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The Feminism Portal

Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern societies are patriarchal—they prioritize the male point of view—and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women.

Originating in late 18th-century Europe, feminist movements have campaigned and continue to campaign for women's rights, including the right to vote, run for public office, work, earn equal pay, own property, receive education, enter into contracts, have equal rights within marriage, and maternity leave. Feminists have also worked to ensure access to contraception, legal abortions, and social integration; and to protect women and girls from sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Changes in female dress standards and acceptable physical activities for women have also been part of feminist movements.

Many scholars consider feminist campaigns to be a main force behind major historical societal changes for women's rights, particularly in the West, where they are near-universally credited with achieving women's suffrage, gender-neutral language, reproductive rights for women (including access to contraceptives and abortion), and the right to enter into contracts and own property. Although feminist advocacy is, and has been, mainly focused on women's rights, some argue for the inclusion of men's liberation within its aims, because they believe that men are also harmed by traditional gender roles. Feminist theory, which emerged from feminist movements, aims to understand the nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles and lived experiences. Feminist theorists have developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues concerning gender.

Numerous feminist movements and ideologies have developed over the years, representing different viewpoints and political aims. Traditionally, since the 19th century, first-wave liberal feminism, which sought political and legal equality through reforms within a liberal democratic framework, was contrasted with labour-based proletarian women's movements that over time developed into socialist and Marxist feminism based on class struggle theory. Since the 1960s, both of these traditions are also contrasted with the radical feminism that arose from the radical wing of second-wave feminism and that calls for a radical reordering of society to eliminate patriarchy. Liberal, socialist, and radical feminism are sometimes referred to as the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought.

Since the late 20th century, many newer forms of feminism have emerged. Some forms, such as white feminism and gender-critical feminism, have been criticized as taking into account only white, middle class, college-educated, heterosexual, or cisgender perspectives. These criticisms have led to the creation of ethnically specific or multicultural forms of feminism, such as black feminism and intersectional feminism. (Full article...)

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Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman is Mary Wollstonecraft's unfinished novelistic sequel to her revolutionary political treatise A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). The Wrongs of Woman was published posthumously in 1798 by her husband, William Godwin, and is often considered her most radical feminist work. Wollstonecraft's philosophical and gothic novel revolves around the story of a woman imprisoned in an insane asylum by her husband. It focuses on the societal rather than the individual "wrongs of woman" and criticizes what Wollstonecraft viewed as the patriarchal institution of marriage in eighteenth-century Britain and the legal system that protected it. However, the heroine's inability to relinquish her romantic fantasies also indicts women for wallowing in a false and damaging sentimentalism. The novel pioneered the celebration of female sexuality and cross-class identification between women. Such themes, coupled with the publication of Godwin's scandalous Memoirs of Wollstonecraft's life, made the novel unpopular at the time it was published. Twentieth-century feminist critics embraced the work, integrating it into the history of the novel and feminist discourse. It is most often viewed as a fictionalized popularization of the Rights of Woman, as an extension of Wollstonecraft's feminist arguments in Rights of Woman, and as an autobiography.

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Credit: Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry

Charlotte Corday was a poor French aristocrat who supported the Girondists during the French Revolution. She single-handedly assassinated Jean-Paul Marat, a Jacobin journalist, with a knife in 1793. Although she was beheaded four days afterwards and the Reign of Terror continued for another year, she was later seen as a heroine who gave her life to rid her country of a monster. The assassination is depicted in this 1860 painting.

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In this month

February 1975 – First publication of The Female Man, a feminist science fiction novel by Joanna Russ, which follows the lives of four women living in parallel worlds who visit each other and encounter new notions of what it means to be a woman
February 1976 – Andrea Dworkin organizes public pickets of the movie Snuff out of which the activist group Women Against Pornography eventually grew
14 February 1998 – First V-Day benefit to raise money to end violence against women, inspired by Eve Ensler's play The Vagina Monologues
18 February 1934 – Birth of Audre Lorde, African-American feminist and poet who criticized earlier feminists, such as Betty Friedan, for not considering the effects of race and sexual orientation on feminism
19 February 1963 – First publication of The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, which inspired second-wave feminism

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I’ve been described as a tough and noisy woman, a prize fighter, a man-hater, you name it. They call me Battling Bella, Mother Courage, and a Jewish mother with more complaints than Portnoy. There are those who say I’m impatient, impetuous, uppity, rude, profane, brash, and overbearing. Whether I’m any of those things, or all of them, you can decide for yourself. But whatever I am —and this ought to be made very clear—I am a very serious woman.

— Bella Abzug

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Hilda Doolittle, better known by the pen name H.D., was an American poet, novelist and memoirist. She is best known for her association with the key early 20th century avant-garde Imagist group of poets, although her later writing represents a move away from the Imagist model and towards a distinctly feminine version of modernist poetry and prose. Doolittle was one of the leading figures in the bohemian culture of London in the early decades of the century. Her work is noted for its use of classical models and its exploration of the conflict between lesbian and heterosexual attraction and love that closely resembled her own life. Her later poetry also explores traditional epic themes, such as violence and war, from a feminist perspective. H.D. was the first woman to be granted the American Academy of Arts and Letters medal.

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... that after dying in her daughter's arms in an asylum in 1897, Maria Trubnikova was remembered as the "heart and soul" of feminist activism in Russia?
... that Margareth Rago seeks to establish a methodology for what she calls "feminist science"?
... that the retelling of stories can focus on female characters to reflect the feminist perspective?

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...that economist Barbara Ward (pictured), an early advocate of sustainable development, was the first woman ever to address a synod of Roman Catholic bishops?
...that the ultra-modern disposable female urination device, which lets women urinate upright, was actually invented in 1922?
...that Rachel Paulose is the first woman in Minnesota to become a District Attorney?

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The following are images from various feminism-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Camilla Collett (from History of feminism)
Image 2An Antimonumenta, installed in Mexico City on International Women's Day 2019, as photographed the day after. The circle part says "In Mexico 9 women are murdered daily" and the cross part says "Not one more!" On the opposite side, the Antimonumenta reads "We demand a national gender alert", and in the central part "No + Femicides". (from International Women's Day)
Image 3First edition print of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (from History of feminism)
Image 48M 2020 in Spain (from International Women's Day)
Image 5
  Official holiday
  Holiday for women
  Non-official holiday
(from International Women's Day)
Image 68M 2018 in Pamplona (from International Women's Day)
Image 7Christine de Pizan presents her book to Queen Isabeau of Bavaria. (from History of feminism)
Image 8Florence Nightingale (from History of feminism)
Image 9Clara Zetkin (left) and Rosa Luxemburg (right) in January 1910 (from International Women's Day)
Image 10Margaret Sanger (from History of feminism)
Image 11Germaine Greer in June 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 12Board of directors of "Jam'iat e nesvan e vatan-khah", a women's rights association in Tehran (1923–1933) (from History of feminism)
Image 13bell hooks (from History of feminism)
Image 14The Nineteenth Amendment (from History of feminism)
Image 15Emily Davison (from History of feminism)
Image 16Frances Cobbe (from History of feminism)
Image 17Bessie Rayner Parkes (from History of feminism)
Image 18Female members of the Australian Builders Labourers Federation march on International Women's Day 1975 in Sydney (from International Women's Day)
Image 19A veil-burning ceremony in Andijan on International Women's Day in 1927. (from International Women's Day)
Image 20Sylvia Pankhurst (from History of feminism)
Image 21Simone de Beauvoir (from History of feminism)
Image 22John Neal (from History of feminism)
Image 23Ida B. Wells (from History of feminism)
Image 24Huda Shaarawi, founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union (from History of feminism)
Image 25Author and scholar Helen Kendrick Johnson opposed women's suffrage. (from History of feminism)
Image 26Wealthy Chinese women with bound feet (Beijing, 1900). Foot binding was a symbol of women's oppression during the reform movements in the 19th and 20th centuries. (from History of feminism)
Image 27Matilda Joslyn Gage (from History of feminism)
Image 28Betty Friedan 1960 (from History of feminism)
Image 29Female soldiers from Peru, Egypt, India and other countries celebrate International Women's Day. (from International Women's Day)
Image 30Lucy Stone (from History of feminism)
Image 31Women on the street celebrating International Women's Day in Cameroon (from International Women's Day)
Image 32Irena Krzywicka (from History of feminism)
Image 33Marie Stopes (from History of feminism)
Image 34Cover of WSPU's The Suffragette, April 25, 1913 (after Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, 1830) (from History of feminism)
Image 35Female soldiers from Peru, Egypt, India and other countries celebrate International Women's Day. (from International Women's Day)
Image 36Suffrage parade in New York, May 6, 1912 (from History of feminism)
Image 37Gloria Steinem at news conference, Women's Action Alliance, January 12, 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 38María Elena Oddone holding a banner, on International Women's Day in 1984 in Argentina. The banner says "No to motherhood, yes to pleasure". (from International Women's Day)
Image 39The vandalized Concepción Feminist Mural in Spain, which was vandalized on International Women's Day 2021. (from International Women's Day)
Image 40Catharine MacKinnon (from History of feminism)
Image 41Elizabeth Cady Stanton (seated) and Susan B. Anthony (from History of feminism)
Image 42Nellie McClung (from History of feminism)
Image 43Yellow mimosa is the symbol of IWD in Italy as well as in Russia, Ukraine and many other ex-Soviet Union republics (from International Women's Day)
Image 44Women's Liberation march in Washington, D.C., 1970 (from History of feminism)

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This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Feminism}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.

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Alice Manfield - Guide Alice, Mt Buffalo, c1900-30, SLV
Alice Park - Records of the National Woman's Party
Alice Paul (1915) by Harris & Ewing
Angela Davis in a half-length portrait by Bernard Gotfryd - crop
Anne Dallas Dudley LOC
Avril de Sainte-Croix - Restored, cropped
Bertha Lutz 1925
Cabinet Card of Sojourner Truth - Collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Convicts Lunatics and Women! Have No Vote for Parliament, ca. 1907-1918
Dr. Caroline Spencer 275029v
Ethel Smyth
Frances Benjamin Johnston, Self-Portrait (as "New Woman"), 1896
Fredrikke Mørck
George Charles Beresford - Virginia Woolf in 1902 - Restoration
Henrietta Rodman from the George Grantham Bain Collection
Henry Mayer, The Awakening, 1915 Cornell CUL PJM 1176 01 - Restoration
Hester Jeffrey
Hubertine Auclert 1910
Iris Calderhead
Joy Young Rogers outside the White House
Lucretia Mott, signed photo, by F. Gutekunst
Mabel Vernon, c. 1917, by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Marguerite Durand 1910 - Restoration
Marie Stopes in her laboratory, 1904 - Restoration
Mary Garrity - Ida B. Wells-Barnett - Google Art Project - restoration crop
Millicent Fawcett
Mrs. Crystal Eastman Benedict by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Mrs. Lillian Ascough, chairman of the Connecticut branch of the Woman's Party
Mrs. Pauline Adams 147002v
Portrett av Gina Krog (6276081582) - Restoration
Poster by Anna Soós Korànyi for the Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance
Ray Strachey restored
Sojourner Truth, 1870 (cropped, restored)
Victoria Claflin Woodhull by Mathew Brady - Oval Portrait
Voltairine de Cleyre (Age 35)
We Can Do It! NARA 535413 - Restoration 2