NOTES: Feminism

Feminism
Historical perspective
·         First wave- mid 19^th – early 20^th century
    They are concerned about gaining political equality and fought for the right to vote for women.

Suffrage movement
The term Suffragette is derived from the word suffrage, meaning the right to vote. The group was composed of women in the United Kingdom who wanted to be involved in the running of the country (most pressing issue at the time was voting) and they wanted to be treated as equals to men.

The Suffragettes movement is a group of women who wanted the right for women to vote in the late 19th and 20th century. The movement was started by Millicent Fawcett who founded the National union of Women's Suffrage. The suffragettes refused to bow to violence and would sometimes chain themselves to railings and burn mailboxes in a fight for this right to vote.
http://www.ask.com/question/what-was-the-suffragette-movement

Pankhurst
Pankhurst was a leading British women's rights activist, who led the movement to win the right for women to vote.

In 1889, Emmeline founded the Women's Franchise League, which fought to allow married women to vote in local elections. In October 1903, she helped found the more militant Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) - an organisation that gained much notoriety for its activities and whose members were the first to be christened 'suffragettes'. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/pankhurst_emmeline.shtml

Sylvia Pankhurst
In June 1914, she famously took a delegation of working class women to lobby Prime Minister Asquith who did not think that working class women were intelligent enough to have the vote. This proved to Asquith that working class women were intelligent enough to vote.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/britain/votesforwomenrev_print.shtml

When did women get the vote?
Women were not given the vote before the war. At the end of the war, in 1918, however, the Representation of the People Act gave women over 30 the vote, and in 1928 this was extended to all women over the age of 21.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/britain/votesforwomenrev_print.shtml

Why did the suffragettes resort to hunger strikes?
To get the attention of the media for the government to notice them. They went on a hunger strike when they were sent in prison.

·         Second wave Feminism – 1960’s – 1970s

What can you find about the feminist movement of the sixties and the seventies?
Feminism changed many women's lives and created new worlds of possibility for education, empowerment, working women, feminist art and feminist theory. For some, the goals of the feminist movement were simple: let women have freedom, equal opportunity and control over their lives. Here are some specific feminist movement goals from the “second wave” of feminism.

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/feminism/a/feminist_movement_goals_in_the_60s_and_70s.htm

What did they achieve in terms of changes in law?  

1960s

·         1964 The Married Women’s Property Act entitles a woman to keep half of any savings she has made from the allowance she is given by her husband. (www.bbc.co.uk)

·         1965 Barbara Castle is appointed Minister of Transport, becoming the first female minister of state. (www.bbc.co.uk)

·         1967 Labour MP David Steel sponsors an Abortion Law Reform Bill, which becomes the Abortion Act. The Act decriminalises abortion in Britain on certain grounds. Originally, abortion was entirely illegal, but was changed to make it legal when the woman was in danger of dying. However, in 1938, Dr. Alex Bourne deliberately challenged the law to clarify what constituted legal practice in relation to abortions. He performed an abortion on a 14-year-old rape victim, though her life was not in danger. The doctor won and the ‘Bourne Judgement’ opened the way for other doctors to interpret the law more flexibly. (www.ndad.nationalarchives.gov.uk)  

The Women’s Abortion and Contraception Campaign played a significant role in the passage of the act. (www.prochoiceforum.org.uk) 

The contraceptive pill becomes available through Family Planning Clinics. (Greater London Authority (2003) capitalwoman, GLA: London) The NHS (Family Planning) Act permits health authorities to give contraceptive advice regardless of marital status and the Family Planning Association (FPA) follows suit. (www.fpa.org.uk)

·         1968 Women at the Ford car factory in Dagenham strike over equal pay, almost stopping production at all Ford UK plants. Their protest led directly to the passing of the Equal Pay Act. (www.bbc.co.uk)

1970s

·         1970 Working women were refused mortgages in their own right as few women worked continuously. They were only granted mortgages if they could secure the signature of a male guarantor. (www.eoc.org.uk).

Britain’s first national Women’s Liberation Conference is held at Ruskin College. This is the first time women’s groups from across Britain have met in a single place. The Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM), influential throughout the 1970s, develops from the conference. (www.channel4.com)

The Equal Pay Act makes it illegal to pay women lower rates than men for the same work. (Greater London Authority (2002) capitalwoman, GLA: London) The act covers indirect as well as direct sex discrimination. It is a direct result of women’s strike action of Ford machinists and pressure from the women’s movement. (www.eoc.org)

The Miss World Competition is interrupted by feminist protestors claiming the contest is a cattle market. They throw flour and smoke bombs, inaugurating the first protest event organised by the women’s movement. (www.channel4.com)

·         1971 Over 4,000 women take part in the first Women’s Liberation march in London. (www.woyla.co.uk)

·         1972 Erin Pizzey sets up the first women’s refuge in Chiswick, London. (www.woyla.co.uk)

·         1974 The National Women’s Aid Federation is set up to bring together nearly 40 refuge services across the country. (www.woyla.co.uk) 

Contraception becomes available through the NHS. (Greater London Authority (2002) capital woman, GLA: London)  This is also a direct result of pressure from the women’s movement. (www.channel4.com)

·         1975 The Sex Discrimination Act makes it illegal to discriminate against women in work, education and training. This is another act pushed through by the women’s movement. (www.channel4.com)

 The Employment Protection Act introduces statutory maternity provision and makes it illegal to sack a woman because she is pregnant. (www.woyla.co.uk)

The National Abortion Campaign is formed in response to James White's Abortion (Amendment) Bill. It organises 20,000 people to create the largest women’s rights demonstration since the suffragettes. (www.prochoiceforum.org.uk)

Welsh women drive to Brussels to deliver the first ever petition to the European Parliament calling for women’s rights. (www.eoc.org.uk)

·         1976 The Equal Opportunities Commission comes into effect to oversee the Equal Pay Act and Sex Discrimination Act. (www.woyla.co.uk)

The Race Relations Act makes it illegal to discriminate on grounds of race in employment and education.(Greater London Authority (2002) capital woman, GLA: London)

Lobbying by women’s organisations ushers in the Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act is introduced to protect women and children from domestic violence. The Act gives new rights to those at risk of violence through civil protection orders. (Women’s Aid (2004) Celebrating 30 years of Women’s Aid, Women’s Aid: Bristol)

·         1977 Women’s Aid lobbies government to acknowledge women and children at risk of violence as homeless and introduce their right to state help with temporary accommodation. (Women’s Aid (2004) Celebrating 30 years of Women’s Aid, Women’s Aid: Bristol)

Mainly Asian women workers mount a yearlong strike at Grunwicks in London for equal pay and conditions. (Greater London Authority (2002) capital woman, GLA: London)

International Women’s Day is formalised as an annual event by the UN General Assembly. (www.woyla.co.uk)

The first Rape Crisis Centre opens in London. (www.woyla.co.uk)

·         1978 The Women’s Aid Federation of Northern Ireland established. It went on to become the lead in the voluntary organisation challenging domestic violence in Northern Ireland and currently provides support to over 10,000 women every year. (www.niwaf.org)

The Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent is set up. It is the first black women’s organisation in Britain to organise at a national level, bringing black women from across the country to from an umbrella group for black women’s organisations. (Mama, Amina (1996) The Hidden Struggle, Whiting & Birch: London)

·         1979 The feminist journal ‘Feminist Review’ is founded. It went on to play a crucial role in promoting contemporary feminist debate in the UK. (www.feminist-review.com)
Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain’s first female prime minister. (www.timeline.info) Six women are acquitted in the ‘Reclaim the Night trials’ in London. (Spare Rib, No. 83, June 1979)
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/humanresources/equalities/doc/gender-equality-timeline.pdf

What did they achieve in terms of changes in ideology?
The decades of the 60s and 70s were in fact characterized by enormous change in the range of behaviour and choices open to women in our society. Consciousness was raised, and attitudes of both men and women underwent significant change concerning women's capabilities and rights, while the notion of equality between the sexes gained increased legitimacy.
http://userpages.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/identity_pol.html

·         Third Wave Feminism – 1980s - present.

Third Wave Feminism
Third-wave feminism is a term identified with several diverse strains of feminist activity and study, whose exact boundaries in the historiography of feminism are a subject of debate, but are often marked as beginning in the early 1990s and continuing to the present.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-wave_feminism

What are their aims?
Purpose
·         Third-wave feminism seeks to challenge or avoid what it deems the second wave's essentialist definitions of femininity, which often assumed a universal female identity and over-emphasized the experiences of upper-middle-class white women.

·         They believed there needed to be further changes in stereotypes of women and in the media portrayals of women as well as in the language that has been used to define women. Therefore, third-wave ideology focuses on a more post-structuralist interpretation of gender and sexuality

Who are some of key thinkers/writers?
Some third wave feminists
·         Naomi Wolf  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Wolf
·         Tavi Gevinson (founder and editor-in-chief of the online Rookie Magazine aimed at teenagers) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavi_Gevinson
·         Joan Smith http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Smith_(novelist_and_journalist)