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Feminism
Literature and Stages
Megha Patil

“…this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my
flesh, she shall be called a woman.”
-Adam
…so god created man in his own image…
- Gen:1:26-27

Aristotle says:
“the female is female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities”
Nietzsche, the German philosopher says:
“Woman is God’s second mistake.”
Our Manusmriti says:
पिता रक्षतत कौमारे भताा रक्षतत यौवने।
रक्षन्तत स्थपवरे िुत्रा न स्त्री स्वातत्यमर्ातत॥
Meaning: She has to be protected by her father in the childhood,
husband in her youth and son in her old age. She does not deserve
freedom

What does feminism do??!!
Feminism was a serious attempt to
formulate the issues and find solutions to
gender problems

Simon de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex(1949)
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication
of the Rights of Women (1792)

Olive Schreiner’s Women and Labour (1911)
Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1927)

Other Men writers:
John Stuart Mill: The Subjection of Women (1869)
Fredrich Engels: The Origin of the Family (1884)
Other influential writers:
Kate Millet’s Sexual Politics (1970)
Sulamith Firestone’s The Dialect of Sex (1972)
Toril Moi’s Sexual/ Textual Politics (1983)

FIRST WAVE FEMINISM
• The “First Wave” of feminism began in the late 19th and early 20th
Century.
• Focused mainly on opening up various opportunities for women,
especially the right to vote (women’s suffrage) and property rights.
• Concerns of First wave Feminism:
Education, Employment, Reformation in Marriage laws and the
plight of intelligent middle class single women.
• British women fought against the idea of ‘Angel in the House’

First Wave Feminism (Cont..)
• In USA: First wave feminism (1848-1960) focused on right to vote and right
to practice birth control.
• July 13, 1848: USA, Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the Seneca
Convention- to discuss about the social, civil and religious condition and
rights of woman.
• Issued ‘Declaration of sentiments’
• Key Thinkers of this phase: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy
Stone, Sojourner Truth.
• Major achievements: Voting rights, property rights and birth control

Second wave Feminism
• The “Second Wave” of feminism is typically seen as starting in the
1960s and continuing into the 1990s .
• It was particularly connected to other social movements occurring at
the time, such as the anti-Vietnam protests and the civil rights
movement.
• The “new social movement” dedicated to raising consciousness about
sexism and patriarchy, legalizing abortion and birth control, attaining
equal rights in political and economic realms, and gaining sexual
liberation

Second Wave Feminism (cont..)
 Important books: The Second Sex and Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique
(1963)
 The Second Wave of feminism, although it did stress such important social and
economic issues as equality in employment and sexual harassment, was also
driven by other, more theoretical interests, such as the differences between men
and women and the political consequences of those differences. As in First Wave
feminist thought, however, there was still a prevailing belief that men and women
were essentially different, and that due to their nurturing and collaborative natures
women would be able to bring about a peaceful world.
 Major achievements: Sexual freedom, integration in the workplace and into the
political arena, equal funding

Third Wave Feminism
 shares many of the interests of the first two waves (such as the empowerment of
women,)
 also characterized by a desire of young women to find a voice of their own and
to include various diverse groups in the fold of feminist thought.
 Rebecca Walker, who coined the term “Third Wave,” is one of the most
prominent figures in this wave of feminism.
 includes various groups of women, including women of color; lesbian, bisexual,
and transgendered women; and low income women.
 often seen as a critique Second Wave feminism for either excluding or
overlooking these disempowered groups.
 Major concerns: sexual freedom, inclusion of women of color and women from
other cultures, including the issues of the 1st and the 2nd wave feminism.

Three phases according to Elaine Showalter
The history of women’s writing in the West is divided into three phases
according to Elaine Showalter:
 A feminine phase (1840-1880) :
in which women writers imitated the male writers in their norms and
artistic standards
 A feminist phase (1880-1920):
in which a different and often a separate position was maintained.
 A female phase (1920 onwards):
which has a different female identity, style and content

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Feminism: Literature and stages

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