Feminism And Social Policy
FEMINISM
AND SOCIAL POLICY
Some would say feminism is about basic human rights and that it is just a modern social movement.
The truth is the feminist movement is neither modern nor social in its origin and its roots are ancient, highly religious elements that are rarely, if ever, mentioned.
Some of the first women to speak for themselves and for their sex did so within a religious framework and in religious terms. In the course of a troubled 17th century particularly among the sects, the many and various small group that rejected the established church in favour of purer forms of worship, women found more freedom.
Feminism is a social theory and political movement. Primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women, it provides a critique of gender inequality and promotes women's rights, interests and issues.
Although the word feminism was not used until the end of the 19th century, recognizably feminist beliefs began to emerge in the late 18th century. The earliest form of feminism was concerned with equal rights for women and men: this meant equal standing as citizens in public life and, to some extent, equal legal status within the home. These ideas emerged in response to the American Revolution (1775-1783) and the French Revolution (1789-1799), both of which advocated values of liberty and equality.
Feminists in France argued that the revolution’s values of liberty, equality, and fraternity should apply to all, while women activists in America called for an extension of the principles of the American Declaration of Independence to women, including rights to citizenship and property.
One of the earliest work that can be classified as feminism before the 19th century was written by Marry Wollstonecraft in the form of a book called A Vindication of the Rights of a Woman (1792) and focused on the woman question that criticized the restrictive role of women without necessarily claiming that women were disadvantaged or that men were to...
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