worth stems from her common humanity and does not depend on the other relationship of her life. Feminism directs itself inward first-seeking to free the
woman herself from society’s pressures to conform to externally establish social standards. Women’s rights, however, implies a demand for particular privileges
such as the rights to vote, the rights to equal educational and employment
8
. As a kind of social phenomenon, feminism certainly has particular essence
in society. Feminism, as O’Neill affirms, is perhaps best understood as one reaction to the great pressures that accompanied the emergence of nuclear family.
It was a reaction against the cult of domesticity of which homes were regarded as the women’s place
9
. So, it can be concluded that feminism is the struggle for equality and the freedom for women to choose or arrange their own ways of life,
either in the scope of the household or in the outside of the household. In sum, feminist is a person who has such sense of freedom, equality, and independence.
B. The Development History of Feminism
Feminists and scholars have divided the movements history into three waves. The first wave refers mainly to womens suffrage movements of the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries mainly concerned with womens right to vote. The second wave refers to the ideas and actions associated with the
womens liberation movement beginning in the 1960s which campaigned for legal and social equality for women. The third wave refers to a continuation of,
8
Barbara J Berg, The Remembered Gate: Origins of American Feminism The Woman and the City, 1800-1860. Newyork: Oxford University Press, 1978
9
William O’Neill 1971, op.cit.50
and a reaction to the perceived failures of, second-wave feminism, beginning in the 1990s
10
.
The word feminism was the first time by the utopian socialist activists created Charles Fourier in 1837. The movement of the European center was
moved to the United States and growing rapidly since the publication of John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women 1869. Their struggle marked the birth of
first wave After the end of the Second World War, marked by the birth of new states,
which is free from European colonizers, Second Wave Feminism was born in 1960. At the beginning of this year for women enfranchised and then join the
political sphere inhabited the state. Second-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity in the United States beginning in the early 1960s and lasting
through the late 1980s. The scholar Imelda Whelehan suggests that the second wave was a continuation of the earlier phase of feminism involving the
suffragettes in the UK and USA. The movement encouraged women to understand aspects of their own personal lives as deeply politicized, and reflective of a sexist
structure of power. So Second-Wave feminism was largely concerned with other issues of equality, such as the end to discrimination. According to Friedans
obituary in the The New York Times, The Feminine Mystique “ignited the contemporary womens movement in 1963 and as a result permanently
transformed the social fabric of the United States and countries around the world” and “is widely regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th
10
Krolokke, Charlotte; Anne Scott Sorensen 2005. Three Waves of Feminism: From Suffragettes to Grrls. Gender Communication Theories and Analyses:From Silence to
Performance. p. 24.
century
11
.” In the book Friedan hypothesizes that women are victims of a false belief system that requires them to find identity and meaning in their lives through
their husbands and children. Such a system causes women to completely lose their identity in that of their family. Friedan specifically locates this system among
post-World War II middle-class suburban communities. At the same time, Americas post-war economic boom had led to the development of new
technologies that were supposed to make household work less difficult, but that often had the result of making womens work less meaningful and valuable.
With so many experienced discrimination in the women, activists, women activists see that they need to do some real action to escape from the system
Patriarchy. It marked the emergence of four dominant stream of feminism in the Second-Wave.
What is called the Liberal feminism is a view to placing women who have full freedom and individual. It states that the flow of freedom and equality is
rooted in rationality and the separation between private and public world. Every human being, according to them, has the capacity to think and act rationally, as
well as in women. The root of oppression and backwardness in women is due to errors caused by women themselves. Women must prepare themselves so they can
compete in the world in terms of free competition and have equal status with men.
11
Margalit Fox, Betty Friedan, Who Ignited Cause in Feminine Mystique, Dies at 85, New
York times,February 5, 2006
Liberal feminism women seek to realize that they are oppressed class. The work women do in the domestic sector, campaigned as something that is not
productive and placing women in sub-ordinate positions. American culture is materialistic, measuring everything from the material, and strongly supports the
success of individualist feminism. The women are motivated out of the house, a career with a free and no longer dependent on men. The root of this theory based
on freedom and equality of rationality. Women are rational beings, the same abilities as men, so that should be given equal rights with men. The problem lies
in the product state policy of gender bias. Therefore, in the 18th century often demand that women receive the same education, in the 19th century many efforts
to fight for the chance of civil and economic rights for women, and in the 20th century womens organizations began to be formed to oppose sexual
discrimination in political, social, economics, and personal
12
. According to liberal feminists, all women are capable of asserting their
ability to achieve equality; therefore it is possible for change to happen without altering the structure of society. Issues important to liberal feminists include
reproductive and abortion rights, sexual harassment, voting, education, equal pay for equal work, affordable childcare, affordable health care, and bringing to light
the frequency of sexual and domestic violence against women. Third-wave feminism began in the early 1990s, arising as a response to
perceived failures of the second wave and also as a response to the backlash against initiatives and movements created by the second wave. Feminist leaders
12
http:id.wikipedia.orgwikiFeminisme . Accessed on august 20,2009
rooted in the second wave like Gloria Anzaldua, bell hooks, Chela Sandoval, Cherrie Moraga, Audre Lorde, Maxine Hong Kingston, and many other feminists
of colour, sought to negotiate a space within feminist thought for consideration of subjects related to race
13
. However, the roots of the third wave began in the mid 1980s. Feminist
leaders rooted in the second wave called for a new subjectivity in feminist voice. They sought to negotiate prominent space within feminist thought for
consideration of race related subjectivities. This focus on the intersection between race and gender remained prominent through the Hill-Thomas hearings, but was
perceived to shift with the Freedom Ride 1992, the first project of the Walker-led Third Wave Direct Action Corporation. Third-wave feminism seeks to challenge
any universal definition of femininity. Third-wave feminism deals with issues that seem to limit or oppress women, as well as other marginalized identities.
C. Liberal feminism of Betty Friedan
