Understanding Feminist Theory

• Feminist Theory is a framework analyzing gender inequality and advocating for equal rights and opportunities for all genders.
• Feminism supports gender equality and challenges societal norms causing gender discrimination.
• Feminism respects women's experiences, identities, and knowledge, while empowering them.
• Feminism aims to level the playing field between genders providing equal opportunities for diverse women and girls, on par with boys and men.

Four Basic Principles of Feminism

• Working to increase equality links ideas to action, pushing for gender equality.
• Expanding human choice allows both men and women to freely develop interests and talents, regardless of societal expectations.
• Eliminating gender stratification means opposing laws and norms that limit income, educational, and job opportunities for women.
• Feminists advocate for ending sexual violence and promoting sexual freedom, allowing women control over their sexuality and reproduction.

Types of Feminist Theory

• Gender differences perspective examines how women's social experiences differ from men's.
• Gender-inequality theories recognize that women's social situations are not only different but unequal.
• Gender oppression theories argue that women are oppressed, subordinated, and abused by men.
• Structural oppression theories attribute women's oppression and inequality to capitalism, patriarchy, and racism.

Types of Feminism

• Radical feminism promotes changing society's core to dissolve patriarchy, clashing with liberal feminists.
• Radical feminists advocate for reproductive autonomy and critique pornography and prostitution.
• Radical-Libertarian Feminists believe femininity and reproduction limit women's societal contributions, and they should be androgynous.
• Radical-Libertarian Feminists advocate for control over sexuality, artificial reproduction, abortion, contraceptives, and birth control.
• Radical-Cultural Feminists believe in embracing femininity over masculinity.

Famous Feminists

Amelia Jenks Bloomer

• An American women's rights and temperance advocate.
• Although not the creator of "bloomers," her name is associated with them due to her advocacy.
• Bloomer advocated loose-fitting tunics worn over wide-legged trousers, challenging restrictive 19th-century women's fashion.

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

• An English writer and feminist philosopher, who advocated for gender equality.
• Her 1792 work 'A Vindication of the Rights of Women challenged Rousseau's ideas and is significant in feminist literature.

Simone de Beauvoir

• A French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist.
• Beauvoir's 'The Second Sex' analyzes how society constructs women's roles, claiming that one "becomes", rather than "is born" a woman.
• Beauvoir said women were historically treated as "the Other" and patriarchy oppresses them through traditional roles, leading to true liberation through independence.

Alice Paul

• An American suffragist, feminist, and women's rights activist.
• Paul was a leader in the 1910s campaign for the 19th Amendment, prohibiting sex discrimination in the right to vote.

Carrie Clinton Lane (1859-1947)

• A supporter of women's suffrage and peace in the 20th century.
• Lane was president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association twice.
• She was a key figure in granting women the right to vote in 1920 and she was also an anti-war activist.

Isabella Baumfree (1797-1883)

• A crusader against racial discrimination and gender inequality.
• Born into slavery, she was freed in 1827.
• In 1836, Baumfree became the first African American woman to win a lawsuit in the U.S., fighting for her son's freedom.

Malala Yousafzai

• At 11 years old (born 1997), Yousafzai brought attention worldwide.
• The Pakistani teen used her BBC blog to speak out against the Taliban, describing horrific conditions.
• Yousafzai survived violent retaliation and continues fighting for girls' education.

Gloria Steinem

• A prominent face of American second-wave feminism.
• Steinem co-founded Ms. Magazine, offering a liberal, non-sexist narrative for women.
• A key supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, she helped organize women for the movement.
• She has remained active, lecturing and organizing around women's social issues.

Audre Lorde

• A Black lesbian author who fought for women's, civil, and gay rights.
• She wrote poetry collections and memoirs after publishing her first poem in Seventeen.
• Throughout the 1970s, she advocated for women's rights in media.
• Lorde's 'The Cancer Journals' details her journey with breast cancer.

Mother Teresa (1910–1997)

• A Roman Catholic nun who devoted her life to serving the poorest people.
• She founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, to help those in need.
• Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.