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The Feminism Portal

International Women's Day, Bangladesh (2005)

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 incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male point of view and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and establishing educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women that are equal to those for men.

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 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 rape, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Changes in female dress standards and acceptable physical activities for females have often been part of feminist movements.

Some 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 feminists 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 experience; 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 and represent different viewpoints and aims. Traditionally, since the 19th century, first-wave liberal feminism that 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 radical feminism that arose from the radical wing of second-wave feminism and that calls for a radical reordering of society to eliminate male supremacy; together liberal, socialist and radical feminism are sometimes called the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought.

Since the late 20th century, many newer forms of feminisms have emerged. Some forms of feminism have been criticized for 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 feminists 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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Thoughts on the Education of Daughters is British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft's first published work. Published in 1787 by her friend Joseph Johnson, Thoughts is a conduct book that offers advice on female education to the emerging British middle class. Although dominated by considerations of morality and etiquette, the text also contains basic child-rearing instructions, such as how to care for an infant. An early version of the modern self-help book, the eighteenth-century British conduct book drew on several literary traditions, such as advice manuals and religious narratives. There was an explosion in the number of conduct books published during the second half of the eighteenth century, and Wollstonecraft took advantage of this burgeoning market when she published Thoughts. However, the book was only moderately successful: it was favourably reviewed, but only by one journal and it was reprinted only once. Although it was excerpted in popular magazines of the time, it was not republished until the rise of feminist literary criticism in the 1970s. The book encourages mothers to teach their daughters analytical thinking, self-discipline, honesty, contentment in their social position, and marketable skills (in case they should ever need to support themselves).

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Credit: American Colony (Jerusalem) Photo Depart.

A young woman from Ramallah, c. 1898-1914. Until the 1940s, women of Palestine wore elaborate handcrafted garments. The creation and maintenance of these items played a significant role in their lives. A knowledgeable observer could determine a woman's village of origin and social status from her clothing. The circular band near this woman's forehead is a ring of coins made from a portion of her dowry money, and indicates that she is unmarried.

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In this month

September 1981 – Women's Action Forum formed in Pakistan which promotes women's issues, such as discriminatory legislation, dress codes, violence against women, and the seclusion of women
3 September 1981 – Coming into effect of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, an international bill of rights for women adopted by the United Nations General Assembly—the United States is the only developed nation which has not ratified it.
13 September 1994 – Violence Against Women Act signed into law to combat domestic violence and sexual assault in the United States, what NOW called "the greatest breakthrough in civil rights for women in nearly two decades"
16 September 1923 – Killing of Noe Ito, a Japanese anarchist, social critic, author and feminist
25 September 1952 – Birth of bell hooks, an African-American author, feminist, and social activist, whose writing has focused on the connections between race, class and gender and how they produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and domination

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If divorce has increased by one thousand percent, don't blame the women's movement. Blame the obsolete sex roles on which our marriages were based.

— Betty Friedan

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Anna Laetitia Barbauld (née Aikin) (1743 - 1825) was a prominent eighteenth-century English poet, essayist, and children's author. A "woman of letters" who published in multiple genres, Barbauld had a successful writing career at a time when female professional writers were rare. She was a noted teacher at the celebrated Palgrave Academy and an innovative children's writer; her famous primers provided a model for pedagogy for more than a century. Her essays demonstrated that it was possible for a woman to be publicly engaged in politics, and other women authors emulated her. Even more importantly, her poetry was foundational to the development of Romanticism in England. Barbauld was also a literary critic, and her anthology of eighteenth-century British novels helped establish the canon as we know it today. Barbauld's literary career ended abruptly in 1812 with the publication of her poem Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, which criticized Britain's participation in the Napoleonic Wars. The vicious reviews shocked Barbauld and she published nothing else within her lifetime. The rise of feminist literary criticism in the 1980s renewed interest in her works and restored her place in literary history.

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... that Chava Shapiro published the first feminist manifesto in Hebrew, lamenting the absence of women's voices in the language's literature?
... that attending the first Women in Print Conference inspired Carol Seajay to create Feminist Bookstore News?

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... that Gregoria de Jesus (pictured) was the founder and vice-president of the woman chapter of the Katipunan partisan society during the Philippine Revolution?
...that Nihonga artist Ogura Yuki was the first woman to be selected chairperson of the Japan Art Academy, and one of only two women painters to be awarded Japan's Order of Culture?
...that Dawn Steel was the first woman to head a major Hollywood film studio?

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

Image 1Matilda Joslyn Gage (from History of feminism)
Image 2Catharine MacKinnon (from History of feminism)
Image 3Author and scholar Helen Kendrick Johnson opposed women's suffrage. (from History of feminism)
Image 4Bessie Rayner Parkes (from History of feminism)
Image 5German poster for International Women's Day, March 8, 1914. This poster was banned in the German Empire. (from International Women's Day)
Image 6The Nineteenth Amendment (from History of feminism)
Image 7Camilla Collett (from History of feminism)
Image 8Florence Nightingale (from History of feminism)
Image 9Women on the street celebrating International Women's Day in Cameroon (from International Women's Day)
Image 10
  Official holiday
  Holiday for women
  Non-official holiday
(from International Women's Day)
Image 118M 2019 in Spain (from International Women's Day)
Image 12Gloria Steinem at news conference, Women's Action Alliance, January 12, 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 13Margaret Sanger (from History of feminism)
Image 148M 2018 in Pamplona (from International Women's Day)
Image 15Yellow mimosa is the symbol of IWD in Ukraine and Italy (from International Women's Day)
Image 16bell hooks (from History of feminism)
Image 17John Neal (from History of feminism)
Image 18Lucy Stone (from History of feminism)
Image 19Elizabeth Cady Stanton (seated) and Susan B. Anthony (from History of feminism)
Image 20Cover of WSPU's The Suffragette, April 25, 1913 (after Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, 1830) (from History of feminism)
Image 21British poster for Women's Day March 1974 (from International Women's Day)
Image 22Irena Krzywicka (from History of feminism)
Image 23Board of directors of "Jam'iat e nesvan e vatan-khah", a women's rights association in Tehran (1923–1933) (from History of feminism)
Image 24Women's demonstration for bread and peace, Petrograd, Russia (from International Women's Day)
Image 25Suffrage parade in New York, May 6, 1912 (from History of feminism)
Image 26Simone de Beauvoir (from History of feminism)
Image 27Wealthy 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 28Sylvia Pankhurst (from History of feminism)
Image 29Clara Zetkin (left) and Rosa Luxemburg (right) in January 1910 (from International Women's Day)
Image 30Nellie McClung (from History of feminism)
Image 31Poster for Women's Day March in London, 1975 (from International Women's Day)
Image 328M 2020 in Spain (from International Women's Day)
Image 33Huda Shaarawi, founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union (from History of feminism)
Image 34Frances Cobbe (from History of feminism)
Image 35Christine de Pizan presents her book to Queen Isabeau of Bavaria. (from History of feminism)
Image 36Marie Stopes (from History of feminism)
Image 37Women's Liberation march in Washington, D.C., 1970 (from History of feminism)
Image 38First edition print of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (from History of feminism)
Image 39Betty Friedan 1960 (from History of feminism)
Image 40Emily Davison (from History of feminism)
Image 41Ida B. Wells (from History of feminism)

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This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs). 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. 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
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
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