Feminism Part II Image by Chelsea Brown
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Silent No More: Survivors Building on Our Strengths Module 1 Introduction & Feminism Session 3: Feminism Part II Image by Chelsea Brown A Training Program for Women Survivors of Gendered violence WomenatthecentrE This exciting leaning opportunity is made possible 1224 King Street West, Suite 300 Toronto ON M6K 1G2 through generous funding from Ontario Trillium 416-964-0892 Foundation www.womenatthecentre.com COURSE CONTENT MODULE 1 INTRODUCTION & FEMINISM SESSION 3: Feminism Part II Module 1: Introduction & Feminism SESSION FOCUS In this Session, we will focus on the history of the women’s rights movement, on exploring the lives of some key activists and on relating 3 Session 3: Feminism Part II the past to our experiences as women today. Political Realities For women Understanding the SESSION LEARNING OUTCOMES political process - federal, provincial and municipal Once we have worked through this Session, we will have a general government Women’s Leadership in political understanding of the social context within which feminism developed; a movements Political parties: federal, provincial and deeper understanding of the issues that women confronted and municipal and the opportunities and challenges for successfully challenged both as feminists and through the women’s rights women Understanding the role of misogyny and movement. WE will also identify where our own personal experiences fits patriarchy in our society Cultural and societal in the global context of women’s liberation. responses to women - changes over time Overview of global issues for women Key contemporary issues “The emotional, sexual and psychological stereotyping of females begins Changing roles and opportunities for women - how when the doctor says, ‘It’s a girl.” - Shirley Chisholm women have taken on patriarchy Ongoing challenges of living in a patriarchal world A. Some Historical Concepts Of Women and The Impact On Women’s Lives B. Challenging The Norm: Women Push Back C. The Role of Education In The Fight For Equality D. Riding The Waves of Feminism E. The Politics of Feminism F. The Canadian Context G. The Evolving Face of Feminism Activities A. SOME HISTORICAL CONCEPTS OF WOMEN AND THE IMPACT ON . In most societies, women had little or no access to formal WOMEN’S LIVES education. They were expected to take care of children and run the home, with no other options. This continues today in cultures where girls and women are often banned by law or tradition from When you think of women‘s lives in the past, what comes to obtaining an education. Malala Yousafzai is a young woman your mind? promoting equal education for girls in Pakistan who was targeted How has the position / role / expectations of women changed by an assassin but miraculously survived. This is a chilling example throughout history? of how many females must continue to struggle for the right to learn. You can learn more about Malala here: From almost the beginning of time, women in many societies have been FACILITATOR – Please Show Video: relegated to specific sex roles, allowing them much more limited (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/feb/04/malala- opportunities than men, and making them the property of first their fathers, yousafzai-interview-taliban-video) and then their husbands. Except for a very few matriarchal societies, men have dominated the economic, social, military, political and religious realms In some societies, women are still considered the property of in most cultures. However, there have always been some women who have their husbands. For example, Hindu tradition used to dictate that challenged the dominance of men, if a husband dies before his wife, she was expected to jump on his funeral pyre and die with him, or she was forced to live in a Consider these examples of discrimination that women have faced (and special compound for widows, separate and away from the rest often still face) due to their diminished social status: of society, in dire poverty. Widow’s lives were considered useless . In ancient China upper class women had their feet bound from the without their husbands. time they were very young to conform to a concept of female beauty. This was literally a bone-crushing process and by the time . Women have traditionally had very little control over their lives. these women were adults, they could not walk because their feet With virtually no access to birth control until the 20th century, were so tiny, misshapen and damaged. women’s lives have been dictated by their responsibility for their children and family life. Being deemed property themselves, women were generally not able to own property of their own in most cultures and countries until the 20th century. Module 1 Session 3 Feminism Part II WomenatthecentrE © 2014 1 2 . As a result of their historical lack of access to education, very few women were able to flourish as artists, writers, or playwrights. Nor These are just a few examples of how women have been were women generally allowed the space and time to engage in treated throughout history. Can you think of other examples these kinds of activities. Virginia Wolff speaks about the need for ‘A that illustrate the challenges and limitations that women have Room of One’s Own’ to be able to think and write. Women’s stories faced over the years? and experiences remained unspoken and hidden for the most part. Women actually had something to say were worth listening to, but were driven to write under male pseudonyms knowing that they B. CHALLENGING THE NORM: WOMEN PUSH BACK would never get published otherwise. Notwithstanding these strong cultural values and norms, there have Examples of this practice continuing today: Mary Ann Evans wrote always been women who have stood up and challenged the patriarchal under the pseudonym George Eliot; Charlotte Bronte went by order of their society. Historically, any woman who did not marry and have Currer Bell when Jane Eyre was published; Nora Roberts was first children was challenging her prescribed role as wife and mother. Women published under the gender-neutral name J.D. Robb. have fought to go to school, to learn science, and to play a role in public life. In some cases women were able to successfully challenge the . Historically, women have been used as a tool within wars and patriarchy, while in other situations change takes much longer to unfold. uprisings. Rape has been, and continues to be, a weapon of war in For example, in the middle ages in Europe, many of the women who many countries and cultures. For more information about this, see refused to accept their traditional role were considered witches and were for example, Kristof, N. D., & WuDunn, S. (2009) Half the sky: punished or killed. Turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide, New Who were some of the first women to start talking, writing about, and York: Alfred A. Knopf. (http://www.halftheskymovement.org/) advocating for the need for women’s emancipation? Consider the following early feminists: The Democratic Republic of Congo has been embroiled in what appears to be a never-ending civil war since 1998. Rape and genital Mary Wollstonecraft, an English advocate for the rights of mutilation are common practices carried out by warring factions in women, published a seminal book in 1792 entitled Vindication of this region. the Rights of Woman (http://www.bartleby.com/144/), also available here: . As property of their husbands, women in many cultures are http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer- expected to obey their husbands or any male family member. This new2?id=WolVind.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/en includes enduring beatings and rape, which are seen as the “right” glish/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all of the male. For example, view the Statement of the Muslim Brotherhood in opposition to the proposed United Nations Susan Brownell Anthony (born 1820), an American civil rights Declaration To End Violence Against Women: leader who, as a suffragette, fought for women’s right to vote. http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=30731. She also fought against slavery as an abolitionist and for women’s labour unions as a unionist. Module 1 Session 3 Feminism Part II WomenatthecentrE © 2014 3 4 Elizabeth Cady Stanton (born 1815), a leading figure in the women’s rights movement in the United States, helped organize women Consider the following quotes by Emmaline Pankhurst – she suffragettes. She was an abolitionist as well. See her wrote these in the late 19th century during the struggle in reminiscences, Eighty Years and More, at: England to allow women to vote. http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/2573711?n=1&s=4&printThu mbnails=no. How relevant are these quotes today? How relevant are the sentiments that lay behind these quotes? Sojourner Truth (born 1843), an African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist. See The Narrative of Sojourner Truth at: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/truth/1850/1850.html. Emmeline Pankhurst (born 1858), a British political activist and We have to free half of the human race, the women, so that leader of the British suffragette movement. Learn more: they can help to free the other half. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/pankhurst_emmelin Trust in God: She will provide. e.shtml You have to make more noise than anybody else, you have to make yourself more obtrusive than anybody else, you have to The Famous Five: Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby, fill all the papers more than anybody else, in fact you have to Louise McKinney and Henrietta Muir Edwards. Their advocacy led to be there all the time and see that they do not snow you under, women being declared “persons” under Canadian law in 1929 by if you are really going to get your reform realized.