IMAGINING OTHER
Power and Protest:
Social Movements
The women’s movement (sm6)
Links: Imagining Other Contents Page
Social Movements Introduction and Contents
Summary:
1. The
origins and first wave/phase of the women’s movement:
1.1
origins (Mary Wollstonecraft,
Enlightenment humanism and rationalism)
1.2 The
‘first wave/phase’ (1830s – 1930s/50s) (education, suffrage and the suffragettes, equality of work; political
equality, the liberal perspective, inadequacies of Marxism, links with other
social movements)
2. The
‘second wave’ (1960s/70s - 1990s) (radical
demands: equal pay, wages for housework, control over reproduction, abortion,
opposition to domestic violence; issues of ‘difference’ and ‘identity’; radical
feminism; Simone de Beauvoir; non-hierarchical organisation; backlash)
3.
Third wave feminism: (postmodernism,
deconstruction, feminist postmodernism).
4.
Recent issues, and where is the feminist movement now? (Sexual objectification of
children, lap-dancing and pole-dancing as liberating for women, the cuts,
female genital mutilation).
5. Recent
books/articles/websites.
NB. For
other aspects of feminism, see:
Notes on feminism (deals especially with the impact
of feminism on political theory and philosophy).
Simone de Beauvoir (feminism and
existentialism).
Feminism: extracts (a small selection of
quotes).
Feminism:
statistics on inequality
Feminism and Postmodernism (to be
completed).
Feminism Today (miscellaneous notes, taken from the press etc, on various
topics relevant to feminism,).
1.
Origins and first phase/wave of the women’s movement:
1.1
Origins of the women’s movement:
(see also Notes on
feminism for attitudes and practices that were anti-woman, many of which
go back to the earliest stages of ‘civilisation’.)
Kate Millett, Sexual Politics 1969 (first
published in
She identifies the Enlightenment as the point during which women’s issues first
arose – especially with Mary
Wollstonecraft: Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1792… Millett points
out, however, that the three main strands of change during the Enlightenment
(industrial, economic and political revolutions) had nothing to say about ‘one
half of humanity’. Thus the emergence of technology, the socialist dream of
redistributing wealth, and the development of democracy and the extension of
the franchise ‘all had… but a tangential and contingent effect’ on women.
So Millett asks: what lay behind the profound
‘anti-patriarchal’ i.e. pro-women beliefs (for definitions of ‘patriarchy’ see Notes on
feminism) that began to appear at this time? Perhaps, she says, it goes
back to the Renaissance with the opening
up of education, including to women; or the Enlightenment’s rationalism (which actually was in opposition to
the Christian religion with its patriarchal attitudes); and its humanism (a concern for deprived
groups), and even its science
(examining what the real differences/similarities between men and women are,
and examining nature).
In other words, Millett’s
view is (like mine): what needed to change was ways of thinking about men and women… the changes in technology,
production and even in politics, did nothing directly for women.
The
French Revolution also
contributed with its overthrow of traditional authority, and the notion of individual rights and government by consent (Wollstonecraft
was a friend of Tom Paine).
1.2 The
‘first phase’ in the ‘sexual revolution’, for Millett, stretches between the
1830s and the 1930s.
For Millett, the decade of the 1830s marks the
beginning of the first stage in the women’s movement, since it brought ‘the
coming of age of the reform movement in
She does stress, however, that the movement had a
‘long gestation’, and there were profound
contradictions in social attitudes to women (Paradoxes p 66) - which ran
very deep. Marriage, whilst leaving
women in a condition of complete
property-less subservience to men, was therefore much the same as
‘feudalism’ P 68).. In marriage a woman had no control over her earnings, was
not allowed to choose where she lived, could not manage her own property, nor
sign papers or bear witness… (p 67). [Quote
Blackstone p 68 on non-existence of the wife, except as inferior…] On
the death of the husband, if he was intestate, the woman cold be disinherited by the state.
But this went alongside the use of women for
extremely hard work, e.g. in the mines
as ‘drawers’ [quote p 70].
Finally, on the other hand, there was the
(Victorian especially) belief in ‘chivalry’…
[see quotes p 69 especially] where women were well
cared for by their ‘natural protectors.’
Millett argues (p 73) that the doctrine of chivalrous protection rested on ‘a
cleverly expeditious bit of humbug’ i.e. that all women were ‘ladies’ (i.e.
like the minority of upper-class women) and all were able to indulge in
indolence, luxury, and what Veblen called ‘vicarious
consumption’ – provided they found a man
to protect and look after them!
Note the link in
Education.
The ‘first priority’ for the liberation of women
(as with any oppressed group) was education.
Note the dominant view for a long time was that
education should serve to make them better wives – not to be so educated as to
threaten men’s superior position, nor so ignorant as to be of no use to their
husbands. [Quote Rousseau’s view p 74].
‘The whole education of women should be relative to men…’ (Millett then
explores Tennyson’s poem The Princess, which shows a similar ambivalent
attitude, as well as Tennyson’s confusion over the whole issue).
But ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’ –
as it creates the desire for more. In
Political organisation.
In
Note that not all Abolitionists were in favour of
emancipation – and in
At the
1850 Harriett Taylor in
1866 Mill presents the first suffrage petition to
parliament, and publishes Subjection of Women in 1869.
United Nations Committee on the Status of Women
set up.
1880s Women’s Suffrage
Societies e.g. NUWSS, also Women’s Protective and Provident League for
protective legislation against exploitation of women workers.
Differences between ‘constitutional’ and
‘militant’ wings of the movement emerge. More mass demonstrations, parades and
pickets, then the Pankhursts’ followers took to arson
and window-breaking – the process of ‘educating’ the public was taking so long,
it was inevitable that more radical tactics would be use, and this ‘kept the
flame alive’. Public sympathy grew with the violence of the police treatment of
the suffragettes (including forced feeding). On the other hand the non-violent
approach of much of the movement influenced later civil rights and non-violence
movements (Gandhi, Martin Luther King)
1903 WSPU – Emily Pankhurst (in the ILP) – 1908
rally of 250,000 - 500,000
Women’s Freedom League
In 1905 Emmeline’s
daughter Christobel was the first WSPU member to be
imprisoned. The Daily Mail invented the term suffragettes as a term of abuse, but the women adopted it in pride.
The women chained themselves to railings, sabotaged political meetings, clashed
with the police and smashed windows. Some of the women consequently sent to
prison went on hunger strike, and were brutally force-fed. In April 1914 they
attacked major works of art (e.g. Velasquez’s Rokeby
Venus was slashed: ‘destroying the most beautiful woman in history as a protest
at the destruction of the most beautiful modern woman Mrs. Pankhurst), and the
police began to follow them more closely, monitoring meetings and phone calls.
Files show that in 1913 Home Office instructions were to take the photos
clandestinely (many women had refused to have their photos taken).
[Alan Travis (G 101003) notes that police
surveillance techniques, e.g. taking photos of demonstrators, were first
developed to deal with the suffragette movement – photos are printed of 18
suffragettes who went to prison in 1914, and most of them are ‘snatched’ as
today’s paparazzi would do. They could be seen in an exhibition marking the
founding of the Women’s Social and Political Union, 100 years ago at the
The jailed women adopted brooches designed by
Sylvia Pankhurst as ‘medals’ (showing the House of Commons portcullis with a
prison arrow though it). They saw themselves as ‘soldiers’ in a ‘war’. More
militant tactics were evolved, including hunger strikes, chaining themselves to
In 1912 Una Dugdale Duval married Victor Duval and refused to use the
word ‘obey’ in the ceremony – causing a national scandal!
In 1914 Pankhurst got the WSPU to support the war
– when the war ended, in 1918, women over 30 got the vote. (See Footnote). Only in 1928 was
the franchise extended to everyone over 21. Millett views the campaign for
suffrage as a ‘red herring’ [quote p 83] – once the vote had
been gained, the movement faded away; and yet little had changed… She also says
(p 84) that it was too bourgeois, and was ‘never… sufficiently involved with
working women’.
Update, 2015: Abi
Morgan has made a film, ‘Suffragette’ - and here writers reflect on what the
suffragettes mean to them:
Economy
and production:
For some feminists, the problem was women’s
exclusion from the economy and from
production; 1921 Six Point Group demanded: equal pay; widow’s pensions;
equal rights of guardianship; laws on child assault; equal civil service
opportunities; provision for unmarried mothers. After the Second World War it
was difficult to go on holding that women could not do equal work to men!
However, as Millett points out (p 85 ff), the objection was raised to women
working in the professions – not to their doing hard manual work, since this
had been open to them for a long time (see above, re ‘drawers’ etc). Middle
class women had to deal with male notions of ‘decorum’ (i.e. it was not fitting
for a woman to use her mind) – in the working classes and the unemployed, women
were subject to despair. [Quote from American Knights of labour
investigation p 86]. There were
gradual changes in terms of protection at work – which benefited men as well as
women. But women did not have the unions to back them – unions had, and still
have, an ambivalent attitude to women workers: they are often seen as cheap
labour that can undermine the employment of men. Patriarchal attitudes can be
found here still – under the guise of ‘protective’ reforms:
- if women go to work: family structures are disrupted; they will
have access to sex; they will not have enough time to work at home as well
etc.
There was no concern about women having
fulfilling work, or equal pay – rather ‘a frequently patronizing air of
concessions made to the physically inferior.’ Women and children are lumped
together in British Parliamentary discussions and papers of the time, and in
America, Louis Brandies’ (1908) Oregon Brief, which won protective legislation
was based on the assumption that ‘women are fundamentally weaker than men in
all that makes for endurance, in muscular strength, in nervous energy, in the
power of persistent application and concentration.’
Alongside this, there was discussion over women’s
work in the home, and some feminists
demanded ‘wages for housework’… For
many of these feminists, the stress on economic change was allied to a belief
in socialism – or Marxism – the
latter arguing that equality would come with communism. It was also argued by
Marxist feminists (not all Marxists were feminists!) that women had a crucial
role in the "reproduction of the labour force" (a discussion taken
further in the second wave – see below). In fact, many women found Marxist and
socialist groups a disappointment: in Marxist theory, women found, their experience
was excluded from the central category of "class"; and in practice,
inside socialist groups they were still exploited: it was expected they would
make the tea, look after any children in a crčche, and maybe sell newspapers,
while the men took part in meetings and discussions of strategy, policy and
theory. In the WRP women were actually viciously exploited by the leader Gerry
Healy – and the group fell apart when the extent of this exploitation was
revealed [though this was not the only factor: such groups have a tendency to
fragment quite often!]. The negative experience of women in the
The movement grew through the ‘60s alongside
other protest movements, e.g. CND, Vietnam Solidarity, the New Left… also Ford
strike for equal pay.
Some
‘theory’ again (!):
All the
above can be described as belonging to the first wave of feminism, because they
shared the following ideas:
- at this
stage, it was believed that political equality (the vote) would lead to or come
with legal, economic, and social equality and equal treatment/rights – and
political equality would lead to changes in attitude. But when the vote was
obtained, and nothing else changed, then formal equality was seen as not
enough. There was still a need for material and attitudinal changes, or as
Millett puts it - p 85 - ‘changes in
social attitudes and social structure, in personality and institutions’.
- the main political
perspective (philosophical viewpoint) adopted during this phase was a liberal perspective (though some were
socialist, see below): central to this is an emphasis on beliefs/values, and
the goal is to change attitudes. One early aim of the women’s movement was to
get acceptance that women had an equal ability to
reason (see the extracts for examples of philosophical and other views claiming
that women were inferior in their rational abilities). It is important to note
that the ability to exercise moral responsibility (an indicator of adulthood,
legal responsibility, autonomy etc) is regarded as being dependent on a person
being accepted as rational.
- other arguments used
at this stage: how social conditions prevent women realising their potential,
as against the argument that differences
between men and women are innate. The Liberal Feminist view, then, minimises
the differences between men and women - all are rational etc. cf. Mary
Wollstonecraft "the distinction of sex (i.e. gender) [should be]
confounded in society, unless where love animates the behaviour."
Note
that the discussion of ‘theory’ has always been an essential part of the
movement – as noted above, even ‘liberal’ political philosophers have had
anti-woman elements to their theories (see Notes on
feminism). The bracketing of periods of feminist activity
into ‘waves’ relates very much to the theory as well as the practice. A
deep and critical examination of theories about women in society was one of the
main factors that led to the ‘second wave’.
2.
The second wave of feminism:
After the upheavals of 1968, which had not been
primarily about women and had not addressed their concerns (and, as noted,
after the experience of some women in socialist and "liberation"
movements...) it was clear that a more radical stance needed to be taken. The
conventional political struggle has failed, and there was still a need to
change the dominant thinking about women.
In 1970 the first Women’s Liberation Conference
was held in
Thus this phase stressed "difference" -
and problems of “identity”, and it drew on biological, anthropological and
psychological evidence and theories (e.g. de Beauvoir). The political outlook
of the second phase/wave was more radical than the first, i.e. demanding more
profound social changes.
During this wave, women’s papers such as Spare
Rib, Shrew, and Wires were started. Refuges for battered women, and rape crisis
centres were established. And within the movement, groups tackled specific
issues and especially violence against women, (e.g. Women Against
Violence Against Women; Reclaim the Night; the Working Women’s Charter
1974).
Key texts of the second wave:
The
Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, 1963 – resisting the pressure on women to adopt the
role ascribed to them of mother; used arguments such as that the children of
mothers who stayed at home did not benefit but were bored and dependent.
Of
Woman Born by Adrienne Rich, 1976
– motherhood as penal servitude, and as a patriarchal institution.
The GLC also had an important role in promoting
women’s causes (it gave Ł4.6 million to women’s projects before being closed
down in 1986), and there were links with the political ‘left’ over Clause 28
(which restricted discussion of homosexuality in schools). See, for example,
Beyond the Fragments by Sheila Rowbotham.
During the 1980s/90s: as in
See http://www.feministactivistforum.org.uk/page23.htm
and http://www.jstor.org/pss/1395018
(the first page of an article about OWAAD.)
From 1981 a camp was established at Greenham
Common, (site of US nuclear weapons and missiles, especially cruise) which
linked the women’s movement with the anti-war movement. For many feminists, war
is derived from, or part of the problem of, male violence… The camp caused
controversy (of course!) by excluding men. In 1982 30,000 women surrounded the
base – by 1990 were over 100 peace camps around the world. Eventually the base
was closed down – though it is a matter of debate as to whether the camp
contributed to the decision to close it.
See: The Road to Greenham Common, by Jill Liddington,
The
perspective/philosophical viewpoint of the second wave was ‘radical feminism’: central issues concerned women’s control over
their bodies, sexuality, and reproduction. The importance of reproduction lay
in the fact that if women are tied by it, or to it, it prevents them going into
public life. (The feminist analysis of the role of ‘reproduction’ later came to
include the reproduction of ideas… see the third wave below).
Common to this perspective is the belief that
there are physical/biological as well as psychological
and socio-economic dimensions to the exploitation of women, which go beyond
capitalism. In other words, patriarchy and dominance over women are found in
other socio-political systems, and not only in capitalism. Simone de Beauvoir’s
book The Second Sex (1949) was very influential on this phase of the movement.
(See pp21feminismdebeauvoir.htm). The
book contained an analysis, and rejection, of other explanations of the
position of women – Marxist, Freudian etc – and advocated an approach based on
existentialism. For existentialists there is no pre-given human nature (hence
no pre-given differences between men and women, other than the purely
biological) – we make choices in life that define our being; and these choices
are very often affected by others – or by the Other, as they sometimes put it.
For de Beauvoir, women are an Other to men, but men
have defined themselves (their role, identity etc) first, so that women are
always explained in relation to men: men are the ‘norm’ against which women are
measured – and women are not taken as existing in their own right. Hence: ‘the second sex’.
There were many ways in which the 2nd
wave of feminism contributed to politics, social issues (and philosophy):
- Feminism threw new light on the
‘public/private’ distinction. Hitherto (especially in liberal political
thinking) these were regarded as completely separate – what happens in the home
has nothing to do with public issues such as politics; but when it is argued
that ‘the personal is the political,’ this has repercussions on political
thought. Nowadays it is accepted that contraception, abortion, domestic
violence, rape etc are matters that need to be publicly discussed; and
governmental policies are crucial in determining how women (more so than men)
are treated in relation to these and other issues. (Take the current debate
over the identification of men accused of rape… or the Catholic position on
condoms in dealing with the spread of AIDS).
- The second wave of the movement led to a
celebration of diversity, which arose out of discussions of women’s ‘identity.’
In addition it was soon recognised that although they have many experiences in
common, white women and black women (for example) experience sexism differently
– black women having to face a double discrimination; similarly with other
categories such as ‘class’, sexual orientation, ability/disability… Finally, it
was important (given the way ‘women’ had all been squeezed into one ‘identity’)
to counter this stereotyping with a celebration of our diversity. Recently,
‘identity politics’ has come under attack – presumably because it lacks a way of
bringing together the experiences of different ‘identities.’ Other criticisms
are based on the danger of ‘essentialism’ – i.e. a view that should run counter
to how feminists think, if they accept what e.g. de Beauvoir argues, that women
are ‘made’ not ‘born’. Bearing in mind that we are talking about the ‘women’s liberation movement’, the question has
to be asked whether ‘identity’ is a liberating concept, or one that traps
individuals and groups. Nationalism, if taken as a type of identity politics,
illustrates this nicely I think. (The Wikipedia discussion, though abstruse in
places, adds to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_politics).
- Second wave feminists practiced ways of organizing
that were non-hierarchical – since a key feature of patriarchy is that it is a
power-relation. These ideas and practices had an impact on other social
movements (e.g. greens).
Towards the end of this period, there was a
‘backlash’ against feminism (though we might argue that there has always been a
backlash against feminism!), and Backlash,
by Susan Faludi, 1991 – noted that feminism was
being blamed for women’s woes in the ‘80s. This she saw as a way of
re-domesticating women.
Third
wave (and perspective):
This
wave is distinctive because the ideas behind it are ‘post-modern’.
Postmodernism is a difficult idea, but in this
context one way of describing it is ‘the
deconstruction of all dominant narratives’. (See Notes on feminism and I hope to
complete notes specifically on postmodernism and feminism).
‘Deconstruction’: taking apart, breaking down so as to reveal
hidden meanings (a philosophy mostly associated with the French 20th
century philosopher Derrida – though he went beyond deconstruction, some argue).. For example, feminists point out that the use of the word
‘he’ or ‘mankind’ as if it includes
women is deceptive – since women have been excluded from e.g. citizenship, and
denied equal rights with men. Yet most people who use the word ‘mankind’ don’t
realise this hidden past in its meaning.
‘Narrative’ is a word used to indicate that we should
question the idea that there are ‘truths’: since the ‘truth’ has been
established by white western men… perhaps the word truth hides the fact that
what is being claimed is not true. For example, in politics the definition of
the purpose of the state was for a long time (especially since the 18th
century, and the ideas of John Locke) that it ‘defends our rights and our
property’ – yet women (and blacks…) at the time had neither property nor rights
– so in relation to the state they didn’t exist? If, it was argued, modern
thinking had such appalling beliefs at its core, (because we were ‘modern’ we were superior and justified in
exploiting others) then it was necessary to take apart (deconstruct) these
‘modern’ beliefs and to think in a new way – one that gave women, people of
other races, and the natural environment their rightful place. Putting this in
philosophical language, postmodernism saw that "discourses of power assume
inequality at their very roots" (Whelehan 1995).
What is
the ‘dominant narrative’? The
dominant narrative is ‘modernism’ –
the ideas brought about by the Enlightenment: these include a belief in
individual rights as inviolable, individual property, freedom, and the
scientific method. Radical political theorists, including some feminists, want
us to examine these ideas more closely – to ‘deconstruct’ them: questions then
arise such as: is there such a thing as an isolated individual whose freedom is
sacrosanct? Are we not social beings – what about our responsibility to each
other? How can a mother exercise her individual freedom and take care of a
baby? What rights do people have if they have no property? (At this point in
time the Roma are being expelled from
The version of postmodernism that I believe is
the most useful follows the seminal work by Jean-Francois Lyotard:
The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, 1979. In fact Lyotard with this work brought about the idea of
‘postmodernism’.
Feminist
postmodernism:
Some versions of postmodernism seem to be
apolitical, or as leading to cynicism, since it rejects all modern ideas; but
the ‘third wave’ of feminism, together with anti-colonialism in recent times,
has adopted postmodern ideas in a way that enables a critique of modernism and
of patriarchy. The ‘modern’ world, it is argued, came about with the scientific
revolution and with the colonization by
(This is the ‘flip side’ of the Enlightenment
that Kate Millett saw as having contributed to the growth of the women’s
liberation movement. For critics of the Enlightenment there was much more about
it that was conducive to the emergence of patriarchy than the liberation of
women – see forthcoming notes on the Enlightenment).
Feminists came up with new concepts to describe,
for example, the way that men’s view of the world had taken over and was used
to support men’s power over women: such thinking was ‘phallocentric’...
Where exactly this new ‘postmodern discourse’ has
got us is a matter of controversy – but its strength lay in not only
challenging ideas that had been accepted unquestioningly, but in its being
interdisciplinary (breaking down barriers between ‘disciplines’ such as
‘politics’ and ‘morality’ for example). Postmodernism sees the fragmentation
and pigeonholing of knowledge into disciplines as a product of the old,
‘modern’ way of thinking.
Some critics of postmodernism say that it is
‘relativist’ – i.e. if all discourses or all points of view, are simply the
expression of a will-to-power on the part of some group or other – where is the
‘truth’? Or should we agree with postmodernists and say that ‘truth’ is another
of these terms used to bolster the ‘modernist’ view of the world?! A less
difficult criticism is that postmodernism is simply far too academic to be of
much use in confronting real-life problems of male domination!!
As an example of the way that the third,
postmodern, wave opened up questions in the women’s movement, there ensued an
argument as to how women should behave: if men have been able (had the right!)
to be openly sexual (wolf-whistling, lads mags etc),
while women are expected to be modest – and with this to have no power or
status, then why should women not gain power by having the same freedom as men
to be openly sexual? Women then demanded the right to decide what the limits
were to their own sexual behaviour - women having always been told by men how to be ‘sexual’ – or how they should
not be! Previous feminist arguments, that appearing
attractive to men was playing into their hands, (as it were!) now came
under question: being attractive to men can be ‘empowering’ after all.
Thus, (following a recent discussion in the pages
of the Guardian) for Rebecca Walker, daughter of the novelist Alice
Walker, the ‘third wave’ meant continuing the second wave activism ‘but still
shaving your legs.’ On the other hand, for Wendy Shalit,
the third wave carried the sexual revolution too far, and ‘conditioned young
women to become sluts’ – pole-dancing [some feminists said they saw nothing
wrong in women doing this if they chose to] cannot
be empowering, and women should be
‘modest’.
For Siegal there are still issues of power, not just sexual
power either. ‘It is confusing to be a daughter of feminism in a culture that
has changed in your favour – but stopped half way (at most)’. The stripping
pole (pole dancing) has become a distraction – much as ‘bra-burning’ did in the
second wave. ‘We need to keep our eyes on the wider array of women’s issues.’
Assessment of the third wave:
Germaine Greer
and others believe the third wave achieved little – as against the second wave,
which brought about changes in legislation, women’s shelters, feminist
institutions etc.
On the other
hand, many self-described third-wavers said to Deborah Siegal
(Guardian 31.08.07) for her book: Sisterhood
Interrupted: from radical women to grrls gone wild…
that the third wave had achieved
things, e.g. (in America): the Young Women’s Project, Third Wave Foundation,
Younger Women’s Task Force,
4.
Recent issues: where is
feminism now?
Issues that are under discussion now include:
(i) Until the 1980s
local councils had no financial or other support for victims of domestic
violence, rape crisis centres etc – and what will become of them with the
current cuts?
(ii) The sexualisation of children (I prefer
‘sexual objectification’) - i.e. the use of children dressed in a sexy way in
advertising, and encouraging very young children to dress ‘sexy’ - is a
critical and controversial area (some mothers see nothing wrong here).
(iii) There is a need still for both the
old-established feminist groups and the new ones: for example, the Co-operative
Women’s Guild which was founded in 1883 is still going strong – it originally
campaigned for maternity benefits, and recently has campaigned against sex
trafficking, and it has raised money for the Mercy Ships to
(iv) There is much more
awareness of the problem of female genital mutilation (I prefer this term to
‘circumcision’): thousands of young girls in
5.
Books:
Oakley, Ann: Housewife (1974?), The Men’s Room
(?), Taking it like a woman (autobiography), A
Critical Woman (2011)
6.
Recent/Forthcoming Books on Feminism Today:
For a recent article on ‘Is Feminism finding its
voice again?’ See: Guardian 24.07.10, Kira Cochrane: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/24/feminism-not-finished-not-uncool
Reclaiming the F Word: the New Feminist Movement,
by Catherine Redfern and Kristin Aune…
Other recent books:
Kat Banyard: The Truth
About men and Women Today
(Guardian): Women of the Revolution – forty years
of feminism (articles in the Guardian) 6.99/9.99
Nicholas D Kristof and
Sheryl WuDunn: Half the Sky (on plight of women in
the developing world).
Ellie Levenson: The Noughtie Girl’s Guide to Feminism
Nina Power: One Dimensional Woman
Sheila Rowbotham:
Dreamers of a New Day
Natasha Walter: Living Dolls
Website: http://www.thefword.org.uk/
- contemporary
Footnote:
Women and votes: a brief history (from G 290903 –
extracts from from Atlas of Women by Joni Seager, full picture on the site of the inter-parliamentary
union:
http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/suffrage.htm
When did women get the vote?
1848 French men – women not until 1944
1893
1902 white Australian women - Aboriginals not
until 1967
1915
1918
1920 white
1928
1929 ‘literate’ Puerto Rican women – rest not
until 1835
1930 Turkish women
1931 white South African women – Indians and
‘coloured’ women in 1984, blacks not until 1994
1956 Egyptian women
1963 Iranian women
1971 Swiss women
1974 Jordanian women
1980
1989
1999
2001
2005
In 2005 men were allowed to vote in local
elections in