Feminism is a range of social movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that societies prioritize the male point of view, and that women are treated unjustly within those societies. Efforts to change that include fighting against gender stereotypes and establishing educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women that are equal to those for men.
Thealogy views divine matters with feminine perspectives including but not only feminism. Valerie Saiving, Isaac Bonewits (1976) and Naomi Goldenberg (1979) introduced the concept as a neologism in feminist terms. Its use then widened to mean all feminine ideas of the sacred, which Charlotte Caron usefully explained in 1993: "reflection on the divine in feminine or feminist terms". By 1996, when Melissa Raphael published Thealogy and Embodiment, the term was well established.
Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Like Queer studies and Men's studies, it originated in the interdisciplinary program women's studies. Its rise to prominence, especially in Western universities after 1990, coincided with the rise of deconstructionism. Disciplines that frequently contribute to Gender studies include sexuality, gender and sexuality in the fields of literature, linguistics, human geography, history, political science, archaeology, economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, cinema, musicology, media studies, human development, law, public health and medicine. It also analyzes how race, ethnicity, location, class, nationality, and disability intersect with the categories of gender and sexuality.
Masculinity is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Although sociologists think of masculinity as socially constructed, there is also widespread recognition that some behaviors considered masculine are influenced by both cultural factors and biological factors. To what extent masculinity is biologically or socially influenced is subject to debate. It is distinct from the definition of the biological male sex, as both males and females can exhibit masculine traits.
Carol Gilligan is an American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist best known for her work on ethical community and ethical relationships.
Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and feminist politics in a variety of fields, such as anthropology and sociology, communication, media studies, psychoanalysis, ecology, home economics, literature, education, and philosophy.
The men's movement is a social movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, primarily in Western countries, which consists of groups and organizations of men and their allies who focus on gender issues and whose activities range from self-help and support to lobbying and activism.
The men's liberation movement is a social movement critical of the restraints which society imposes on men. Men's liberation activists are generally sympathetic to feminist standpoints.
Cynthia Holden Enloe is a feminist writer, theorist, and professor. She is best known for her work on gender and militarism and for her contributions to the field of feminist international relations. She has also had major impact on the field of feminist political geography, in particular feminist geopolitics. In 2015, the International Feminist Journal of Politics, in conjunction with the academic publisher Taylor & Francis, created the Cynthia Enloe Award "in honour of Cynthia Enloe's pioneering feminist research into international politics and political economy, and her considerable contribution to building a more inclusive feminist scholarly community."
Feminist philosophy is an approach to philosophy from a feminist perspective and also the employment of philosophical methods to feminist topics and questions. Feminist philosophy involves both reinterpreting philosophical texts and methods in order to supplement the feminist movement and attempts to criticise or re-evaluate the ideas of traditional philosophy from within a feminist framework.
Feminism is a broad term given to works of those scholars who have sought to bring gender concerns into the academic study of international politics and who have used feminist theory and sometimes queer theory to better understand global politics and international relations.
Female public intellectuals refers to female intellectuals active within the public sphere. Although the term "public intellectual" has traditionally remained non gender specific, it historically continues to be a role predominantly occupied by men. There are a number of explanations for the lack of female public intellectuals as compared to their male counterparts. These explanations address issues such as institutionalized discrimination within the academy, the problems which arise from female intellectuals who strongly advocate feminist ideology and theory and the impact of the media and academy in the conceptualization of "woman as her body".
Feminist theory in composition studies is the application of feminist theory to composition studies. It considers the influence of gender, language, and cultural studies on composition in order to challenge preexisting conventions.
Queer heterosexuality is heterosexual practice or identity that is controversially called queer. "Queer heterosexuality" is argued to consist of heterosexual, cisgender and allosexual persons who show nontraditional gender expressions, or who adopt gender roles that differ from the hegemonic masculinity and femininity of their particular culture.
Feminist ethics is an approach to ethics that builds on the belief that traditionally ethical theorizing has undervalued and/or underappreciated women's moral experience, which is largely male-dominated, and it therefore chooses to reimagine ethics through a holistic feminist approach to transform it.
Feminist security studies is a subdiscipline of security studies that draws attention to gendered dimensions of security.
Dr Claire Duncanson is a lecturer at the department of Social and Political Science; at the University of Edinburgh. Her research fields include Intersectional Security, International Relations theory and gender politics.
In feminist theory, the principle of male as norm holds that language referring to females, such as the suffix -ess, the use of man to mean "human", and other such devices, strengthens the perceptions that the male category is the norm and that the corresponding female category is a derivation and thus less important. The idea was first clearly expressed by 19th-century thinkers who began deconstructing the English language to expose the products and footings of patriarchy.
Embedded feminism is the attempt of state authorities to legitimize an intervention in a conflict by co-opting feminist discourses and instrumentalizing feminist activists and groups for their own agenda. This term was introduced in the analysis of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, but can also be applied to several historical examples where women's rights were used as justification and legitimization of Western interventionism.
Sara Mills is Emeritus Professor in Linguistics at Sheffield Hallam University, England. Her linguistic interests are the comparison of linguistic forms of expression in different languages, particularly in reference to politeness. Her other major work area is feminism.
