Defining Feminism: A Comparative Historical Approach

Abstract

What is feminism? Who is a feminist? How do we understand feminism across national boundaries? Across cultures? Across centuries? These questions and their corollaries are raised every day, both here and abroad, by activists in the contemporary women's movement, by scholars, in the press, and in informal conversation. Everyone seems to have different answers, and every answer is infused with a political and emotional charge. To many people, inside and outside of the academy, the word "feminism" continues to inspire controversy and to arouse a visceral response-indeed, even to evoke fear among a sizable portion of the general public. If words and the concepts they convey can be said to be dangerous, then "feminism" and "feminist" must be dangerous words, representing dangerous concepts. Despite Virginia Woolf's attempt some This essay was conceived amid a contestation over the historical content of feminism at the 1976 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, held at Bryn Mawr College. An earlier version circulated as Working Paper no. 22, Center for Research on Women (now the Institute for Research on Women and Gender), Stanford University (1985), under the title, "Toward a Historical Definition of Feminism: The Case of France." I wish to thank many historian colleagues and the reviewers of Signs for their challenging comments, tips, and suggestions on previous drafts. I am also indebted to the Harvard University Center for European Studies; the Women's Studies Seminar of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California, and San Diego State University, for inviting me to present these findings; and to Clemson University, for asking me to deliver the first Dorothy Lambert Whisnant Lecture on Women's History. The article is dedicated to my colleagues in the Affiliated and Visiting Scholars' group at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender.

Critical Management Studies in the South African context

“…This section is primarily based on the works of Lorber (n.d.), Offen (1988) and bell hooks (2000), which give an exposition of feminism and the variety of feminist perspectives. Each perspective has made important contributions to improve the position of women in society but is not without limitations and/or critique (Lorber n.d.).…”

“…The words 'feminist' and 'feminism' are controversial, arousing visceral responses from many people (Offen 1988). These responses include some from within the academic fraternity where bell hooks .…”

“…Freedom is the source from which all meaning and value springs (Hekman 2015;Offen 1988). Consequently, all human beings are placed on a moral plane, seeking freedom to will the self as well as others towards it (Hekman 2015).…”

A Formula for Disobedience: Jansenism, Gender, and the Feminist Paradox

“…On the one hand, some would claim that the term "feminist" should not be applied to the early modern period, as the term is inherently anachronistic. 144 On the other hand, most scholars, finding the term too useful or convenient to abandon, define it in relation to the questions of gender, power, how feminist thought did not develop in a smooth, unilateral direction but, rather, emerged from the multiple and sometimes competing experiences of women struggling to assert political authority in the early modern period. To deny them the status of feminists would be an exercise in casuistry of just the type they so successfully satirized.…”

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“…In both secular and Christian feminism, we can see a sig nificant shift in feminist strategies from a rejection to a qualified restoration of motherhood, but the questions of motherhood and the role of families are far from resolved. In my examination, I observe two important positions or phases in recent feminist approaches to the family in the U.S.: (a) a move ment from humanist, rights-oriented family id'eals to gynocentric, relational family ideals (see Young, 1985;Offen, 1988) and, then, in the last decade, (b) a tension between progressive pro-family-diversity views and conselvative pro-two-parent family views. Let me describe the contributions and problems of these two movements, with only brief commentary on the most recent still evolving tension.…”