Portal:Feminism

The Feminism Portal

Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern societies are patriarchal—they prioritize the male point of view—and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women.

Originating in late 18th-century Europe, feminist movements have campaigned and continue to campaign for women's rights, including the right to vote, run for public office, work, earn equal pay, own property, receive education, enter into contracts, have equal rights within marriage, and maternity leave. Feminists have also worked to ensure access to contraception, legal abortions, and social integration; and to protect women and girls from sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Changes in female dress standards and acceptable physical activities for women have also been part of feminist movements.

Many scholars consider feminist campaigns to be a main force behind major historical societal changes for women's rights, particularly in the West, where they are near-universally credited with achieving women's suffrage, gender-neutral language, reproductive rights for women (including access to contraceptives and abortion), and the right to enter into contracts and own property. Although feminist advocacy is, and has been, mainly focused on women's rights, some argue for the inclusion of men's liberation within its aims, because they believe that men are also harmed by traditional gender roles. Feminist theory, which emerged from feminist movements, aims to understand the nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles and lived experiences. Feminist theorists have developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues concerning gender.

Numerous feminist movements and ideologies have developed over the years, representing different viewpoints and political aims. Traditionally, since the 19th century, first-wave liberal feminism, which sought political and legal equality through reforms within a liberal democratic framework, was contrasted with labour-based proletarian women's movements that over time developed into socialist and Marxist feminism based on class struggle theory. Since the 1960s, both of these traditions are also contrasted with the radical feminism that arose from the radical wing of second-wave feminism and that calls for a radical reordering of society to eliminate patriarchy. Liberal, socialist, and radical feminism are sometimes referred to as the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought.

Since the late 20th century, many newer forms of feminism have emerged. Some forms, such as white feminism and gender-critical feminism, have been criticized as taking into account only white, middle class, college-educated, heterosexual, or cisgender perspectives. These criticisms have led to the creation of ethnically specific or multicultural forms of feminism, such as black feminism and intersectional feminism. (Full article...)

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The Tahirih Justice Center is a United States-based non-governmental organization that serves immigrant women and girls who are fleeing from gender-based violence and persecution through pro bono direct legal services and social and medical service referrals. Tahirih helps women who are attempting to escape from such abuse as female genital cutting, domestic violence, human trafficking, torture and rape. The organization also conducts public policy initiatives designed to achieve legislative change for women fleeing from human rights abuses, to highlight problems faced by immigrant women in the United States, and to end the possible exploitation of mail-order brides by international marriage brokers. The organization is named after Táhirih, an influential female poet and theologian in nineteenth century Persia who campaigned for women's rights. Tahirih is a Baháʼí-inspired organization, although its clients and employees vary widely in ethnicity, religious identification, and nationality.

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Credit: Detroit Publishing Co.

A photochrom of an elderly Irish woman using a spinning wheel, a device for spinning thread or yarn from natural or human-made fibers. Manual spinning wheels were likely invented in the 13th century, replacing the earlier spindle and distaff, and remained in use until automated mass production techniques were invented in the Industrial Revolution. Hand-spinning remains a popular handicraft.

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In this month

12 October 1810 – Birth of Nísia Floresta Brasileira Augusta (pictured), considered the "first Brazilian feminist", she wrote the first Brazilian book to discuss women's rights
16 October 1869 – Girton College, Cambridge, first residential college for women in England, established by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon
16 October 1916 – Margaret Sanger opened the first family planning and birth control clinic in the United States.
17 October 1947 – Birth of Brinda Karat, an Indian activist within the labor and women's movements, she gained prominence reforming rape laws and became the first female member of the CPI(M) Politburo.
24 October 1929 – First publication of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, a book-length essay which includes the famous dictum "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction"

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Feminist politics aims to end domination, to free us to be who we are - to live lives where we love justice, where we can live in peace. Feminism is for everybody.

— bell hooks

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Rachel Carson was an American marine biologist and nature writer whose writings are often credited with launching the global environmental movement. Carson started her career as a biologist in the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, and transitioned to a full-time nature writer in the 1950s. Her widely praised 1951 bestseller The Sea Around Us won her financial security and recognition as a gifted writer. Her next book, The Edge of the Sea, and the republished version of her first book, Under the Sea-Wind, were also bestsellers. Together, her sea trilogy explores the gamut of ocean life, from the shores to the surface to the deep sea. In the late 1950s, Carson turned her attention to conservation and the environmental problems caused by synthetic pesticides. The result was Silent Spring (1962), which brought environmental concerns to an unprecedented portion of the American public. Silent Spring spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy—leading to a nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides—and the grassroots environmental movement it inspired led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Carson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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... that after dying in her daughter's arms in an asylum in 1897, Maria Trubnikova was remembered as the "heart and soul" of feminist activism in Russia?
... that the subculture of Aristasia combined Guénonian Traditionalism with lesbian separatism?
... that the retelling of stories can focus on female characters to reflect the feminist perspective?
... that Mary Kahil, an Egyptian Christian mystic, cofounded one of the earliest women's movements in the Arab world?
... that Margareth Rago seeks to establish a methodology for what she calls "feminist science"?

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...that in 1914, Lois Weber (pictured) was the first American woman to direct a full-length feature film?
...that Georgie White was the first woman to run a commercial Grand Canyon river guiding service?
...that zoologist Georgina Sweet was the first woman to receive a DSc from the University of Melbourne and the first female recipient of the David Syme Research Prize?

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The following are images from various feminism-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The White Feather: A Sketch of English Recruiting" (Arnold Bennett, 1914) (from History of feminism)
Image 2Camilla Collett (from History of feminism)
Image 3The vandalized Concepción Feminist Mural in Spain, which was vandalized on International Women's Day 2021. (from International Women's Day)
Image 4
  Official holiday
  Holiday for women
  Non-official holiday
(from International Women's Day)
Image 5Suffrage parade in New York, May 6, 1912 (from History of feminism)
Image 6John Neal (from History of feminism)
Image 78M 2020 in Spain (from International Women's Day)
Image 8Margaret Sanger (from History of feminism)
Image 9Author and scholar Helen Kendrick Johnson opposed women's suffrage. (from History of feminism)
Image 10María Elena Oddone holding a banner, on International Women's Day in 1984 in Argentina. The banner says "No to motherhood, yes to pleasure" (from International Women's Day)
Image 11Frances Cobbe (from History of feminism)
Image 12Female members of the Australian Builders Labourers Federation march on International Women's Day 1975 in Sydney (from International Women's Day)
Image 13Gloria Steinem at news conference, Women's Action Alliance, January 12, 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 14Germaine Greer in June 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 15Christine de Pizan presents her book to Queen Isabeau of Bavaria. (from History of feminism)
Image 16bell hooks (from History of feminism)
Image 17Ida B. Wells (from History of feminism)
Image 18Sylvia Pankhurst (from History of feminism)
Image 19Florence Nightingale (from History of feminism)
Image 20First edition print of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (from History of feminism)
Image 21Bessie Rayner Parkes (from History of feminism)
Image 22Irena Krzywicka (from History of feminism)
Image 23Women on the street celebrating International Women's Day in Cameroon (from International Women's Day)
Image 24An Antimonumenta, installed in Mexico City on International Women's Day 2019, as photographed the day after. The circle part says "In Mexico 9 women are murdered daily" and the cross part says "Not one more!" On the opposite side, the Antimonumenta reads "We demand a national gender alert", and in the central part "No + Femicides" (from International Women's Day)
Image 25Huda Shaarawi, founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union (from History of feminism)
Image 268M 2018 in Pamplona (from International Women's Day)
Image 27Elizabeth Cady Stanton (seated) and Susan B. Anthony (from History of feminism)
Image 28A veil-burning ceremony in Andijan on International Women's Day in 1927 (from International Women's Day)
Image 29Women's Liberation march in Washington, D.C., 1970 (from History of feminism)
Image 30Nellie McClung (from History of feminism)
Image 31Simone de Beauvoir (from History of feminism)
Image 32The Nineteenth Amendment (from History of feminism)
Image 33Matilda Joslyn Gage (from History of feminism)
Image 34Wealthy Chinese women with bound feet (Beijing, 1900). Foot binding was a symbol of women's oppression during the reform movements in the 19th and 20th centuries. (from History of feminism)
Image 35Board of directors of "Jam'iat e nesvan e vatan-khah", a women's rights association in Tehran (1923–1933) (from History of feminism)
Image 36Clara Zetkin (left) and Rosa Luxemburg (right) in January 1910 (from International Women's Day)
Image 37Marie Stopes (from History of feminism)
Image 38Cover of WSPU's The Suffragette, April 25, 1913 (after Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, 1830) (from History of feminism)
Image 39Emily Davison (from History of feminism)
Image 40Lucy Stone (from History of feminism)
Image 41Giorgia Meloni, first female prime minister of Italy at a 2024 Women's Day event in Rome (from International Women's Day)
Image 42Betty Friedan 1960 (from History of feminism)
Image 43Catharine MacKinnon (from History of feminism)
Image 44Yellow mimosa is the symbol of International Women's Day in Italy as well as in Russia, Ukraine and many other ex-Soviet Union republics (from International Women's Day)

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This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Feminism}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.

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Alice Manfield - Guide Alice, Mt Buffalo, c1900-30, SLV
Alice Park - Records of the National Woman's Party
Alice Paul (1915) by Harris & Ewing
Angela Davis in a half-length portrait by Bernard Gotfryd - crop
Anne Dallas Dudley LOC
Avril de Sainte-Croix - Restored, cropped
Bertha Lutz 1925
Cabinet Card of Sojourner Truth - Collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Convicts Lunatics and Women! Have No Vote for Parliament, ca. 1907-1918
Dr. Caroline Spencer 275029v
Ethel Smyth
Frances Benjamin Johnston, Self-Portrait (as "New Woman"), 1896
Fredrikke Mørck
George Charles Beresford - Virginia Woolf in 1902 - Restoration
Henrietta Rodman from the George Grantham Bain Collection
Henry Mayer, The Awakening, 1915 Cornell CUL PJM 1176 01 - Restoration
Hester Jeffrey
Hubertine Auclert 1910
Iris Calderhead
Joy Young Rogers outside the White House
Lucretia Mott, signed photo, by F. Gutekunst
Mabel Vernon, c. 1917, by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Marguerite Durand 1910 - Restoration
Marie Stopes in her laboratory, 1904 - Restoration
Mary Garrity - Ida B. Wells-Barnett - Google Art Project - restoration crop
Millicent Fawcett
Mrs. Crystal Eastman Benedict by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Mrs. Lillian Ascough, chairman of the Connecticut branch of the Woman's Party
Mrs. Pauline Adams 147002v
Portrett av Gina Krog (6276081582) - Restoration
Poster by Anna Soós Korànyi for the Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance
Ray Strachey restored
Sojourner Truth, 1870 (cropped, restored)
Victoria Claflin Woodhull by Mathew Brady - Oval Portrait
Voltairine de Cleyre (Age 35)
We Can Do It! NARA 535413 - Restoration 2