with all of us together in one accord and with one voice we would be able to achieve them. There are people who do not support that men and women should have equal rights, neither should they be paid equally in a work done or even given the opportunity to take up some Careers and job opportunities as the men. There are lots of men who still questions the home training of a female whenever they try to defend themselves and even tagged them rude, bossy, loud mouth, etc. and even contradict that women can never be and should never be given equal rights because they can never handle the responsibilities that makes a man a man. Like being a woman is a day job or an easy thing to be. If most of these problems and duties women are associated with such as pregnancy, childbirth and labor, menstruation were given to the men they Would have survived it.

Movement of Feminism

In 1848, the first women’s right convention was held in the small town of Seneca Falls, New York. The movement of feminism comprised of the first wave and the second wave movement. The first wave focused on women suffrage (the right to vote). Stanton, a mainstream feminist leader drew up the declaration of sentiments that guided the Seneca Falls convention. She used the Declaration of Independence as her guide to proclaim that all men and women were created equally and therefore they had the rights to be have equality in the society. Educational rights and political rights were emphasized as this were the privileges of the upper class citizens. After the American civil war, they felt women suffrage was going to be added to the U.S constitution. Stanton succeeded to marginalize more extreme demands such as Goldman’s and Gilman’s but failed to secure the vote for women.

The second wave of feminism was the women’s movement of the 1960’s and 70’s which represented a seemingly abrupt break with the tranquil suburban life pictured in American popular culture. Unlike the first wave, second-wave feminism provoked extensive theoretical discussion about the origins of women’s oppression, nature of gender and the role of the family.

BODIES RESPONSIBLE FOR GENDER EQUALITY

There are various bodies that fights for gender equality and a few of them are:

• UN Women

• National Organization for Women(NOW)

• Equality now

• Women for Women International

• Association for Women’s right in Development (AWID)

By the end of the 20th century, European and American feminists had begun to interact with the nascent feminist movements of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. As this happened, women in developed countries, especially intellectuals, were horrified to discover that women in some countries were required to wear veils in public or to endure forced marriage, female infanticide, widow burning, or female genital cutting (FGC). Many Western feminists soon perceived themselves as saviors of Third World women, little realizing that their perceptions of and solutions to social problems were often at odds with the real lives and concerns of women in these regions. In many parts of Africa, for example, the status of women had begun to erode significantly only with the arrival of European colonialism.

There is so much to learn from feminism as this is a broad course. Like first-wave feminism, the second wave was largely defined and led by educated middle-class white women who built the movement primarily around their own concerns. This created an ambivalent, relationship with women of other classes and races. The campaign against employment and wage discrimination helped bridge the gap between the movement and white labour union women. Examples of the Black feminists includes Michele Wallace, Mary Ann Weathers, bell hooks, Alice Walker, and Bettina Aptheker. Black women were forced to confront the interplay between racism and sexism and to figure out how to make Black men think about gender issues while making white women think about racial issues which were addressed by the above feminists.