Published by Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus Business Centre, 39-41 North Road, London N7 9DP email: [email protected] www.introducingbooks.com ISBN: 978-184831-782-6 Text copyright © 2007 Cathia Jenainati Illustrations copyright © 2013 Icon Books Ltd The author and artist have asserted their moral rights. Originating editor: Richard Appignanesi No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Contents Cover Title Page Copyright What is Feminism? What is Patriarchy? Biology is Destiny Logic or Emotion? Early Modern Feminist Activity Reinterpreting the Bible First Political Action “To the Ladies” Early Perspectives The Age of Reason Social Planners Competing Perspectives The Rise of Individualism First Wave Feminism Remembering the Ladies Mary Wollstonecraft An Unconventional Life Against Rousseau Sense and Sensibility The Divine Right of Husbands The Grimké Sisters The “Cult of Domesticity”, 1820–80 Rules of Conduct for Men and Women Harriet Taylor Mill Theory and Practice A Panoply of Servants “Man” or “Person”? Caroline Norton Coverture The Infant Custody Act The Matrimonial Causes Act Catherine Helen Spence Seneca Falls Convention, New York 1848 A Declaration of Independence The Advent of the Bloomers The 1850s in the USA The International Council of Women The 1850s in Britain Barbara Bodichon Langham Place Emmeline Pankhurst The Woman’s Social and Political Union Militant Suffragettes Women’s Suffrage in Australia Suffrage Gains Momentum Against Suffrage The First Backlash Feminism = Lesbianism? Educated but Under-employed The Lost Sex Virginia Woolf A Room of One’s Own Guineas and Locks “I have no country …” Simone de Beauvoir Existence Precedes Essence Second Wave Feminism The Women’s Liberation Movement The Personal is Political The Seven Demands of the WLM Betty Friedan The Feminine Mystique Motherhood Before Career? The Feminist Mystique C-R and Rap Varieties of Feminisms Socialist Feminism Traditional Marxist Feminism Radical Feminism Ecofeminism Psychoanalytic Feminism Postfeminism Protest and Revolt A Black Miss America Germaine Greer Shulamith Firestone Reproduction, not Production Consuming for Capitalism Kate Millet The Sex/Gender Hierarchy Misogyny in Literature Ann Oakley Subject Women Gynocriticism Psychoanalysis and Feminist Thought “The Reproduction of Mothering” Mermaids and Minotaurs Separation from the Mother Adrienne Rich Gyn/Ecology The 1980s Black Women’s Experience of Feminism Early Expressions of Black Feminism A’n’t I a Woman? Frances Harper The Combahee River Collective Gynocentricism and Black Feminism bell hooks Alice Walker Popular Fiction in the 1980s The Power of Romance Feminism and Pornography Feminism and the Body The Beauty Myth The Grotesque Feminism and the Question of Gender Deconstructive Feminism Men Back at Centre Stage? Girl Power Feminism and the Developing World The Subaltern Challenging Rituals What is Feminism? Further Reading About the author and artist Acknowledgements Index What is Feminism? Any attempt to “introduce feminism” invariably faces numerous challenges. Where to start, who to include, what to leave out and when to stop are all important considerations. This book provides an overview of the development of feminist activism in the Anglo-speaking world. It specifically outlines feminist thought in Britain and the US, although it refers to international contexts where relevant. The book acknowledges and intends to celebrate the variety of feminist perspectives which have developed throughout women’s history, taking as its premise bell hooks’ famous definition. FEMINISM IS THE STRUGGLE TO END SEXIST OPPRESSION. Introducing Feminism traces the historical and social development of this struggle. What is Patriarchy? One starting point for thinking about feminist activity is coming to a consensus about what the term “patriarchy” means. A useful definition is provided by Chris Weedon. “PATRIARCHAL REFERS TO POWER RELATIONS IN WHICH WOMEN’S INTERESTS ARE SUBORDINATED TO THE INTERESTS OF MEN.” “THESE POWER RELATIONS TAKE ON MANY FORMS, FROM THE SEXUAL DIVISION OF LABOUR AND THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF PROCREATION TO THE INTERNALIZED NORMS OF FEMINITY BY WHICH WE LIVE.” “PATRIARCHAL POWER RESTS ON SOCIAL GIVEN TO BIOLOGICAL SEXUAL DIFFERENCE.” The term “feminism” came into English usage around the 1890s, but women’s conscious struggle to resist discrimination and sexist oppression goes much further back.