Portal:Feminism

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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. Some have argued that feminism often promotes misandry and the elevation of women's interests above men's, and criticize radical feminist positions as harmful to both men and women. (Full article...)

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Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman is Mary Wollstonecraft's unfinished novelistic sequel to her revolutionary political treatise A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). The Wrongs of Woman was published posthumously in 1798 by her husband, William Godwin, and is often considered her most radical feminist work. Wollstonecraft's philosophical and gothic novel revolves around the story of a woman imprisoned in an insane asylum by her husband. It focuses on the societal rather than the individual "wrongs of woman" and criticizes what Wollstonecraft viewed as the patriarchal institution of marriage in eighteenth-century Britain and the legal system that protected it. However, the heroine's inability to relinquish her romantic fantasies also indicts women for wallowing in a false and damaging sentimentalism. The novel pioneered the celebration of female sexuality and cross-class identification between women. Such themes, coupled with the publication of Godwin's scandalous Memoirs of Wollstonecraft's life, made the novel unpopular at the time it was published. Twentieth-century feminist critics embraced the work, integrating it into the history of the novel and feminist discourse. It is most often viewed as a fictionalized popularization of the Rights of Woman, as an extension of Wollstonecraft's feminist arguments in Rights of Woman, and as an autobiography.

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Credit: Anna Bilińska/MNK

Anna Bilińska (1854–1893) was a Polish Realist painter. Born in Zlatopil, she moved to Paris to study at the Académie Julian. Bilińska is one of the first Polish female artists to receive professional artistic education and critical acclaim. Her paintings include A Negress and At the Seashore. This self-portrait of Bilińska, wearing an apron and holding a bundle of brushes, was painted in oil on canvas in 1887 and is now in the collection of the National Museum in Kraków.

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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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[Feminism is] about women having intrinsic value as persons rather than contingent value as a means to an end for others: fetuses, children, the "family", men.

— Katha Pollitt

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The Princess Helena (Helena Augusta Victoria: Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein by marriage; 1846 - 1923) was a member of the British Royal Family, the third daughter and fifth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Helena was educated by private tutors chosen by her father and his close friend and adviser, Baron Stockmar. The intimate atmosphere of the royal court came to an end on 14 December 1861, when her father died and her mother entered a period of intense mourning. On 5 July 1866, Helena married the impoverished German Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. The couple remained in England, in calling distance of the Queen, who liked to have her daughters nearby, and Helena along with her youngest sister, Princess Beatrice, became the Queen's unofficial secretary. However, after Queen Victoria's death on 22 January 1901, Helena saw relatively little of her surviving siblings. Helena was one of the founding members of the Red Cross. She was founding president of the Royal School of Needlework, and president of the Royal British Nurses' Association. As president of the latter, she was a strong supporter of nurse registration against the advice of Florence Nightingale. She became the first member of her family to celebrate her 50th wedding anniversary in 1916, but her husband died a year later. Helena outlived him by six years, and died aged 77 at Schomberg House on 19 June 1923.

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Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

... that Margareth Rago seeks to establish a methodology for what she calls "feminist science"?
... 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?

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...that Shushanik Kurghinian (pictured) was the first revolutionary female poet in Armenian literature?
...that Emily Helen Butterfield was Michigan's first licensed female architect, and designed many college fraternity and sorority crests thanks to her interest in heraldry?
...that in April 1999, Australian Justice Carolyn Simpson joined Margaret Beazley and Virginia Bell to form the first all-female bench to sit in Australia, England or New Zealand?

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

Image 1Huda Shaarawi, founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union (from History of feminism)
Image 2Frances Cobbe (from History of feminism)
Image 3Author and scholar Helen Kendrick Johnson opposed women's suffrage. (from History of feminism)
Image 4Emily Davison (from History of feminism)
Image 5Bessie Rayner Parkes (from History of feminism)
Image 6First edition print of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (from History of feminism)
Image 7Wealthy 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 8Margaret Sanger (from History of feminism)
Image 9Women on the street celebrating International Women's Day in Cameroon (from International Women's Day)
Image 10The vandalized Concepción Feminist Mural in Spain, which was vandalized on International Women's Day 2021. (from International Women's Day)
Image 11Female soldiers from Peru, Egypt, India and other countries celebrate International Women's Day. (from International Women's Day)
Image 12Simone de Beauvoir (from History of feminism)
Image 13Gloria Steinem at news conference, Women's Action Alliance, January 12, 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 148M 2018 in Pamplona (from International Women's Day)
Image 15Female members of the Australian Builders Labourers Federation march on International Women's Day 1975 in Sydney (from International Women's Day)
Image 168M 2020 in Spain (from International Women's Day)
Image 17Cover of WSPU's The Suffragette, April 25, 1913 (after Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, 1830) (from History of feminism)
Image 18Irena Krzywicka (from History of feminism)
Image 19Yellow mimosa is the symbol of IWD in Italy as well as in Russia, Ukraine and many other ex-Soviet Union republics (from International Women's Day)
Image 20The Nineteenth Amendment (from History of feminism)
Image 21Sylvia Pankhurst (from History of feminism)
Image 22Elizabeth Cady Stanton (seated) and Susan B. Anthony (from History of feminism)
Image 23Clara Zetkin (left) and Rosa Luxemburg (right) in January 1910 (from International Women's Day)
Image 24Camilla Collett (from History of feminism)
Image 25Lucy Stone (from History of feminism)
Image 26An 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 27Catharine MacKinnon (from History of feminism)
Image 28John Neal (from History of feminism)
Image 29Women's Liberation march in Washington, D.C., 1970 (from History of feminism)
Image 30Female soldiers from Peru, Egypt, India and other countries celebrate International Women's Day. (from International Women's Day)
Image 31bell hooks (from History of feminism)
Image 32María 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 33Florence Nightingale (from History of feminism)
Image 34Ida B. Wells (from History of feminism)
Image 35Germaine Greer in June 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 36
  Official holiday
  Holiday for women
  Non-official holiday
(from International Women's Day)
Image 37Marie Stopes (from History of feminism)
Image 38Matilda Joslyn Gage (from History of feminism)
Image 39Betty Friedan 1960 (from History of feminism)
Image 40Christine de Pizan presents her book to Queen Isabeau of Bavaria. (from History of feminism)
Image 41Suffrage parade in New York, May 6, 1912 (from History of feminism)
Image 42Nellie McClung (from History of feminism)
Image 43Board of directors of "Jam'iat e nesvan e vatan-khah", a women's rights association in Tehran (1923–1933) (from History of feminism)
Image 44A veil-burning ceremony in Andijan on International Women's Day in 1927. (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