Portal:Feminism

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

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...)

View new selections below (purge)

edit

Featured article

The École Polytechnique massacre occurred on December 6, 1989 at the École Polytechnique de Montréal in Montreal, Quebec. Twenty-five year-old Marc Lépine, armed with a legally-obtained semi-automatic rifle and a hunting knife, shot twenty-eight people, killing fourteen (all of them women) and injuring the other fourteen before killing himself. He began his attack by entering a classroom at the university, where he separated the men and women students from each other. After claiming that he was "fighting feminism", he shot all nine women in the room, killing six. He then moved through corridors, the cafeteria, and another classroom, specifically targeting women to shoot. He killed fourteen women and injured four men and ten women in just under twenty minutes before turning the gun on himself. Lépine's suicide note claimed political motives and blamed feminists for ruining his life. The note include a list of nineteen Quebec women whom Lépine considered to be feminists and apparently wished to kill. Since the attack, Canadians have debated various interpretations of the events, their significance, and Lépine's motives. The massacre is regarded by most feminists and many official perspectives as an anti-feminist attack and representative of wider societal violence against women; the anniversary of the massacre is commemorated as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. The incident led to more stringent gun control laws in Canada, and changes in the tactical response of police to shootings, which were later credited with minimizing casualties at the Dawson College shootings.

More featured articles

More...

edit

Featured picture

Credit: Steven G. Johnson

The "Maid of Orleans", Joan of Arc is a national heroine of France and a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. She helped inspire Charles VII's troops to retake most of his dynasty's former territories, which had been under English and Burgundian dominance during the Hundred Years' War. She later was convicted of heresy (overturned posthumously) and burnt at the stake at the age of nineteen. Pope Benedict XV canonized her on 16 May 1920 and she is now one of the most popular saints of the Catholic Church.

Shown here is a statue of Joan of Arc inside Notre-Dame de Paris, a Gothic cathedral in Paris, where she was beatified in 1909.

More featured pictures

More...

edit

In this month

June 1949 – First publication of The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, a detailed analysis of women's oppression which became a foundational text of contemporary feminism
June 1996 – Fauziya Kassindja was granted asylum in the United States in order to escape the tribal practice of female genital cutting. This set a precedent allowing the grant of asylum for gender discrimination.
21 June 1947 – Shirin Ebadi - Iranian lawyer and human rights activist who was the first Muslim woman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her pioneering efforts on behalf of women's and children's rights
23 June 1879 – Birth of Hoda Shaarawi (pictured at right), a pioneering Egyptian feminist leader and nationalist; she founded the Egyptian Feminist Union and led protests, notably removing her face veil for the first time in public.
30 June 1966 – Foundation of the National Organization for Women in the United States, which promotes reproductive freedoms; diversity; the end of racism, rape and domestic violence; economic justice; lesbian rights; and constitutional equality for women.

More anniversaries

edit

Selected quote

Susan B. Anthony

We ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all civil and political rights that belong to the citizens of the United States be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever.

— Susan B. Anthony

More selected quotes

More...

edit

Related portals

edit

Featured biography

Anna May Wong (1905–1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese-American movie star, and the first Asian-American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned film, television, stage, and radio. During the silent film era, her more notable roles were in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color; Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924), and Piccadilly (1929). Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, and starred in several notable films and plays. She paid less attention to her film career during the war years, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56. Her life and career were re-evaluated in the years around the centennial of her birth, in three major literary works and film retrospectives.

More featured biographies

More...

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?

edit

More did you know

...that New York Journal cartoonist and illustrator Nell Brinkley created the "Brinkley Girl" (pictured), an iconic representation of independent working women popular in the early 20th century?
...that archdeacon Kay Goldsworthy was recently appointed the first woman bishop of any Australian church and will be consecrated as an Anglican bishop on 22 May 2008?
...that Jacqueline Audry was the first commercially successful woman film director of post-war France?

More did you know facts

General images - load new batch

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

Image 1The Nineteenth Amendment (from History of feminism)
Image 2Florence Nightingale (from History of feminism)
Image 3
  Official holiday
  Holiday for women
  Non-official holiday
(from International Women's Day)
Image 4Ida B. Wells (from History of feminism)
Image 5Christine de Pizan presents her book to Queen Isabeau of Bavaria. (from History of feminism)
Image 6bell hooks (from History of feminism)
Image 7Cover of WSPU's The Suffragette, April 25, 1913 (after Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, 1830) (from History of feminism)
Image 8First edition print of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (from History of feminism)
Image 9María 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 10Marie Stopes (from History of feminism)
Image 11Germaine Greer in June 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 12Irena Krzywicka (from History of feminism)
Image 13Author and scholar Helen Kendrick Johnson opposed women's suffrage. (from History of feminism)
Image 148M 2018 in Pamplona (from International Women's Day)
Image 15Women's Liberation march in Washington, D.C., 1970 (from History of feminism)
Image 16Simone de Beauvoir (from History of feminism)
Image 17Female members of the Australian Builders Labourers Federation march on International Women's Day 1975 in Sydney (from International Women's Day)
Image 18Matilda Joslyn Gage (from History of feminism)
Image 19Betty Friedan 1960 (from History of feminism)
Image 20Huda Shaarawi, founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union (from History of feminism)
Image 21Elizabeth Cady Stanton (seated) and Susan B. Anthony (from History of feminism)
Image 22Clara Zetkin (left) and Rosa Luxemburg (right) in January 1910 (from International Women's Day)
Image 23An 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 24Camilla Collett (from History of feminism)
Image 258M 2020 in Spain (from International Women's Day)
Image 26Women on the street celebrating International Women's Day in Cameroon (from International Women's Day)
Image 27A veil-burning ceremony in Andijan on International Women's Day in 1927. (from International Women's Day)
Image 28Gloria Steinem at news conference, Women's Action Alliance, January 12, 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 29Emily Davison (from History of feminism)
Image 30Suffrage parade in New York, May 6, 1912 (from History of feminism)
Image 31Bessie Rayner Parkes (from History of feminism)
Image 32The vandalized Concepción Feminist Mural in Spain, which was vandalized on International Women's Day 2021. (from International Women's Day)
Image 33Lucy Stone (from History of feminism)
Image 34Nellie McClung (from History of feminism)
Image 35Wealthy 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 36Board of directors of "Jam'iat e nesvan e vatan-khah", a women's rights association in Tehran (1923–1933) (from History of feminism)
Image 37Catharine MacKinnon (from History of feminism)
Image 38John Neal (from History of feminism)
Image 39Margaret Sanger (from History of feminism)
Image 40Frances Cobbe (from History of feminism)
Image 41Sylvia Pankhurst (from History of feminism)
Image 42Yellow 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)

edit

WikiProjects

edit

Topics

edit

Featured content

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.

Featured articles

Featured lists

Good articles

Featured pictures

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