Untitled Flashcards Set

Women’s Movement: 

• Classical “Republican Motherhood”: The Roman Mater 

  • Responsible for her children’s education from selecting a tutor to supplementing a child’s education herself 

  • Mothers worked to instill Roman values into their children: self-control, dignity, respect for the Roman gods, and above all, loyalty to the family and its ancestors 

  • American society has harkened back to classical Rome to find an example of appropriate womanhood because they would be role models and aspire to be like them  

• American “Republican Motherhood” 

  • Enlightenment: apply reason and education 

  • Mother taught the children, therefore mothers should be educated 

  • 1970’s: public education for boys and girls in the northeast 

  • Critiques of Republican Motherhood

• The “Cult of Domesticity” and the “True Women” 

  • Cult = culture 

  • Domestic: people who work in homes but don’t live there 

  • Cult of domesticity means that women remain the center of the home and support their husband at home 

  • 4 Virtues: domesticity, pitony:religious, purity/chastity: faithful to husband, and submissive: obedience 

  • The cult of domesticity is classit because it only applied to rich and wealthier women that didn’t need to work 

  • Culture of the House/ house people

• The Southern Belle

  • Appearance: They needed to look classy and well put together and maintain a polished appearance 

  • Traits: poise, soft-spoken, and showed a hospitality vibe 

  • Social Rules: manage the home, submissive role 

  • Values: loyal to the idea of family and hierarchy, and valued being pretty 

  • They were often wealthy and were dependent on men, limiting them to do things for themselves. 

• United States Reform Movements 

  • Prostitution: Women telling other women to stay as homemakers and not stand up for themselves  

  • Antismoking: Women didn't like smoking, but men never listened .They created organizations 

  • Temperance: Women are impacted by drunk men. Raised awareness of drinking. Less alcohol= sane mind. They would take the money he made and spend it and came home and abused his family 

  • Prison Reform: Write a letter of how bad it was but also how they were treated/ Also more work back then and people with sickness were hawthorne prison and someone made it a better place by cleaning and making it a more suitable area/ 

  • Abolition: Women addressed slave holder, helping other girls to fight against it 

• The Declaration of Sentiments 

• A document that touched upon the idea of having equal rights as men. 

• They declared (Declaration) that men and women should be treated equally and have equal rights

• Resolutions of Seneca Falls Convention 

  • Biggest Resolution: Women should have the right to vote

  • Don’t treat women less than 

  • Men and women are equal 

  • Women shouldn’t be happy with their position but not everyone wanted to change that 

  • Public speaking in religious assemblies and men should support them because of women's moral superiority 

  • Social expectations of women = men 

  • Theatre was the only place that women were encourage to be and they wanted to change that 

  • Resolve that men should stop giving women smaller roles because God did not want that 

  • Equal opportunities in economics 

Waves of Feminism:

• The First Wave: Women’s Rights 

  • 19th to Early 20th Century 

  • Began with the Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls 

  • Women’s Suffrage Movement: right to own property, access to higher education, and the right to file for divorce  

  • Culminated in the 19th Amendment (gave women the right to vote) 

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were the leaders of the Movement 

• Main Goal: 

  • Secure Women’s Right to Vote 

  • Improve women’s access to education and employment  

• Accomplishments:

  • Gained the right to vote in the U.S in 1920 

  • Gained the right to enter universities

  • Gained the right to initiate divorce in some countries 

• The Second Wave: Women’s Rights 

• 1960’s to 1980’s 

• Greater focus on minority women’s inclusion 

• Challenged views of the traditional role of women 

• Challenged institutional barriers, e.g workplace opportunities, equal pay (Equal Pay Act in 1963) 

• Cultural division over the extent to which men and women are different by nature: challenge underlying societal structures 

• Roe v. Wade, 1973: Court case that legalized abortion nationwide 

• It was led by Betty Friedan 

• The second phase drew in women of color and developing nations, seeking sisterhood and solidarity

• Influenced by: the Civil Rights Movement and Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique

• Main Goal: 

  • Challenge gender roles 

  • Reproductive rights 

  • Equal pay 

  • Workplace rights 

  • Educational rights 

• Accomplishments: 

  • Promoted women’s access to healthcare and reproductive rights

  • Raised consciousness about gender inequality in the workplace 

• The Third Wave: Acceptance of Difference 

  • Started in the 1990’s 

  • Characterized by no one definition of womanhood 

  • Emphasized individuality and rebellion 

  • More expression of sexuality 

    • Confusing to second-wave feminists who had rejected gender differences as too traditional 

    • Perhaps a off-shoot of second-wave feminism that embraced the notion of difference 

  • 1989: Kimberle Crenshaw writes about Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality 

    • First and second-wave feminists had largely ignored race 

    • Some attention is paid to ideas about different experiences of womanhood including race, sexuality, etc. 

• Rebecca Walker and Naomi Wolf led the third wave 

• Influenced by: postmodernism, post-colonialism, and Third World feminism

• Main Goal:

  • Create more inclusive feminist movements addressing diverse experiences of women across race, class, and gender identity 

  • Challenging societal beauty standards and promoting acceptance of all body types 

  • Challenging negative stereotypes 

  • Embracing women’s sexuality as a source of agency and power 

• Potential Fourth Wave:

  • New wave? Or the expansion of wave 3? 

  • 20 - teens: #Metoo Movement, Trump Era, social media activism, #BLM

  • Defining characteristic: a critique of white feminism that ignores issues particular to women of color 

  • More inclusion of BIPOC and LGBTQ rights 

  • More use of social media to foment activism 

• Women in Film and Television: 

• 1975: Mulvery and Male gaze 

  • “ The male gaze projects its fantasy knot the female figure, which is styled accordingly” 

• Three perspectives of the Male Gaze: 

  • Other characters in the film (especially male characters) 

  • The (male) behind the camera (camera man)

  • The (male) audience member (52% are female) 

• What the male gaze views 

  • Women wear revealing clothes such as swimwear or unbuttoned shirts 

  • They have exposed skin 

  • Described by another character as attractive 

• Female Gaze:

  • The way women and girls look at other female males and at things in the world  

• Women’s representation in film: 

  • Sexualization/objectification

  • All together or mostly absent 

  • Plot devices to advance the Male’s Narrative Arc 

• 1985: Bechdel Test: A film passes the bechdel test if 

  • It has 2 or more women 

  • Preferably with names

  • Have a discussion on screen 

  • About something other than a man 

• Vito Russo: a film passes the vito russo test if 

  • It has a LGBTQ+ character

  • They have significance in the plot 

  • They are not defined by their sexuality 

• Plot Devices 

  • Often using the females pain or death as the man's motivation 

  • The man needing to change for the women 

  • Being a side character, devoted wife, and support his journey 

• Toward Strong Female Characters 

  • What it DOES NOT mean 

    • A women who is super strong similarly to a man and has no other important tributes 

    • A women who knows about things stereotypically associated with men 

    • A Mary Sue: an idealized character who is talented in everything and has no flaws 

    • An alpha professional 

  • What is a STRONG female character

    • Can make decisions 

    • Affect the story 

    • Motivations all her own 

    • Active more than reactive 

    • Pushes on the plot instead of the plot pushing her 

    • Plot exists as a direct result of the characters action 

• 4 Traits of a Strong Female Character 

  • She has her own opinions 

  • She is her own person 

  • She has flaws 

  • She's tough in her own way