Essay Example on Gender and Politics

Introduction

In recent years the scholars have engaged in gender and political discussions. Gender refers to the sexes' classification in terms of male and female, mostly based on their social and cultural differences and not necessarily their biological differences (Ahrens et al., 2018). On the other hand politics refers to activities which influences the decision making process in groups or in other forms of power relation among individuals for example in distribution of available resources or status (Ahrens et al., 2018). In the recent years the scholars' research on gender and politics is always based on feminism; this paper will discuss the evolution of the feminism movements and their impacts in the present world in matters related to gender and politics.

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Feminist Wave

The first feminist wave was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They focused on urban industrialism and social politics. This movement's main objective was to increase women's chances of suffrage and promote women from voting right. It began in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention, where 300 men and women advocated for women's equality (Rampton, 2015). The Seneca Falls Declaration was drafted by Elizabeth Cady and contained the political strategies and ideology for the new feminist movement. The early feminism movements can be related to the recent infamous activists such as African –American Sojourner Truth, who demanded, "Ain't I a woman?" The women started demonstrating and freely speaking in public, which was un-ladylike according to Victorian America (Rampton, 2015). The discussions were held to determine the women's participation in politics and vote, which caused the examination of gender differences as previously viewed. The women's morality compared to men was of no question; thus, their inclusion in the formal sector would positively impact the public behavior and political process.

The second feminist movement wave started in the 1960s and proceeded until the 1990s (Rampton, 2015). The movement was based on civil rights and anti-war movements and improving the minority groups' self-awareness globally. In this second phase, reproductive rights and sexuality were the main objectives. It emphasized passing the Equal Rights Amendments to the Constitution to assure social equality without considering gender differences. In 1968 and 1969, women demonstrated against Miss America in Atlantic City (Rampton, 2015). They saw the competition as degrading of the feminine, which reduced them to beautiful objects, and they were to be kept in the homes or the low paying jobs. They threw the feminine clothes and cosmetics into the trashcan and crowned the sheep as Miss America.

Social Movements

The feminism second wave found a place amongst many other social movements that made it easily marginalized and seen as less helpful than the Black Power movement. Since the women were left to fight for themselves, they decided to form an all-women organization and influential groups to raise the women's consciousness (Elias and Roberts, 2016). The "sisterhood is powerful" and "the BITCH Manifesto" was published to advocate the place for women on the earth. The second wave of feminism criticized capitalism, traditional heterosexuality, and the women's responsibilities as only wives and mothers. In this movement, sex and gender were differentiated; that is, sex was biologically based, whereas gender was socially based, which makes it vary from time to time (Elias and Roberts, 2016).

The middle class and white women mainly propelled the first wave. In contrast, the second wave manifested by the black women and the developing countries seeking sisterhood and solidarity amongst the oppressed women (Elias and Roberts, 2016). They claimed that women's problems were class-based, and they used statements such as identity as politics to demonstrate the interrelationship between gender, race, and class oppression. In this movement, the term eco-feminism was mainly used to indicate that due to the women's connection to nature, they are naturally made to be environmentalism advocates. They believed that when women are working together and not in mixed groups, they create remarkable change, which improves the world status (Elias and Roberts, 2016). Women were seen as more humane, collaborative, motherly, democratic, and inclusive in solving the problems than men.

The third phase of feminism started in the 1990s, which was influenced by post-colonial and post-modern thinking (Rampton, 2015). The past believes they were made baseless; notions such as the universal womanhood and heteronormativity were destabilized (Dosekun, 2015). The young female adopted lip-sticks, high-heels, and cleavages. The Pink Floor expressed this new era when she stated that you can have a push-up bra and still have a brain. In the third phase, the girls stepped on the stage proudly; they appeared empowered and robust without any worries of victimization while defining beauty as the subject and God's gift and not the object of sexuality (Dosekun, 2015). The third wave's young females refused to think as 'us,' and they were not impressed with the word feminists, which they felt was limiting and exclusionary. This feminism phase is named Girl-feminism, for example, cyber girls and net girls, global and multicultural (Dosekun, 2015). Leadership is not based on specific structure and power but the performance; thus, this wave of feminism breaks the boundaries between the genders.

The question is, have the feminism movements achieved their goals? Were they useful in solving women's political problems? The second wave of the women's movement can be categorized as successful. Many objectives of the second phase were achieved. Recently, there are women in the top leadership positions, the abortion rights and the availability of the pills which enable the women to control their bodies, openly expression of female sexuality, public awareness of the females' rights, gender and sexuality studies; women access to the education; publication of books, articles and journals about women, parliament discussions about the women and efforts to reform the laws equal rights.

Failure or Success

The third wave is complicated, and it is hard to determine its failure or success. The third wave aims are not clear since there are no common objectives or uniformity amongst women's perceptions. The third phase does not acknowledge women's shared goals and is perceived as the women's group with different grievances. In the third phase, 's women and men believe that society has achieved parity, and they only fight for equal rights. In this phase, the word feminism is discouraged, and the only push is for equal rights amongst the two genders. In the third phase, the struggle is not collective since the notion of feminism is discouraged.

In recent years there has been an emergence of the fourth wave of feminism (Rampton, 2015). In the new developing fourth wave, the females are aggressively fighting for their rights. The gender balance has been present; both genders agree that both genders are supposed to be represented fairly in the committees and decision-making groups. Maternity leave is now compulsory in most countries worldwide. Women are fighting for the divorce and property sharing laws where they emphasize on 50% share on the assets in case of the divorce (Rampton, 2015).

Most people who wish to support the fourth wave of feminism face many difficulties; the word feminism refers to the women-only, making it biased based on gender (Hook, 2000). The females find it hard to use it since it will be an obstacle in passing their messages to the larger audience because of their perception about it, but the young generation does not perceive it that way. They believe that society is facing most of the challenges because of how we view the genders; the word feminism is mostly used in the present days to describe or call for gender equality (Hook, 2000). The fourth wave does not isolate women's feminism with other minority groups such as racism, classism, albinism, and sexual orientation. It includes the third phase by emphasizing that people should be proud of their bodies, and the internet can be used in shaping gender issues in society. This new wave is focused on the entire gender. It has a high possibility of success due to its inclusivity.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the feminism movements have shaped gender believes and the way women are viewed in society. They have empowered the women, and the women are now capable of vying for any leadership seats without fear of being victimized. In the present world, women hold the top executive positions in organizations and have proven capable of leading. Academically women are challenging men in the courses associated with the male gender in the past, for example, engineering and medicine. Due to the women's excellent performance in their academics, they can challenge the men in workplaces. The past three waves of feminism focused on women's oppression; in the present time, the feminism movements are fighting for the equality of rights for everyone regardless of gender. The youth are presently advocating for their rights and their leadership positions, whereas the men are advocating for equality. In matters regarding gender politics in the current world, the word feminism is inclusively used to refer to both genders' rights.

References

Ahrens, P., Celis, K., Childs, S., Engeli, I., Evans, E. and Mügge, L., 2018. Politics and gender: rocking political science and creating new horizons. European Journal of Politics and Gender, 1(1-2), pp.3-16. https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bup/ejpg/2018/00000001/f0020001/art00001

Dosekun, S., 2015. For western girls only? Post-feminism as transnational culture. Feminist Media Studies, 15(6), pp.960-975.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2015.1062991?casa_token=RVkFGBsV8yAAAAAA:DFAPWTLkGlk2TWiBLcNROKUQSIDh9RfNZcekpLeYJ8Prc7p7SH1A2b-CFSJ3Sl1wDAAaCLRgXXRWkkO6

Elias, J. and Roberts, A., 2016. Feminist global political economies of the everyday: From bananas to bingo. Globalizations, 13(6), pp.787-800.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14747731.2016.1155797?casa_token=bQ_6B93Wu20AAAAA:o64AUfUw3n9mq2g6u61OC1KcF5xlSzTOFNrgr8v_iRxe48wAVYBUD8DP5Xhch-UKz1rogkn0Tok-dr0J

Hooks, B., 2000. Feminism is for everybody: Passionate politics. Pluto Press.
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=lang_en&id=0au7QbAJH0gC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=bell+hooks+feminism+politics&ots=20UxmmBjex&sig=6EcBwdKbC4GmK_NmKagyYyjLTUg

Rampton, M., 2015. Four waves of feminism. Pacific University Oregon, 25. http://gdelaurier.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/134554611/Four%20Waves%20of%20Feminism%20_%20Pacific%20University.pdf.