Feminism & Postmodernism

Feminism

• Adherence to collective norms contributes to societal issues.

• Feminism advocates for the equal status of women in cultural, political, social and economic spheres.

First Wave Feminism

• Suffragettes: advocating for women’s rights to vote

• Ability to own property

• People’s Case → the Famous Five and the right for women to be interpreted as persons by law.

Second Wave Feminism (1950s - 1980s)

• Equal opportunity & pay

• Reproductive rights & abortion

Issues of Disparity

• $0.77 for every $1 made by men

• 3x more house spend domestically

• 35% of women have experienced violence.

• Gender equality from legislation with legal penalties

  • Maternity/paternity leave → illustrating the evolution of social norms.

• Violence and the #MeToo movement

• Affirmative action to bring women into the workplace

• ~286 years necessary to remove discriminatory laws

Post-modernism

Modernism

• science, knowledge, freedom expressed as obedience to laws, reason & rational thinking

Postmodernism

• No set of ideas can dominate cultural and gender differences → sees modernism as imposition.

• Skeptics of progress

• “Grand governing nature” which causes concern for race, gender and other parts of cultures.

  • objectively against grand governance

• Can be critiqued as a rejection of common sense & common ground