There are a great many definitions of what feminism is, but they all correspond to reality. Very often, feminism is defined as science, politics, or activity. Of course, we can say that this is the theory of protecting the rights of women and its application in practice. In principle, it is, but it is worth noting which particular interests of women are defended.
In general, rights can be denoted by one concept - the ability to choose a particular behavior, without expecting negative consequences. There are also specific rights related to the birth of children or pregnancy. But the main focus is still on equalizing the opportunities of women and men.
Female feminism: consequences and goals
If we talk about the consequences, they can be social (meaning public opinion) and legal. Therefore, describing what feminism is, they first of all note a biased attitude towards women in judicial practice, legislation and requirements for certain principles of behavior.
The main goal of feminists is to level the standard of living of men and women. True, any shifts in this direction occur with great difficulty and meet resistance. The quality of life of many women is at a lower level compared to men. This situation is mainly due to discrimination of women's rights. As a result, there is a biased distribution of resources and a complete disregard for women's needs.
Traditional and radical feminism
If we talk about what traditional feminism is, then this concept is usually called the first women's movement in the 1840-1930s and its many varieties.
Second-wave feminism, dating from the 1960s, is called radical. Sometimes this kind of movement is compared with the work of F. Engels, "On the Origins of the Oppression of Women." Analogies are drawn due to the fact that radical feminists, like Engels, view the current situation in the world as a confrontation between two class groups: the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, men and women. Radical feminists believe that patriarchy was created to oppress the male sex of the female.
But by the beginning of the 21st century, the question of what feminism was was not so popular, as its supporters came to the conclusion that not only the rights of women, but also of men were being violated. After all, they were required to comply with the roles assigned to them by the patriarchal society. It was decided that such involuntary compliance harms the development of a person’s personality, regardless of gender.
The history of feminism
As a political movement, feminism was shaped by situations typical of females. For the first time, women demanded equality during the US War of Independence (1775-1783). The first supporter of this movement in America, who raised the question of what feminism is, say Abigail Smith Adams. It was her phrase - "We will not obey the laws in which we did not take part, and the authorities that do not care about our interests" - went down in the history of feminism.
Many people mistakenly believe that all feminists consider men their enemies. But in reality, the protest of the supporters of this movement is aimed at the patriarchy, and not at the strong half of humanity as a whole. After all, basically the patriarchy system functions to serve men, and women in this case are only a consumed resource. In such a system, the distribution of roles takes into account the biological sex.
