Feminism

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Recommended: The social construction of gender

Feminism as a social movement focuses primarily on redefining politics in order to reduce inequality on the basis of sex. The result of the movement is that women are viewed historically through a biological lens. This view of women has resulted in the current condition of female subordination to a predominately patriarchal society. Therefore, feminism cannot be discussed without the assumption that all women share the same common factor – their biology.
First wave feminism was oriented around the right of women to vote. The first textual example of a feminist argument can be found in Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women. Wollstonecraft takes a liberal stance by campaigning for the political equality of women. The logic that can be derived from this argument is that women are denied voting rights due to their sex. This discourse cannot occur without believing in an underlying homogeneity in women. Thus, women are reduced to their basic biological identity of XX sex chromosomes. The physical composition of women is then used to formulate their social identity.
In society, there exists an explicit reliance on gender roles. These roles are formed around biological and social elements that are founded on biological inequities. “Women will always be women”, Simone De Beauvoir uses as a scathing example of how biology impacts public perception. De Beauvoir believes that a woman is determined “by the manner in which her body and her relation to the world are modified through the action of others than herself.” The position of a woman is then altered to become compliant with social expectations. The modification of female roles in relation to society effectively reduces the power of females in politics.
It is...

... middle of paper ...

... as a group to be active in the political arena, there must be a rationale to unite them against the constraints of society.
To claim that feminism can be discussed without believing in an intrinsic common factor to woman-hood, is to abolish the movement. There cannot be feminism without women and, therefore, it cannot exist without similarities to inspire debate. Biological beliefs the social construct of “womanhood” and inspire the debates raised by feminism. From ovaries to motherhood, and from motherhood to a political voice, there are certain similarities that inform feminism and cannot be ignored.

Works Cited

Festenstein, Matthew, and Michael Kenny. Political ideologies: a reader and guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Heywood, Andrew. Political ideologies: an introduction. 5th ed. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

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