Feminism: A Global Issue Of Gender Equality And Women Empowerment

SOCA2700 Gender, Religion and Power

The History and Development of Feminism

Question:

Discuss about the Feminism for First World and Third World.

Feminism is one of the most talked of topics in the world of today. This refers to the promotion of the rights of women and bringing an equality among the genders. This includes many political movements that are being encouraged to help in the increase of the awareness and the application of feminism in the society through education and policies for the advancement of women. Education more than anything else is given stress upon for advocating feminism. (Butler, 2011)

The term “feminism” got popularity in the 1970s, although the use of the word was being done for a long time. The history of feminism has three phases where the first one can be spotted in the 19^th century, the second in the 1960s leading onward and the last phase that has been continuing till date since the 1990s (Grayzel, 2014). There were movements of feminism which took place leading to the theory of feminism to be developed. Over time the perspective towards and of feminism has seen change and there also have been diversions from the main stream of feminist thought like the present day pseudo-feminism thought.

It must be pointed out that more than 60% of the world’s population that is subject to the poverty conditions are women. An organization, Amnesty International, which believes in defending the rights of an individual, has given the data that a minimum of 1/3^rd of the women all over the world are abused in some way in their lifetime. The first global think tank that was created pertaining to this issue is The Sisterhood (Kennedy, 2004). This is an institute that functions across the globe. There were also many other movements and spin offs that were inspired by this one movement.

A very high amount of recognition is brought by the United Nations to the issue of sexism and the inequality that exists in the society on the basis of gender and sex roles. There are many different conferences that have been held by the United Nations like the International Decade for Women in Beijing, Nairobi, and so on. To the surprise of those who attended these conferences, the conference that was held in Copenhagen, most of those who were official delegates of the United Nations were not women. All these conferences had major roles to play in the setting up the international scenario of feminism, like the conference in Beijing set the scenario through the Beijing Platform for Action. One of the most important and later steps that was taken was the Convention that was held on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Global Issues of Gender Equality and Women Empowerment

Through this it can be scene that feminism is an international issue and not just a focus of any one country or any sections of countries. It is not something that is focused upon by simply the developing countries or the third world countries but also the developed and first world countries as well. It has been seen that many people acknowledge that feminism means the equality mainly among the men and the women, but they also fail to focus on the ways that it is applied in the world. The Western young adults are working over the preparation to study abroad with the hope to learn from the other culture and understanding the rights of the men and women. There is a need to focus on the problems and the struggle which is set with the feminism and is important to be dealt for the development as well. the expressions are related to the assistance that leads to the creation of racist form of knowing (Braybon, 2012). The Western feminism is about believing the women who are victims of the hierarchy with the universal agenda set among the females.

The factor of sexism is quite prevalent in the third world countries. The third world countries include countries like the nations that are also referred to as developing countries sometimes. These may include the countries of the section of Latin America, Asia, and Africa. These countries have the typical characteristic of poverty that is general to the national but also along with quite a major social and economic disparity across the nations, and within the nations. This also include the battles of the sexes, where one sex is considered and treated as being quite inferior to the other.

In the report that was presented by the Amnesty International, which has been mentioned earlier in this report, it was given that there are much more chances for women to fall sick or die in countries that are developing. The question that needs to be asked is, why is that?

The countries that are under the third world categories are feminism worse than the first world countries, where surprisingly there still is quite a lot of sexism prevalent but also not as much as in the third world countries. In some countries like India, women are not even allowed to live and grow as the incidences of feticide and infanticide are very high which is specific to girl babies. (Narayan, 2013). To overcome the severe situation in other countries that belong to the developing or the third world category the woman of these countries has come up with their own movements that focus on this issue of sexism in these countries. These include the movements that are included in the Women’s Movements in the Global Era: The Power of Local Feminisms, edited by Amrita Basu (2010) and organizations like the Women Living under Muslim Laws of the year 1984.

Different Views of Feminism in Third-World and First-World Countries

The idea of feminism is also seen differently at different countries and nations. In Nigeria, a woman was quoted as saying that she grew up listening to the idea that feminists were those who are “bra-burners” and were those who had problems with men and forming relationships with them. Nanjala Nyabola also tells us that feminism in the third world countries such as Nigeria, is very different from feminism in the first world countries. She talks about the freedom that women in such countries want from the burdens that come along with the idea of feminism that is mostly entertained in the first world countries (Zeiger, 1996). She also mentions that in third world countries, feminism does not seek to get freedom for sexual liberation but that from sexualization on the whole. The feminism of the two sections of the society have vast effects on the physical and mental health of the women of these countries. Especially due to the idea of sexualization and sexual liberty and the differences among these idea, and the expectations of the society lead to various health consequences for the women of the third world countries. An example can be taken of a country like, Fiji. Here women have high possibility of facing eating disorders owing to the standards of beauty that have been put forward by the western world. (Heng, 1997)

In many south Asian countries that main idea of a female is that she must be pretty or beautiful. The focus is not on the development of the independence and the personality of the women but that of the beauty. There are very limited and few defined roles of the women and these center around serving others especially the family and the beautification of the women. The beauty standards are also not healthy ones as they mostly involve the women being too thin, and also the use of exposure of the body and often unreal physical beauty is given importance. (Afshar, 2005). 

First world countries are those which are often referred to as developed countries, and are mostly those countries which are industrial and capitalist countries. This includes a major part of the United States of America, Europe, Australia and such. These are those that mostly set the trends across the globe and have also influenced the ideas of feminism all over the world. (Okin, 1998). This often results in the women of other countries feeling like some of the customs or traditions that they follow as being wrong or a being judged by the women of the first world countries as wrong. The idea of moral imperialism grip the women of the third world countries owing to the standards that have been set by the women of the western world, those who belong to the first world countries. It is a global concept that the successful woman is one who is achieving but also attractive at the same time. This concept is not only prevalent in the third world countries but also the first world countries. In fact, the first world countries are responsible for setting the standards that most other countries follow. (Margolis, 1993).

Prevalence of Sexism in Third-World Countries

Although the goals for the universal feminism have been set by the first world countries, the main focus of which are the legal rights of the women and not the problem of poverty as in the case of the third world countries, the attention is not on the global feminism standards but that on the standards set by and prevalent in the particular social and cultural area that the women live in. There is also an argument that if the first world countries actually need feminism. The answer to this can be explored by the looking at the way in which the oppression of women in the first world countries takes place. The setting up of laws has taken place which work for the betterment of women which in itself shows that there definitely is a need for the preservation of the right of the women in such countries as well. These laws are set, but it is also said that there is not always the enforcement of these in the system. Often they go ignored. There is presence of domestic violence in first world countries as in the third world countries. There are also incidences of these incidences going unreported and also after being reported, a lack of action exists often. This is not specific to countries that are third nations but also extends to the first world countries. There is also the threat of sexual violence that remains on the women of both the third and the first world countries, along with the possibility of other kinds of violence as well. Women are expected to be responsible for their own safety, and to be careful so that they do not get into a situation that there is a chance of any kind of violence against them. With women being more independent in terms of keepings jobs and not being dependent for daily activities on other people, the chances for such violence against them increases. There is general harassment of women, like street harassment that takes place even in first world countries. There are strong stereotypes for women, like they are never linked with sport activities or as being tech-savvy and such. (Brenner, 2003).

There is also difference in the occupation of the public office in the first world countries. It is expected that there will be equal eligibility and equal occupation of the offices of the government by both men and women, but in reality on the basis of the data received, this is not so. There is an unequal distribution of posts of the government with more positions of power being occupied by the men and less being occupied by women. There is also the fact that if the women who aim for such posts, have husband or fathers who are already on a powerful post, have a higher chance of making it to the post of their choice. (Amos, & Parmar,1984). The role as a wife or as a daughter here has taken over the individuality of the woman. Contrary to this, there have been cutbacks from the funding that was being given to the poor. This is not just to the women who have children and need to take care to them, as taking care of children is much more tedious and expensive than simply taking care of oneself. Along with this there are many of the jobs that put the safety of women at risk. There is also unequal pay which is given, with women being paid lesser than the male counterparts who work just as much as they so. There is also a glass ceiling effects that still exists in spite of many women breaking it, there is still a general sense of the existence of this effects that stops the women in the world of business from moving ahead and leading organizations. If all of these are difficult to observe from a distant society, it is easy to spot these through the world of entertainment where the claims are made of equality and just treatment of both men and women, but does not exist in reality. The differences are easy to spot. 

Beauty Standards and Women’s Role in Different Societies

Conclusion

Sexism, therefore exists everywhere. The only difference is the difference of the degree of it. The degree of the acceptance under the garb of the social norms and traditions, the degree to which women accept their “fate” and do not find it as being something they can move up against, these are the differences that exist. There is a threat to the safety of women all over the world, with some areas being more sensitive and with the people being more hostile towards women than others, but the issue exists everywhere. There is the common phenomenon of the identification of women on the basis of their sex roles rather than their roles as an individual in the society which is something that exists in all societies.

In the cross cultural comparisons of the incidences of feminism, there can be seen that the main framework of sexism and feminism are the same with the differences being in the social structure that influences the way in which these are see, perceived, and accepted as being something which is normal or required in some cases. These differences is what brings the dynamism in the structure of feminism on the whole.

References

Afshar, H. (Ed.). (2005). Women and politics in the Third World. Routledge.

Amos, V., & Parmar, P. (1984). Challenging imperial feminism. Feminist review, (17), 3-19.         

Braybon, G. (2012). Women Workers in the First World War. Routledge.

Brenner, J. (2003). Transnational feminism and the struggle for global justice. New Politics, 9(2), 78.

Butler, J. (2011). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. routledge.

Grayzel, S. R. (2014). Women’s identities at war: Gender, motherhood, and politics in Britain and France during the First World War. UNC Press Books.

Harris, R. (1993). The” Child of the Barbarian”: rape, race and nationalism in France during the First World War. Past & Present, (141), 170-206.

Heng, G. (1997). “A Great Way to Fly”: Nationalism, the State, and the Varieties of Third-World Feminism (pp. 30-45). na.

Kennedy, D. M. (2004). Over here: The first world war and American society. Oxford University Press.

Margolis, D. R. (1993). Women’s movements around the world: Cross-cultural comparisons. Gender & Society, 7(3), 379-399. Chicago.

Narayan, U. (2013). Dislocating cultures: Identities, traditions, and Third World feminism. Routledge.

Okin, S. M. (1998). Feminism, women’s human rights, and cultural differences. Hypatia, 13(2), 32-52.

Zeiger, S. (1996). She didn’t raise her boy to be a slacker: Motherhood, conscription, and the culture of the First World War. Feminist Studies, 22(1), 7.