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under men’s domination. They want to change the condition, so these women’s movements and the discipline of women’s studies have led to the development of
the feminist see http:www.wordiq.comcgi-binknowledgelookup.cgi?. Feminism is a political
discourse aimed at equal rights and legal protection
for women. It involves various movements, political and sociological
theories ,
and philosophies
, all concerned with issues of gender difference
; that advocate equality
for women; and that campaign for womens rights
and interests.
http:en.wikipedia.orgwikifeminism Selden Widdowson in her book A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary
Literary Theory Fourth Edition 199 : 121 defines feminism as the word that may only have come into English usage in the 1890s, women’s conscious struggle to
women movement to fight against unfairly treatments that they got in society.
2.2.1 The Definition of Feminism
There has not been any agreed definition for the term feminism and it probably will never have despite all protestations to the contrary so far. There are many
feminism definitions but all are informed by certain share concerns. At
political level,
feminism is a movement for full humanity of women Cameron, 1992:4. Here women must, as precondition to any whole sale change
in values, be liberated from their present subordinate position with its multiple restrictions, exclusion and oppression such as relative poverty, economic
dependence, sexual exploration, and vulnerability to violence, poorer health, and overwork, lack of civil and legal rights.
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Cameron 1992:4 further states that as an intellectual approach, feminism seeks to understand how current relationships between women and men are
constructed and how they can be changed. Trying to change these ‘constructed’ relations between women and men involves several interrelated activities, such as
trying to describe the conditions of women’s lives, now and in the past, and putting back women’s lives and achievement in picture. She states:
“Feminists have inevitably paid attention to the differences between women and men. If they are not natural but
constructed, how are they constructed? If they tend to subordinate women to men, how and why does that happen?”
Cameron, 1992:4 Feminist theory has given various accounts of factors influencing the
relations between women and men and tried to examine a number of them. An example is the sexual division of labor, which is present in almost all societies, in
which some tasks are women’s and others are men’s. Men’s work is economically and socially valued; while women’s usually are not Cameron, 1992:5
Referring to what Cameron sates above, it seems that a synergy between men and women is needed. Some feminists have looked particularly at women’s
obligation to do domestic work and childcare, suggesting that mothering, apart from its role in restricting women economically, may have consequences for
psychology of women and their children, reproducing the cycle whereby women mother and men do not Cameron, 1992:5.
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2.2.2 Feminist Criticism
