Sara J. Weir

Alison M. Jaggar

Feminist Politics and Human Nature, 1988

Throughout history, feminist scholars have focused primarily on similarities and differences between men and women. More recently, the focus has shifted, looking not just at relationships between men and women, but also at the differences among women. Examples of these differences include the cleavages created by factors as varied as race, ethnicity, class and sexual identity. Thus, authors like Alma Garcia and Patricia Hill Collins note that commitments to racial identity and struggles to overcome discrimination often lead to women of color having more in common with men of color than with white women.

As was discussed in Part One, a number of ideologies emerged during the enlightenment period. Early feminist thinking both parallels and critiques these ideologies. For our purposes, we will contrast and compare liberal, Marxist and radical approaches. We will also examine contemporary tensions within the feminist movement, focusing primarily on differences among women.

The literature on the relationships between gender and power does indeed deal with the classic issues of individual preference versus community control (often conceived as the tension of liberty versus order) and of the struggles over equality and inclusion. These questions of power and the capacity of dominant groups to define the experiences of others are also central to the postmodern critiques discussed later in the chapter.

During the 1960s and 1970s, feminists raised questions regarding the scope of politics and the boundaries between public and private life. With slogans such as "The Personal is Political," they forced lawmakers to recognize issues such as domestic violence as public, rather than private, problems, as well as extending basic legal rights to divorce and credit to women, independent of their male partners. These debates about the scope and nature of politics, however, continue to divide feminist scholars and their critics even today.

According to Alison Jagger, "Liberation is the correlate of oppression. It is release from oppressive constraints.(Jaggar, p. 6)". Liberation expands the range of issues that are considered to be political. In this respect, the concept of liberation provides a theme that will help us trace the ideological meanings of feminist thought in particular.

All modern feminist theories offer the promise of liberation. They are theories of change, and the social movements that are organized around them challenge the status quo. What many people do not realize is that beyond this common point of agreement about oppression of women and the need for liberation and change, feminist theories differ fundamentally. Like the classical ideologies they mirror and challenge, each offers a unique understanding of the oppression women face, strategies for overcoming that oppression, and a vision of the "good society." Thus several people might describe themselves as feminist but disagree fundamentally about the problems women face and the means for overcoming them. The comparison of three modern feminisms--liberal, Marxist, and radical—illustrates the nature of these differences. For this reason the discussion of feminism will focus not on a single vision but on three distinct visions coming from the modern theoretical tradition. This discussion is followed by the introduction of newer critical approach, favored by many contemporary feminist thinkers, Postmodern Feminism. Focusing on concepts such as identity and difference, these thinkers depart from and "deconstruct" all modern theories. Before looking more closely at the theoretical origins and characteristics of several feminist theories, we will examine feminism as a basis for social movements in the United States. Most observers divide the cycles of women's activism into three historical periods or "waves" of social action.

Upon examination, social movements organized around feminism and women's issues, in the United States, can be divided into three historical periods or waves of activism. These waves bring together and illustrate the relationship between feminist theories and movements for social and political change. As we enter the 21st century, many feminists argue that we have entered "the age of the third wave of feminism(s)(Barbara Arneil, p. 153)."

The primary goal of the first wave of feminism was formal, legal equality for women. The first wave of women's activism was organized primarily around classical liberal tenets and the argument that with proper education and training, women were as capable of rational thinking as their male counterparts. It began in the late 18th century with the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), and culminated with the passage of the 19th amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

The greatest gain of this early period of activism was the passage of the 19^th Amendment. The women’s suffrage movement called for the extension of the rights of citizenship to women. Through pressure on politicians and non-violent protests, activists such as Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) overcame the opposition of conservative forces to broaden the scope of citizenship in the United States.

It was white, middle- and upper- class women who gained the most from the first wave of feminist activism. The suffrage movement, did little to address the economic hardships faced by many poor women and women of color, nor did it address the discrimination encountered by most women in everyday life. After the suffrage movement, women made some gains in their efforts to be included in public life. It was not, however, until the post-World War II period that women once again organized viable, broad-based social movements.

A breaking point between the first and second periods of women's activism, in this country, comes with the publication of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. Barabara Arneil observes that de Beauvoir embraces the first wave (classical liberal) beliefs of "humanism, equality and reason,(Arneil, p. 163)" yet moves beyond these beliefs to focus on distinct categories of feminism characteristic of second wave thinking. Examples include Radical feminism and other types of "hyphenated" feminisms.

One of the most important features of second wave feminism was the recognition that power was found in private as well as public life, and that for many women it was oppression in the private sphere that in fact harmed them the most. The popular political slogan of the day, "The Personal is Political," reflected the newfound importance of exploring the exercise of power in a variety of settings. As Arneil concludes, "Each of the different forms of feminism developed its own ideas about how to break through this oppression of women in the private sphere(Arneil, p. 165)."

Second wave political strategies focused on such diverse issues as the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution, consciousness-raising groups for women, abortion rights legislation and litigation, and affirmative action. It was a time of great gains, but once again these gains primarily reflected the interests of white, well-educated women. The 1980s and 1990s saw increasing criticism of traditional organizations such as the National Organization of Women (NOW) by women whose needs were not addressed by during this second period of activism.

Third wave feminism moves away from the practice of categorizing feminisms as reflections of existing western political theories. Drawing instead upon a number of identities, third wave feminists are less concerned about internal consistency than first and second wave feminists. Arneil illustrates this departure from modern thinking with the following example: ". . . a lesbian feminist might simultaneously defend the right of privacy (traditional liberal tenet), the social constructedness of identity (post-modern tenet) and materialism as the basis of political power (socialist tenet)(Arneil, p. 153)."

Third wave feminism makes room for a number of voices, hopefully including many of the women who were marginalized by limitations set forth in second wave thinking. Drawing upon post-modern theories as well as the authencity of differing personal experiences, these contemporary visions offer a rich source of new thinking about liberation. As social movements emerge, we can expect that they will be based on more than gender. Instead, they will combine and reflect ever more complex realities of racial, ethnic, sexual, and class difference. To understand more clearly how and why these period of women's activism appeared, we need to look more carefully at their origins in classical liberalism, reform liberalism, Marxism, and post-modern movements and theories.

In classical liberalism, all individuals are perceived as unique and distinctive. The state is based not so much on an image of a uniform human nature as on the need to have a rational basis for resolving conflicts between individuals. Liberalism was born in an age of great conflict fueled primarily by religious and economic differences.

While classical liberal ideology was, during the Enlightenment, a revolutionary departure from the feudal systems that preceded it, its focus on citizenship and individual rights did not extend to women. Like other classical liberals, those feminists who advocate liberal positions do not attempt to resolve all questions of gender-based differences. Instead, their strategies for overcoming oppression focus on equality before the law and the inclusion of women in public life.

In the 18^th century, women (along with many other groups in society) were not considered to be capable of rational thinking and thus were not accorded even the most fundamental rights of citizenship. For example, in 1787 the U.S. Constitution effectively excluded all women from citizenship. During this period of time women were viewed as property and, as such, had few civil rights--the right to vote, to own property, and to make decisions about marriage and divorce were the domain of free white men only. Early liberal feminists attempted to demonstrate that women were indeed fully capable of rational thinking and therefore should be extended the rights of citizenship accorded to free men.

Among the best-known early feminists to make claims about women’s nature and rationality is Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797). In The Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), Wollstonecraft presents the first sustained argument for women’s equality to be published and widely read. A member of the most intellectually revolutionary literary circles of her time, Wollstonecraft used her position to argue for the education of women and to criticize popular thinkers of the time such as Rousseau and Milton (Mary Wollstonecraft, pp. 135-160). She believed that until women could acquire reason, morals, and experience on the same terms as men, neither sex would achieve its full potential. According Wollstonecraft, sexism is debilitating to men because it allows them to gain from oppression rather than from their own efforts. Sexism undermines women because it removes the means of self-improvement.

Liberal feminists of the 19^th and 20^th centuries recognized that women were oppressed in many areas of their lives. Their strategies for change, however, focused primarily on bringing about changes in the legal system, expecting that formal equality would lead to wide-ranging equality or rights.

In the United States the longest, and in the view of liberal feminists, most important struggle for legal equality and inclusions was the women’s suffrage movement. Led primarily by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, this movement emerged from the Abolition and Temperance Movements. Women like Anthony, Stanton, and many others were active in the movement to abolish slavery. It was their exclusion from meetings and leadership positions that led them to organize a series of meetings on the rights of women. The most historically famous of these gatherings was held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. "The Declaration of Sentiments," produced by the conference called for broad political and social rights for women. By using of language that paralleled the United States Declaration of Independence, this document served as an important statement of the emerging movement for equal rights for women (see Not for Temselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susuan B. Anthony," a documentary film by Ken Burns and Paul Barnes, 1999).

The movement struggled with only minor successes into the 20^th century. Finally, a number of factors including the strength of the Progressive movement, (See Chapter 5) the unifying of two rival political factions to form the National American Women’s Suffrage Party and the intensifying of highly visible political protests led in 1920 to the passage of the 19^th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Women’s suffrage was the major success of the first wave of feminism in the United States, but other civil rights were also gained during this time.

Active among the supporters of women’s suffrage were many middle-class women of African American dissent. Best known among them are Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) and Ida B. Wells (1863-1931). In 1851, Truth made her now famous, "Ain’t I A Woman?" speech, calling on those supporting suffrage to include full citizenship for enslaved people as well (Sojouner Truth, in The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women p. 253). Ida B. Wells, a longtime social activist and journalist was the President of the Alpha Suffrage Club in Chicago. The Alpha Club was among the first black women’s groups organized in support of suffrage. Although Wells worked closely with Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Stanton and others were willing to sacrifice suffrage for African American women if it would bring the support of southern politicians to the cause of suffrage for white women. During the first wave of feminism, this willingness to exclude some on the basis of race set the stage for many of the tensions and criticisms expressed today about mainstream women’s groups by many women of color.

Patricia Hill Collins describes a rich tradition of activism among African American women in this country. In 1831, African American intellectual Maria Stewart became the first American woman of any race to lecture in public on political issues, as well as the first to distribute notes from her lecture to those in attendance (Patricia Hill Collins, p. 3).

Indeed, Collins develops what she calls "Black Feminist Thought." Citing goals that only sometimes intersect with those of white women, Collins develops a theory based on the core themes of overcoming racism and sexism, self-definition to overcome negative stereotypes, the interdependence of experience and consciousness, and the relationship between thought and action. Her work moves beyond the liberal feminist vision of a "good society" to draw upon all of the types of feminism discussed in this chapter (Collins, Chapter Two).

Second wave Liberal feminists (1960s-1980s) have used the language of reform liberalism to argue for the right to the vote, for equal rights of property ownership, and for equal employment opportunity. The inclusion of gender as a protected category in the 1964 Civil Rights Act has opened a door for the passage of additional legislation pertaining to women. One example of this is the 1972 passage of Title IX, which mandates greater funding for women’s sports at public schools and colleges.

Contemporary liberal feminist challenges are wide ranging. Liberal feminists use litigation strategies to force greater protection of individuals. Recent Supreme Court decisions regarding sexual harassment have extended and clarified the protection include identifying more clear legal definitions of sexual harassment, which is viewed under the law as a form of workplace discrimination. In addition, abortion rights continues to be a highly contested issue both within the feminist community and among the general population.

Marxism, as much as liberalism, is a product of modernism. Although Karl Marx’s writings are critical of capitalism as a system of production, he believed his alternative, Communism, was scientific in nature and that it offered a universal explanation of the distribution of power in society. Grounded in "historical materialism," this explanation is the basis of a social and economic theory rivaling Classical Liberalism.

As was discussed in Part One, Marxism, like other forms of socialism, begins with an analysis of material production. Marxism focuses on the groups and relationships that emerge from economic production and the capacity of people to work. Liberalism, by contrast, focuses on individuals exercising their capacity to reason, to explain the existence of government

Barbara Arneil observes: "Production and the conflicts which emerge as a result of the different relationships groups of people have with the means of production, lies at the heart of both history and politics, properly understood, according to Marx (Arneil, p. 138)." The "groups of people" described above would, according to Marx, be organized in social classes. The two classes that are central to Marx’s critiques of capitalism are the Capitalist Class (or Bourgeoisie) and the Industrial Working Class (or Proletariat). Other important tenets of Marxism include a class analysis of society, an examination of the historical divisions of labor leading to class conflict, a vision of human alienation under capitalism and a belief in the communal ownership of property and productive resources (Arneil, pp 138-140 and The Communist Manifesto).

All Socialist and Marxist feminists focus on economic inequality as a source of political inequality, but specific critiques tend to be based on one of the tenets of Marxism. Some Marxist feminist theories involve challenges to existing class relationships, especially as they create a double oppression for women—one based upon her class position and one based upon gender and discriminatory practices within family structures. An Orthodox Marxist feminist would argue that gender-based inequalities are a product of the capitalist period. Thus, when capitalism is overthrow by socialist revolutions (to be followed by communism) women will be liberated to stand as equals in a classless society.

In sum, Marxist feminists are critical of liberalism and the possibility of political equality leading to economic or social equality for women. Specific feminist criticisms, as well as their visions of the "good society," are as diverse as the many tenets of Marxism. Marxism and other socialist theories serve as a basis for and a point of criticism for the Radical theories that emerged in the 1960s with the "Second Wave" of feminist activism.

Radical feminism emerged out of the social movements in post-World War II America. Frustrated by gender-based discrimination in the civil rights and anti-war movements, many women activists became convinced that neither liberal nor Marxist visions of the good society would lead to true equality for women. While these views were not new, the clarification and development of the concept of "patriarchy" as a structure independent of, and yet intimately entwined with other forms of oppression against women, and the focus on women’s biology as tool for liberation, set Radical feminism apart from the socialist and psychological elements it emerged from.

According to Alison Jaggar, Radical feminists define patriarchy as a system of male domination, based upon the sexual assignment of roles in private and public life to women and men respectively. Radical feminist strategies for overcoming oppression focus on overcoming gender-based social inequalities created by patriarchy, as well as moving beyond "female" and "male" to the concept of gender. Gender assumes that sex roles are socially constructed, thus there are many possible identities beyond the duality of male and female (Jaggar, Chapter Five).

A variety of strategies for overcoming patriarchy emerged during this period. Examples include consciousness-raising groups for women and many other sexually separate activities. The power of lesbian separatist movements that gained strength in the 1960s is still felt today. Although the understanding of what constitutes oppression is different for Radical feminists than it is for Liberal and Marxist feminists, they share a belief in the universality of women’s oppression. Later Radical thinkers, such as Adrienne Rich move beyond the traditional confines of duality and universality to recognition of "the complexity of women’s experience of domination (Jaggar, p. 118)." These thinkers set the stage, in America, for the third wave of feminism; one that rejects universality and duality in favor of difference and multiple identities.

As previously discussed, many contemporary feminists hope to avoid the kind of hyphenated subordination which terms like "post-modern feminism" suggests. The focus of this current wave of activism might best be illustrated by the theme of the 1995 United Nations Conference on Women, "Seeing the World Through a Woman’s Eyes (Arneil, p. 541)." Third wavers challenge the common beliefs in all grand political theories. In the place of theory, many scholars employ a variety of methods, including the analysis of language and texts, and deconstruction of theories to reveal underlying power relationships. No single research method is commonly adhered to, thus the voices of many people—scholars and activists—marginalized by traditional academic and social discourse, are allowed to emerge in their own right.

Most important among these marginalized voices are those voices of women of color and others whose life experience is shaped by multiple identities, i.e., mother, worker, Chicana, lesbian, immigrant, etc. Post-modern thinking allows and encourages the recognition of their diverse positions in society. Within the third wave, the idea that this is not only critical of past theories, but we are beginning to see the emergence of feminist writings that are also reconstructive. Areas where the scholarship is emerging including feminist legal studies (Susan Hekman, p 161)" and a focus on lesbian identity, including "Queer Theory. Excitement and complication emerge in the third wave of feminism, when the traditional structures of theory are set aside. In their respective works, third wave thinkers reflect the complications of attempting to overcome dualistic thinking.

Historically, feminist movements have embraced both theory and practice to overcome the oppression faced by women. The changes that come about as a result of women’s liberation benefit each member of society, not just women. From the formal equality espoused by first wave feminists to the current focus on identity and difference, feminist theories and the critical debate they engender continue to be important catalysts for social change and to reflect the cutting edge of social thought at any given time.