Portal:Feminism

The Feminism Portal

Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern societies are patriarchal—they prioritize the male point of view—and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women.

Originating in late 18th-century Europe, feminist movements have campaigned and continue to campaign for women's rights, including the right to vote, run for public office, work, earn equal pay, own property, receive education, enter into contracts, have equal rights within marriage, and maternity leave. Feminists have also worked to ensure access to contraception, legal abortions, and social integration; and to protect women and girls from sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Changes in female dress standards and acceptable physical activities for women have also been part of feminist movements.

Many scholars consider feminist campaigns to be a main force behind major historical societal changes for women's rights, particularly in the West, where they are near-universally credited with achieving women's suffrage, gender-neutral language, reproductive rights for women (including access to contraceptives and abortion), and the right to enter into contracts and own property. Although feminist advocacy is, and has been, mainly focused on women's rights, some argue for the inclusion of men's liberation within its aims, because they believe that men are also harmed by traditional gender roles. Feminist theory, which emerged from feminist movements, aims to understand the nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles and lived experiences. Feminist theorists have developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues concerning gender.

Numerous feminist movements and ideologies have developed over the years, representing different viewpoints and political aims. Traditionally, since the 19th century, first-wave liberal feminism, which sought political and legal equality through reforms within a liberal democratic framework, was contrasted with labour-based proletarian women's movements that over time developed into socialist and Marxist feminism based on class struggle theory. Since the 1960s, both of these traditions are also contrasted with the radical feminism that arose from the radical wing of second-wave feminism and that calls for a radical reordering of society to eliminate patriarchy. Liberal, socialist, and radical feminism are sometimes referred to as the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought.

Since the late 20th century, many newer forms of feminism have emerged. Some forms, such as white feminism and gender-critical feminism, have been criticized as taking into account only white, middle class, college-educated, heterosexual, or cisgender perspectives. These criticisms have led to the creation of ethnically specific or multicultural forms of feminism, such as black feminism and intersectional feminism. (Full article...)

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Catherine de' Medici, by François Clouet

Catherine de' Medici's building projects included the Valois chapel at Saint-Denis, the Tuileries Palace, and the Hôtel de la Reine in Paris, and extensions to the château, near Blois. Born in 1519 in Florence to an Italian father and a French mother, Catherine de' Medici was a daughter of both the Italian and the French Renaissance. She grew up in Florence and Rome under the wing of the Medici popes, Leo X and Clement VII. In 1533, at the age of fourteen, she left Italy and married Henry, the second son of Francis I and Queen Claude of France. On doing so, she entered the greatest Renaissance court in northern Europe. King Francis set his daughter-in-law an example of kingship and artistic patronage that she never forgot. She witnessed his huge architectural schemes at Chambord and Fontainebleau. She saw Italian and French craftsmen at work together, forging the style that became known as the first School of Fontainebleau. Francis died in 1547, and Catherine became queen consort of France. But it wasn't until her husband King Henry's death in 1559, when she found herself at forty the effective ruler of France, that Catherine came into her own as a patron of architecture. Over the next three decades, she launched a series of costly building projects aimed at enhancing the grandeur of the monarchy. During the same period, however, religious civil war gripped the country and brought the prestige of the monarchy to a dangerously low ebb.

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Credit: Steven van der Meulen

A portrait of Queen Elizabeth I of England in her early 30s by Steven van der Meulen. Parliament and the public expected her to marry to continue the royal lineage. The large two meter tall painting was intended to emphasize her availability and made full use of the symbolism popular in Tudor England. The tapestry in the background features a royal crest to the left with an empty throne beneath it, representing the hope for future king (and therefore the queen's marriage). To the right of the tapestry is a scheme of ripe fruit and sweet flowers, echoing the queen's "ripeness" for matrimony. This theme is further reinforced by Queen Elizabeth holding a carnation, which was considered a symbol of marriage. Though she had many suitors, Queen Elizabeth would never marry, later being venerated as the "Virgin Queen".

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In this month

April 1917 – American modern artist Georgia O'Keeffe's first solo art show
April 2007 – Mukhtaran Bibi (pictured) won the North-South Prize for human rights for speaking out regarding her gang rape, taking the rapists to court, and founding the Mukhtar Mai Women's Welfare Organization
5 April 1858 – During the Central India Campaign, Rani Lakshmibai helped defend Jhansi and lead the Indian Rebellion of 1857
11 April 1881 – Establishment of Spelman College, the oldest historically black college for women in the United States
22 April 1766 – Birth of Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, a salonnière of political influence, who challenged Napoleon, and an author

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If divorce has increased by one thousand percent, don't blame the women's movement. Blame the obsolete sex roles on which our marriages were based.

— Betty Friedan

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Emmeline Pankhurst was a political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement. Although she was widely criticised for her militant tactics, her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in Britain. However, historians disagree about whether she did more to help or hinder public support for the cause. Born and raised in Manchester by politically active parents, Pankhurst was introduced at a young age to the women's suffrage movement. In 1878 she married Richard Pankhurst, a barrister known for supporting women's right to vote. She quickly became involved with the Women's Franchise League, which advocated suffrage for women. After her husband died in 1898, Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union, an all-women suffrage advocacy organisation dedicated to "deeds, not words". The group placed itself separately from – and often in opposition to –political parties. The group quickly became infamous when its members smashed windows and assaulted police officers. Pankhurst, her daughters, and other WSPU activists were sentenced to repeated prison sentences, where they staged hunger strikes to secure better conditions. In 1913 several prominent individuals left the WSPU, among them Pankhurst's daughters Adela and Sylvia. The family rift was never healed. With the advent of World War I, Emmeline and her daughter Christabel called an immediate halt to militant suffrage activism in order to support the British government against the "German Peril". They urged women to aid industrial production, and encouraged young men to fight. In 1918 the Representation of the People Act granted votes to women over the age of 30. Pankhurst transformed the WSPU machinery into the Women's Party, which was dedicated to promoting women's equality in public life. In her later years she became concerned with what she perceived as the menace posed by Bolshevism, and – unhappy with the political alternatives – joined the Conservative Party. She died in 1928 and was commemorated two years later with a statue in Victoria Tower Gardens.

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... that after dying in her daughter's arms in an asylum in 1897, Maria Trubnikova was remembered as the "heart and soul" of feminist activism in Russia?
... that Margareth Rago seeks to establish a methodology for what she calls "feminist science"?
... that the retelling of stories can focus on female characters to reflect the feminist perspective?

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...that suffragist Louisa Lawson (1848–1920) (pictured), publisher of Australia's first woman-run journal, The Dawn, was also the mother of the great Australian poet Henry Lawson?
...that Betty Roberts was the first woman to serve on Oregon's Supreme Court?
...that modern nursing was founded by Florence Nightingale at the Selimiye Barracks in Istanbul, Turkey during the Crimean War (1854-1856)?

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The following are images from various feminism-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Nellie McClung (from History of feminism)
Image 2Irena Krzywicka (from History of feminism)
Image 3Giorgia Meloni, first female prime minister of Italy at a 2024 Women's Day event in Rome (from International Women's Day)
Image 4Emily Davison (from History of feminism)
Image 5Cover of WSPU's The Suffragette, April 25, 1913 (after Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, 1830) (from History of feminism)
Image 6Yellow mimosa is the symbol of International Women's Day in Italy as well as in Russia, Ukraine and many other ex-Soviet Union republics (from International Women's Day)
Image 78M 2018 in Pamplona (from International Women's Day)
Image 8Wealthy Chinese women with bound feet (Beijing, 1900). Foot binding was a symbol of women's oppression during the reform movements in the 19th and 20th centuries. (from History of feminism)
Image 9Bessie Rayner Parkes (from History of feminism)
Image 10The vandalized Concepción Feminist Mural in Spain, which was vandalized on International Women's Day 2021. (from International Women's Day)
Image 11Women's Liberation march in Washington, D.C., 1970 (from History of feminism)
Image 12Female members of the Australian Builders Labourers Federation march on International Women's Day 1975 in Sydney (from International Women's Day)
Image 13Betty Friedan 1960 (from History of feminism)
Image 14A veil-burning ceremony in Andijan on International Women's Day in 1927 (from International Women's Day)
Image 15Suffrage parade in New York, May 6, 1912 (from History of feminism)
Image 16An Antimonumenta, installed in Mexico City on International Women's Day 2019, as photographed the day after. The circle part says "In Mexico 9 women are murdered daily" and the cross part says "Not one more!" On the opposite side, the Antimonumenta reads "We demand a national gender alert", and in the central part "No + Femicides" (from International Women's Day)
Image 178M 2020 in Spain (from International Women's Day)
Image 18Christine de Pizan presents her book to Queen Isabeau of Bavaria. (from History of feminism)
Image 19Margaret Sanger (from History of feminism)
Image 20First edition print of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (from History of feminism)
Image 21Germaine Greer in June 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 22Lucy Stone (from History of feminism)
Image 23Catharine MacKinnon (from History of feminism)
Image 24Clara Zetkin (left) and Rosa Luxemburg (right) in January 1910 (from International Women's Day)
Image 25Frances Cobbe (from History of feminism)
Image 26The White Feather: A Sketch of English Recruiting" (Arnold Bennett, 1914) (from History of feminism)
Image 27Sylvia Pankhurst (from History of feminism)
Image 28María Elena Oddone holding a banner, on International Women's Day in 1984 in Argentina. The banner says "No to motherhood, yes to pleasure" (from International Women's Day)
Image 29Elizabeth Cady Stanton (seated) and Susan B. Anthony (from History of feminism)
Image 30Author and scholar Helen Kendrick Johnson opposed women's suffrage. (from History of feminism)
Image 31Simone de Beauvoir (from History of feminism)
Image 32Marie Stopes (from History of feminism)
Image 33Camilla Collett (from History of feminism)
Image 34bell hooks (from History of feminism)
Image 35Board of directors of "Jam'iat e nesvan e vatan-khah", a women's rights association in Tehran (1923–1933) (from History of feminism)
Image 36The Nineteenth Amendment (from History of feminism)
Image 37Matilda Joslyn Gage (from History of feminism)
Image 38Huda Shaarawi, founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union (from History of feminism)
Image 39Gloria Steinem at news conference, Women's Action Alliance, January 12, 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 40John Neal (from History of feminism)
Image 41Florence Nightingale (from History of feminism)
Image 42
  Official holiday
  Holiday for women
  Non-official holiday
(from International Women's Day)
Image 43Women on the street celebrating International Women's Day in Cameroon (from International Women's Day)
Image 44Ida B. Wells (from History of feminism)

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This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Feminism}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.

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Alice Manfield - Guide Alice, Mt Buffalo, c1900-30, SLV
Alice Park - Records of the National Woman's Party
Alice Paul (1915) by Harris & Ewing
Angela Davis in a half-length portrait by Bernard Gotfryd - crop
Anne Dallas Dudley LOC
Avril de Sainte-Croix - Restored, cropped
Bertha Lutz 1925
Cabinet Card of Sojourner Truth - Collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Convicts Lunatics and Women! Have No Vote for Parliament, ca. 1907-1918
Dr. Caroline Spencer 275029v
Ethel Smyth
Frances Benjamin Johnston, Self-Portrait (as "New Woman"), 1896
Fredrikke Mørck
George Charles Beresford - Virginia Woolf in 1902 - Restoration
Henrietta Rodman from the George Grantham Bain Collection
Henry Mayer, The Awakening, 1915 Cornell CUL PJM 1176 01 - Restoration
Hester Jeffrey
Hubertine Auclert 1910
Iris Calderhead
Joy Young Rogers outside the White House
Lucretia Mott, signed photo, by F. Gutekunst
Mabel Vernon, c. 1917, by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Marguerite Durand 1910 - Restoration
Marie Stopes in her laboratory, 1904 - Restoration
Mary Garrity - Ida B. Wells-Barnett - Google Art Project - restoration crop
Millicent Fawcett
Mrs. Crystal Eastman Benedict by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Mrs. Lillian Ascough, chairman of the Connecticut branch of the Woman's Party
Mrs. Pauline Adams 147002v
Portrett av Gina Krog (6276081582) - Restoration
Poster by Anna Soós Korànyi for the Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance
Ray Strachey restored
Sojourner Truth, 1870 (cropped, restored)
Victoria Claflin Woodhull by Mathew Brady - Oval Portrait
Voltairine de Cleyre (Age 35)
We Can Do It! NARA 535413 - Restoration 2