The Feminism Portal

Feminism involves various movements, theories and philosophies which are concerned with the issue of gender difference, that advocate equality for women, and that campaign for women's rights and interests. According to some, the history of feminism can be divided into three waves. The first wave was in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the second was in the 1960s and 1970s and the third extends from the 1990s to the present. Feminist theory emerged from these feminist movements. It manifests through a variety of disciplines such as feminist geography, feminist history and feminist literary criticism.

Feminism has altered predominant perspectives in a wide range of areas within Western society, ranging from culture to law. Feminist activists have campaigned for women's legal rights (rights of contract, property rights, voting rights); for rights to bodily integrity and autonomy, for abortion rights, and for reproductive rights (including access to contraception and quality prenatal care); for protection from domestic violence, sexual harassment and rape; for workplace rights, including maternity leave and equal pay; and against other forms of discrimination.

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Featured article

The École Polytechnique massacre occurred on December 6, 1989 at the École Polytechnique de Montréal in Montreal, Quebec. Twenty-five year-old Marc Lépine, armed with a legally-obtained semi-automatic rifle and a hunting knife, shot twenty-eight people, killing fourteen (all of them women) and injuring the other fourteen before killing himself. He began his attack by entering a classroom at the university, where he separated the men and women students from each other. After claiming that he was "fighting feminism", he shot all nine women in the room, killing six. He then moved through corridors, the cafeteria, and another classroom, specifically targeting women to shoot. He killed fourteen women and injured four men and ten women in just under twenty minutes before turning the gun on himself. Lépine's suicide note claimed political motives and blamed feminists for ruining his life. The note include a list of nineteen Quebec women whom Lépine considered to be feminists and apparently wished to kill. Since the attack, Canadians have debated various interpretations of the events, their significance, and Lépine's motives. The massacre is regarded by most feminists and many official perspectives as an anti-feminist attack and representative of wider societal violence against women; the anniversary of the massacre is commemorated as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. The incident led to more stringent gun control laws in Canada, and changes in the tactical response of police to shootings, which were later credited with minimizing casualties at the Dawson College shootings.

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Featured picture

Credit: Dorothea Lange

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange's 1936 photograph of Florence Owens Thompson and her daughters in Nipomo, California, became the most famous image of the Great Depression in the United States. It is one of the classic photographs of the 20th century, and is now an icon of resilience in the face of adversity. In the 1930s, the FSA employed several photographers to document the effects of the Great Depression on the population of America. Many of the photographs can also be seen as propaganda images to support the U.S. government's policy distributing support to the worst affected, poorer areas of the country.

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In this month

• January 1920 – Shin Fujin Kyokai (The New Woman Assosciation) drafts its demands to the Japanese government, insisting that the law allow women to participate in politics and that divorce be equitable
• January 1972 – First publication of Ms. magazine, founded by Gloria Steinem and Letty Cottin Pogrebin
• 5 January 1925 – Sworn in as governor of Wyoming, Nellie Taylor Ross (pictured) became the first woman to serve as governor of a U.S. state
• 22 January 1973 – Roe v. Wade decided by the United States Supreme Court, legalizing abortion
• 23 January 1823 – Birth of Camilla Collett, considered Norway's first feminist; her only novel deals with the difficulties of being a woman in a patriarchal society

Featured biography

Elizabeth I (1533 - 1603) was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth (or sixth if Lady Jane Grey is included) and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. The daughter of Henry VIII, she was born a princess, but her mother, Anne Boleyn, was executed three years after her birth, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. Along with her sister, Mary I, she was cut out of the succession by her teenage brother, Edward VI, in order to make way for the daughter-in-law of Edward's overbearing Protector and Regent, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. His will, however, was set aside, as it contravened the Third Succession Act of 1543, in which Elizabeth was named as successor provided that Mary I of England, Elizabeth's half-sister, should die without issue. In 1558, Elizabeth succeeded Mary, during whose reign she had been imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels. After the short reigns of Elizabeth's brother and sister, her forty-five years on the throne provided stability for the kingdom and helped forge a sense of national identity.

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Did you know...

• ...that Leyla Mammadbeyova (pictured) was the first Azerbaijani female aviator and the second parachutist woman in the former Soviet Union?
• ...that Erica Larson, a chemist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, won the Pikes Peak mountain marathon five times in six years between 1999 and 2004, more than any other woman in the event's history?
• ...that Labour Member of Parliament Ellen Wilkinson organised the 1936 Jarrow March of 200 unemployed men and women from Tyneside to London to demand jobs?

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Categories

WikiProjects

• WikiProject Gender Studies
  • Feminism Task Force
• WikiProject LGBT
• WikiProject Human Rights
• WikiProject Sociology
• WikiProject Philosophy
• WikiProject Discrimination

Selected quote

If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation. — Abigail Adams

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Things you can do

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• Cleanup: A cleanup listing for this project is available, updated by WolterBot. More information...
• Notability: Articles with notability concerns, listed at WikiProject Notability
• Rate the Unassessed Gender Studies articles in the Gender Studies WikiProject.
• Requested articles: Requested articles on Feminism, Requested articles on Feminist figures
• Stubs: Gender studies stubs, Feminism stubs, Women's rights activist stubs

Featured content

Featured articles: Princess Alice of Battenberg • Alpha Kappa Alpha • Anne of Denmark • Anne of Great Britain • Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches • Aspasia • Baby Gender Mentor • Bannon, Ann • Barbauld, Anna Laetitia • Barney, Natalie Clifford • But I'm a Cheerleader • Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough • Clarke, Rebecca Helferich • The Country Wife • Bette Davis • Catherine de' Medici • Catherine de' Medici's building projects • Douglas, Marjory Stoneman • Elizabeth I of England • Equal Protection Clause • Fuller, Margaret • Fun Home • Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles and Fundamental Duties of India • Fitzgerald, Zelda • Girl Scouts of the USA • Goldman, Emma • H.D. • Princess Helena of the United Kingdom • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings • Joan of Arc • Johnson, Joseph • Keaston, Diane • Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark • Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men • Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll • Lyon, Elizabeth Bowes • Madlax • Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman • Mary II of England •Mary: A Fiction • McClintock, Barbara • Menstrual cycle • Noether, Emmy • Pankhurst, Emmeline • The Penelopiad • Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery • Prostitution in the People's Republic of China • Revithi, Stamat • Roe v. Wade • Same-sex marriage in Spain • Shelley, Mary • The Supremes • Tahirih Justice Center • Thoughts on the Education of Daughters • Trimmer, Sarah • Tubman, Harriet • Vanbrugh, John • A Vindication of the Rights of Woman • The Well of Loneliness • Wollstonecraft, Mary • Wong, Anna May • Zinta, Preity

Featured lists: List of defense of marriage amendments to U.S. state constitutions by type • List of Alpha Kappa Alpha sisters • Timeline of Jane Austen • Timeline of Mary Wollstonecraft

Featured topics: Mary Wollstonecraft

Featured portal: Portal:Feminism

Featured pictures: Annie Oakley • Apa Tani tribal women • Charlotte Corday • Elizabeth II • Golda Meir • Joan of Arc • Kutia Khond tribal woman • Lillian Gish • Maiko • Manzanar War Relocation Center during WWII in the US • Mary of Teck • Migrant mother • Patchwork quilt • Rosie the Riveter • Spinner and spinning wheel • Queen Wilhelmina and her daughter Juliana • WWI US Navy recruiting poster • WWII US female aircraft worker • WWII US female factory worker • Zuni girl with pottery

Topics

Feminism

Concepts - Movement · Theory · Film theory · Economics · Sexology · Theology · Women's liberation · Women's movement · Women's rights · Women's studies · Gender equality · Pro-feminism · Anti-feminism

History

Social - Women's history · Feminist history · History of feminism

Suffrage - Suffragette · Women's suffrage · Timeline · New Zealand · United Kingdom · United States

Waves - First · Second · Third

Subtypes - Amazon · Anarchist · Black · Chicana · Christian · Cultural · Cyberfeminism · Difference · Eco · Equality · Equity · Fat · Gender · Global · Individualist · Islamic · Jewish · Lesbian · Liberal · Marxist · New · Postcolonial · Postmodern · Pro-life · Radical · Religious · Separatist · Sex-positive · Socialist · Feminist spirituality · Third world · Transfeminism · Womanism · French feminism

By country - Egypt · France · Indonesia · Iran · Japan · Nepal · Nicaragua · Poland · United Kingdom · United States

Lists - Feminists · Literature · Topics

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