Dear jentlemaan,
The French Revolution (1789) declared, that each individual is equal
to another, no matter what their status is. However, women, despite
their dis-privileged status, were not considered part of the deal, by
most men. Simone de Beauvoir writes, that : "The world has always
belonged to the males ... One might expect the French Revolution to
have changed women’s lot. It did nothing of the kind. That bourgeois
revolution was full of respect for bourgeois institutions and
bourgeois values; and it was made almost exclusively by men" (Source:
Simone de Beauvoir, Le Deuxième Sexe, Vol.1, pp.107 and 182-3., as
quoted from Tony Cliff 1984. _Class Struggle and Women's Liberation_
(2. The French Revolution_, at
http://www.marxists.de/gender/cliff/02-frrev.htm).
With the 19th century, and the waves of Enlightenment, there was more
education for men, and some men began to realise, that the differences
between the sexes should not prevent equality. Marx, for example,
recognised the usage of the woman as cheap, unpaid, workforce, and
that their liberation from oppression is part of the general
liberation.
This goes hand in hand with economic development, as women were needed
in the industrial force after the industrial revolution, and began to
suffer from "double exploitation" - in the house, they were still in
charge of the upbringing of the children and the maintenance of the
household. Outside, they must have worked to survive - most women were
working class, and single women (widows, divorcees, single mothers)
had wore time than their male counterparts. The biography of Mother
Jones could enlighten you on the tough conditions of 19th century
women http://political.lifetips.com/TipNL.asp?Tipid=54517
Many women, not necessarily Marxist (some part of the "bourgeoisie")
have followed similar ideas than those of Marx. However, unlike Marx,
they concentrated in civil equality (that the women would have equal
rights to vote, for example), and less on the real material conditions
of the women. These women, like Elisabeth Cady-Stanton, were highly
disappointed, when they discovered that the 14th Amendment granted
rights to the freed slaves, but not to white (or black) females (see
http://political.lifetips.com/TipNL.asp?Tipid=52102) . They should not
be judged too harshly - it might be easier to cause legal change (such
as equality before the law, voting rights, etc.) than to care for the
radical changes like equality in the material conditions and in the
chores. These women also came mostly from the middle classes and were
not fully aware of the oppression of most women, in the lower classes.
In 1893, New Zealand became the first country in the world, where
women could vote (read more about it here
http://political.lifetips.com/PPF/Tipid/60876/TipNL.asp). Many other
countries followed, granting women voting rights and other political
rights. In 1920, the 19th Amendment gave women the rights on the
federal level. Beforehand, some states have granted women political
rights - http://political.lifetips.com/TipNL.asp?Tipid=60903 ;
Switzerland, by the way, is the last one in the West
http://political.lifetips.com/TipNL.asp?Tipid=60877
Right at the end of the First World War, another improtant development
occurred: women participated fully in the October Revolution (1917) in
Russia. You can read more about it in Tony Cliff's book (1984).
http://www.marxists.de/gender/cliff/index.htm
After the Second World War, the women who got to work, were "sent back
home" - the men were supposed to take back their places, and the women
were supposed to be back at home. The male fear of the girls' power
after the Second World War could be clearly seen in two types of 1950s
movies: the movies, where the woman in, again, a homemaker, and the
bad women are only those who do something outside the house; the the
B-Movies, where women posed a real threat to men.
However, many women protested against the male domination. In the
1960s, new type of activism emerged, which was aimed at changing the
women's condition. Women demonstrated for their rights, and for their
equality; for awareness to phenomena such as wife-battering,
single-parents, rape, and incest. Prominent activists of the time were
women such as Andrea Dworkin, Gloria Steinham, and Johnny Tillmon (see
http://political.lifetips.com/TipNL.asp?Tipid=58143).
Further Sources
===============
http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/People/Women/Feminism/?il=1 -
Google Directory on Feminism
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/ - Documents from the Women's
Liberation Movement
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/guides/guide-display/-/2V9TCKHL7SFUD/ltc-political/002-1332476-3659268
- So you'd like to ... learn the history of the women's liberation
movement A guide by Charles W. Johnson, Amateur social justice
organizer
I hope this answered your question. I have searched Google on "Women's
Liberation" to find an answer. Please contact me if you need any
clarifications on this answer. I'd be pleased to clarify my answer
before you rate it. |
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