ELS69: LANGUAGE AND GENDER
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CONTENT
Feminism (definition)
(Short) History of Feminism
Evolution of Feminism
General Principles of Feminist Research
Levels of Analysis in Feminist Research
Sample of Feminist Gender Studies
DEFINITION OF FEMINISM
• Feminism is an interdisciplinary
approach to issues of equality and equity • It also seeks to effect change in areas
based on gender, gender expression, where these intersectionalities create
gender identity, sex, and sexuality as power inequity.
understood through social theories and
political activism.
• Feminist political activists campaign in
• It aims to interrogate inequalities and areas such as reproductive rights domestic
inequities along intersectional lines of violence, fairness, social justice, and
ability, class, gender, race, sex, and workplace issues such as family medical
sexuality. leave, equal pay, and sexual harassment
and discrimination.
HISTORY OF FEMINISM
1 FIRST-WAVE FEMINISM
(LATE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURY) 3 THIRD-WAVE FEMINISM (1990S TO
PRESENT)
The first wave of feminism took place in the late
In this phase many constructs were
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, emerging out
destabilized, including the notions of "universal
of an environment of urban industrialism and liberal,
womanhood," body, gender, sexuality and
socialist politics. The goal of this wave was to open up
heteronormativity.
opportunities for women, with a focus on suffrage.
2 SECOND-WAVE FEMINISM (1960S TO
1980S) 4
FOURTH-WAVE FEMINISM (EMERGING IN
THE 21ST CENTURY)
The second wave began in the 1960s and
this wave is characterized by its
continued into the 90s. This wave unfolded in the
intersectionality, digital activism, and focus on
context of the anti-war and civil rights movements
dismantling systems of oppression while
and the growing self-consciousness of a variety of
embracing gender fluidity and LGBTQ+ rights.
minority groups around the world.
EVOLUTION OF FEMINISM
it holds that the patriarchal system that
it cite women's oppression as oppresses women must be completely
rooted in social, political, and
legal constraints.
Radical eliminated and that women should be
free to exercise total sexual and
Liberal Libertarian reproductive freedom.
Feminists Feminists
Radical Marxist-
it claims it is impossible for
Cultural socialist anyone, especially women, to
it urges women to extricate
themselves from the institution
of compulsory heterosexuality.
Feminists Feminists achieve true freedom in a class-
based society.
EVOLUTION OF FEMINISM
explain how the idea of ‘sameness’ Postmodern feminists
could counterintuitively be used as
challenge Western dualistic
an instrument of oppression rather
than liberation.
thinking.
Multicultural Postmodern
Feminists Feminists
Global
Ecofeminists focuses on the connection
it stress the universal Feminists between humans and the
nonhuman world.
interests of women
worldwide.
FEMINIST RESEARCH
Gender Studies ≠ Feminist Research
ELS 69 FEMINIST
APPROACH
Remember: There is no well-defined
approach to discourse that can be
labeled “feminist discourse analysis”
Not all approaches to gender and discourse are feminist in their orientation, nor
is there a single form of feminism to which all feminist scholars subscribe.
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To attend to women’s marginalized and
Seven often silenced voices.
principles of not just in the social world
1 Also in the production of knowledge
(Boonzaier & Shefer, 2006).
FEMINIST RESEARCH
2 To adopt multiple methodological
To be actively espoused by feminist
standpoint theories.
Draw attention to the political
frameworks.
3 importance of understanding and
engaging differences between and
amongst women
(Boonzaier & Shefer, 2006;
Callaghan & Clark, 2006; Doucet &
Mauthner, 2006; Lentin, 1993).
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4 To be reflexive in nature and
5 To explore the analytics of power
in society and the intersecting effects
practice.
on women.
To employ an ontological view of To uphold the principle of
patriarchy as a central organizing intersectionality
principle in society. It has recently come to the center
A central principle of feminist much feminist theorizing and
6 theory
Callaghan and Clark (2006)
research
It remains a fundamental praxis
for feminist work
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SAMPLE OF FEMINIST
GENDER STUDIES
LESBIAN FEMINISM THEORY
• It is a gender study that employs a feminist approach
but with a specific focus on lesbian experiences and
issues.
• It is a subset of feminist theory that emphasizes the
importance of understanding and addressing the
discrimination and inequalities faced by lesbian women.
• In particular, lesbian feminist theory has consistently
problematized heterosexuality as an institution central to
maintaining patriarchy and women’s oppression within it.
WORKS WHERE LESBIAN FEMINISM THEORY BEGAN SURFACING
• The Well of Loneliness (1928) by Radclyffe
Hall
• A Room of One's Own (1929) by Virginia
Woolf
• Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian
Existence’ (1980) by Adrienne Rich
• Towards a Black Feminist Criticism (1986) by
Barbara Smith
• Woman-Identified Woman by Radicalesbians
QUEER THEORY
• During the 1980s, the term ‘queer’ was reclaimed by a new generation of political
activists involved in Queer nation and protest groups.
• Judith Butler and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick are two further figures of special
importance to the emergence of queer theory.
• Queer Theory does not name a separatist movement claiming an essence of
gayness, but on the contrary, emphasizes the constructedness, ambivalence, and
potential plurality of all gendered and sexual identities.
• Queerness is having an identity with no essence.
• Queer Theory is a deeper philosophical challenge to the status quo, which at the
same time aims to provide readings that at once subvert sameness and celebrate
otherness.
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