Feminism
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Feminism is a social and political movement. Feminism is about changing the way that people see men and women. Feminism said that women were poorly treated in the past and that this must stop. Somebody who follows feminism is called a feminist.
There are many different types of feminism:
- Some feminists believe that men and women should always be treated in exactly the same way. They think that people should not think that a person's gender (whether they are a man or a woman) is important. Often these feminists believe that the traditional idea that women stay at home and look after children is wrong and that men and women should share this job.
- Some feminists believe that there are important differences between men and women. However, they believe that these differences should not lead to any unfair treatment of women by men. For example, they might say that most women do want to stay at home and look after children; however, they must not be forced to do this and must be paid to do this, either by a husband or by the government.
- Some feminists believe that men and women are completely different and that society must be changed a lot. They say that because society has normally been run by men it is bad and should be changed by a revolution. These are called radical feminists.
There are also many other types of feminism.
[edit] History of feminism
Feminism started with the idea that human rights should be given to women. This idea was put forward by some philosophers in the 18th century and the 19th century such as Mary Wollstonecraft and John Stuart Mill. Later feminists in the early 20th century also said that women should be allowed to vote in a democracy. Many women felt very strongly that they should be allowed to vote and there were many protests. Women even committed suicide to show how wrong it was that they could not take part in politics. These women were called Suffragettes. This is because they were fighting for universal suffrage which means everybody is able to vote. After women received the vote, feminism changed into some of the forms that are in this article to make society better for women.
[edit] Why some people do not like feminism
Some people do not like feminism because it wants to change society and may reduce the power of men. Some religious people say that feminism is not what God wanted. For example, in the Bible, it says that God made Eve (the first woman) as a companion for Adam (the first man), and people think this means he made women to serve and be ruled by men. However, not all religious people think this and some feel that God created men and women to be equal so that feminism is actually a very good thing. A resistant reading as to why feminism has been such a controversial issue is that they have fought for their rights which have negatively affected others, plus they have created a marginalised social group in society that conveys hatred to men and a desire to take over man's place in ruling the world.
