A critique of feminism

1 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES. ISSN Print: 2156-1540, ISSN Online: 2151-1559, 2014, ScienceHu , a critique of feminism Bisong, Peter Bisong and Samuel Aloysius Ekanem Department of Philosophy, University of Calabar Calabar Nigeria ABSTRACT. Feminists are on a daily basis transforming the way women are viewed in the world. Today, thanks to the effort of the feminists, women are no longer seen as good only for the kitchen and the bed. They have been liberated from the shackles that held them bound to the homes. We see them now everywhere, contributing their quota to the development of the society. While this is commendable, this paper sees some demands of the feminists as too extravagant, destructive and unfounded. If these demands are attained it would have dysfunctional effects on both the women and the society at large. This paper using critical reasoning is therefore, aimed at showing the feminists where they got it right and more especially where they got it wrong.

2 They got it right when they demand for freedom from all forms of discriminations and when they campaign for their inalienable rights but they got it wrong when they seek political, economic and social equality. These rights are alienable and thus cannot be granted but attained. The rights that are fundamentally human, can be granted but there are others that can only be developed by the individual. The feminists are wrong to demand for such rights. The feminists are therefore advised to work hard to attain equality, for it is a product of hard work and not something that is to be granted. However, while working to attain this equality they should be mindful of the consequences of this struggle. KEYWORDS feminism , critique . INTRODUCTION that they were in, as a result of societal imbalance. However, although feminism is mainly focused on Feminist activists take campaign for women's rights women's issues, it has perhaps unknowingly, also as their central aim.

3 These rights include: right to liberated men from some of the burdens placed on enter into contract, right to own property, right to them by the societal structure. According to Gloria voting, rights to bodily integrity, autonomy, and Jean Watkinsbut popularly known as Bell Hooks, reproductive rights amongst others. These Feminist because feminism seeks gender equality, men's campaigns are yielding enormous results; for there liberation is a necessary part of feminism , since men have transformed the societal structure, especially in are also harmed by sexism and gender roles the West, by achieving women's suffrage, gender ( ). neutrality in English, equal pay, reproductive rights for women, and the right to enter into contracts and This paper avers that in spite of the achievement and own property (Butler, 30). Feminists have also helped importance of the feminist movement in the to protect women and girls from domestic violence, reshaping of our society, it still needs to be looked at sexual harassment, and sexual have with critical eyes.

4 This paper therefore, raises some also advocated for and gained workplace rights, like; criticisms and pointed some dangers to be posed to maternity leave, and discrimination against women the society if the demands of feminism are totally (Messer-Davidow met. ). In Africa Meaning of feminism : feminism according to the feminists have achieved much in areas like; female Meridian-Webster Dictionary refers to the theory of circumcision and genital mutilation, widowhood, girl- the political, economic, and social equality of the child education et cetera. sexes. Thus feminism is a collection of movements From the foregoing therefore, it could be said without and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and mincing words that feminism has actually achieved defending equal political, economic, and social rights much in the liberation of women from the shackles for women ( ). Am. J. Soc.

5 Mgmt. Sci., 2014, 5(2): 33-38. feminism , describes a culture in which women, femininity, which (according to them) over- because they are women, are treated differently than emphasized the experiences of upper middle class men, and that, in this difference of treatment, women white women. The third wave therefore expanded are at a disadvantage. feminism asserts, that such their ideology to cover; race, gender and feminism . treatment stems from culture and thus possible to The wave also witnessed the involvement of different change and not simply "the way the world is and shades of feminism from different societies and must be". feminism therefore, sees a different culture culture. They argue that the feminist movement as a possibility, and strives towards the attainment of should address global issues (such as rape, incest, that culture. A feminist according to The Oxford and prostitution) and culturally specific issues (such English Dictionary is therefore, "an advocate or as female genital mutilation in some parts of Africa supporter of the rights and equality of women" and the Middle East and glass ceiling practices that (Online Ed.))

6 Impede women's advancement in developed economies) in order to understand how gender History of feminist movement: The Utopian inequality interacts with racism, homophobia, Socialist and French philosopher Charles Fourier is classism and colonization in a "matrix of domination credited with having originated the word " feminism " in (Harding 12). Third-wave feminism also contains 1837 (Goldstein, 92). The words " feminism " and internal debates between difference feminists, who "feminist" is purported to have first appeared in believe that there are important differences between France and the Netherlands in 1872, Great Britain in the sexes, and those who believe that there are no the 1890s, and the United States in 1910 (Cott, 13). inherent differences between the sexes and contend The Oxford English Dictionary lists 1894 as the year that gender roles are due to social conditioning of the first appearance of "feminist" and 1895 for (Galligan, 184).

7 " feminism ". During much of its history, feminist movements and its theoretical developments were Kinds of feminism : There are several variants of driven mainly by middle-class white women from feminism ; we would however briefly discuss the most Western Europe and North America. However, popular ones. There include: women of other races also proposed their own liberal feminism : liberal feminism advocates for variants of feminism (Walker 37). equality between men and women through political Traditionally, the history of feminism is divided into and legal reforms without altering the structure of the three waves of feminism . The first wave of society. This variety of feminism works within the feminism hits the world in the nineteenth and early structure of mainstream society to integrate women parts of the twentieth century. This wave of feminism into that structure. Its roots stretch back to the social tackled issues like: contractual rights and property contract theory of government instituted by the rights for women, opposition to chattel marriage, American Revolution.

8 Women suffrage and the treatment of women as Radical feminism : Radical feminism sees the male- properties. The second wave of feminism span the controlled capitalist hierarchy as the root cause of period of 1960 to 1980s. The main demands of this women's oppression and thus advocates for a total wave include: civil rights, sexual liberation, childcare, uprooting and reconstruction of society (Echol, health, welfare, education, work and reproductive 416). The reason this group gets the "radical" label is rights. This wave of feminism specifically campaigned that they view the oppression of women as the most against social and cultural stereotyping of the female fundamental form of oppression, one that cuts across gender as only good for the kitchen and bed. They boundaries of race, culture, and economic therefore advocated for equal rights for both women class. This is a movement intent on social change.

9 And men to pursue a career of their choice. Thus, while first-wavers focused on absolute rights, such as Cultural feminism : As radical feminism died out as suffrage, second-wavers largely concentrated on a movement, cultural feminism got rolling. As various other issues of equality, such as the end to 1960s movements for social change fell apart or got discrimination co-opted, some people got pessimistic about the very possibility of social change. Many of them therefore, The Third-wave of feminism began in the early turned their attention from radical feminism to 1990s, continuing the campaign of the second wave building alternatives, so that if they couldn't change and also amending its perceived failures. The third- the dominant society, they could at least avoid it as wave feminists seek to challenge or avoid what it much as possible. These alternative-building efforts deems the second wave's "essentialist" definitions of 34.

10 Am. J. Soc. Mgmt. Sci., 2014, 5(2): 33-38. were accompanied with reasons justifying the appreciated and accommodated than they used to be abandonment of working for social change. Notions in time past. More women are today asserting that women are "inherently kinder and gentler" are themselves in all spheres of life imparting their one of the foundations of cultural feminism , and hitherto hidden treasures (talents) to the lubrication of remain a major part of it. A similar concept held by the wheels of societal development. The society in some cultural feminists is that while various sex this last decade has therefore, benefited differences might not be biologically determined, they tremendously from the efforts of the women, thanks are still so thoroughly ingrained as to be intractable. to the campaign of feminism . However, in spite of the seeming contributions of feminism to the Marxist and Socialist feminism : Marxist feminism development of the society, it is not without criticisms.