Women make up more than half the world’s population and yet for most of human history, they have been regarded and treated as ‘second-class citizens’, and denied legal, social and economic rights, and access to the political process. They were denied these rights purely and simply because they were women – the justification, seemingly, that women were an inferior and weaker sex, incapable of competing with men in the harsh world of politics. Women’s struggle to overcome this situation gave rise to a new type of politics – one that is based primarily on sex and gender rather than, for example, class or race. Often seen as synonymous, sex and gender are quite different. While sex refers to biological maleness or femaleness, gender refers to socially or culturally imposed roles. This distinction has given rise to gender politics – a politics that challenges gender roles as a means of subordinating not only women, but also gays, lesbians, transsexuals and others who are discriminated against purely because of their sexuality or gender assumptions.
Literally meaning ‘rule of the father’, patriarchy refers to the universal political structure, which privileges men at the expense of women. It was originally coined by anthropologists to describe a particular social structure in which one man, the father, holds power over the family. Many feminists argue, however, that all societies are patriarchal because within those society’s institutions, men have control over women’s lives.
In her 1970 book Sexual Politics, Kate Millett analysed ‘patriarchy as a political institution’ – ‘politics’, here, referring to all power-structured relationships and therefore leading to a ‘relationship of dominance and subordination’ between the sexes. Clearly there are some societies where women have greater privileges, rights and powers than others but many feminists argue that, within a patriarchy, it is only a token power and not embedded in the dominant ideology. Such feminists believe that women cannot be fully independent until the patriarchy is ended.
As a political movement feminism is based on the belief that the relationship between the sexes is one of inequality, with men dominating women. Feminism seeks to challenge and change this situation and bring an end to sexism, discrimination and injustices against women in all areas of society, from political institutions through to work, education and the family. Feminism contains different strands, reflecting differences of opinion over the causes of women’s oppression and how to overcome it. ‘Equal rights’ feminism is the oldest tradition, which seeks to obtain the same political, legal and economic rights as men; Marxist/socialist feminism sees class as well as gender as a source of women’s oppression; while Radical feminism seeks to redefine politics and abolish the patriarchy. Sometimes criticized for being white, middle-class and heterosexual, feminism has developed black women’s groups and LGBT feminist strands. Feminism’s impact on politics has been enormous, from achieving the vote to equal pay legislation and opposing female genital mutilation.
During the 18th century a new political philosophy, liberalism, emerged promoting the idea of human rights. It found its greatest expression in the French Revolution with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Promoted by Tom Paine in his influential book Rights of Man (1791), this philosophy completely failed to include the rights of women, however, who at this time had no political or legal rights at all.
French revolutionary Olympe de Gouges had issued a Declaration of the Rights of Women in 1791 in an attempt to force the revolutionary Assembly to include women in its calls for citizens’ rights, but it failed. So it fell to Englishwoman Mary Wollstonecraft (pictured) to put women’s rights on the political agenda for the first time. Countering Paine, in 1792 she published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in which she protested the ‘domestic tyranny’ that kept women dependent on men, and called for them to have equal rights in work, education and politics.
By the 1860s, increasing numbers of women in Britain and America were channelling their energies into the fight for the vote and the right to stand for electoral office. It was a long hard battle that met with considerable opposition and even brutality from the public, press and police. In Britain, thousands of women organized within Millicent Fawcett’s National Union of Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). Known as ‘suffragists’, they relied on peaceful law-abiding tactics, such as petitioning and lobbying sympathetic MPs. Others organized within the smaller Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) of Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst. The WSPU chose militant tactics. Members, nicknamed ‘suffragettes’, heckled MPs, rushed the House of Commons, demonstrated and went to prison in their hundreds, where many were forcibly fed after going on hunger strike. The years of struggle finally paid off. In 1918, British women over 30 gained the vote, though it was not until 1928 that they had the vote on equal terms with men. American women gained the vote in 1920.
The idea of equality is a fundamental value of liberal politics and much of women’s political activity has been directed towards achieving full equality with men. However, the concept of equality has been problematic. Feminists have pointed to the fact that there are also differences between women in class, race and sexuality. Equal rights within the law therefore become meaningless without ensuring equal opportunities.
Many feminists argue that biological differences should not be taken into account, for fear of making women into a ‘special case’ and hence marginalizing them. While some feminists welcomed, for example, the appointment of a Minister for Women, others saw it as patronizing. However, it is also argued that in today’s world there are social, economic and cultural reasons why some issues can be seen as primarily affecting women, among them rape, domestic violence, pornography and female genital mutilation (FGM) and that these must be recognized and addressed.
On a global level, according to United Nations statistics, women do two-thirds of the world’s work, yet receive only 10 per cent of the income, and own only 1 per cent of the means of production. Women also make up approximately two-thirds of the 1.4 million people worldwide living in extreme poverty. After nearly 200 years of women’s political movements there are still glaring instances of inequality between the sexes.
In the UK, in 2015, more than 40 years after the Equal Pay Act of 1970, the gap between men and women’s earnings stood at 19.1 per cent. American women earned around 80 per cent of their male counterparts. Despite challenges to gender stereotyping, women still do most of the unpaid work in the home, and when they return to employment are most likely to work in lower-paid, often part-time, jobs. The glass ceiling is very much in evidence with only a small percentage achieving top jobs. Research indicates that most women cite gender stereotyping as the major hurdle.
In 1979, more than 60 years since women first gained the vote, Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first woman prime minister. However, since antiquity a number of strong-minded women have held powerful positions, either because of birth – Hatshepsut, Queen Elizabeth 1 and Queen Victoria – or as a result of fighting through male-dominated political structures – Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Aung San Suu Kyi and Benazir Bhutto (opposite). Yet these women are exceptions; by and large women remain under-represented in all governments.
In 2015, only 20 per cent of parliamentarians and 15 heads of government were women, and only 20 per cent of local government officials were female. In the UK, only one in five MPs are women, and there have been strenuous attempts to encourage more women into politics. Evidence indicates that female politicians face sexual harassment and discrimination on a daily basis, and unless these practices and the institutions themselves are reformed, women will be slow to take part.
Second- and third-wave feminism
The history of feminism is often described as a series of waves. The first wave covered the period 1850–1920 with campaigns for legal and political rights, including the vote. Initially known as the Women’s Liberation Movement, the second wave emerged in the 1960s, influenced by books such as Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex and Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. Second-wave feminists, organizing around a view that the personal is political, broadened political concerns to reflect women’s lived experiences. They sought to liberate women from conventional and discriminatory roles within marriage, the family and work, and put issues such as reproductive rights and control over their own bodies onto the political agenda. Campaigns focused on healthcare, abortion, rape, domestic violence, pornography and abuse. In the 1980s there was a backlash against feminism, but from the 1990s a new, so-called third wave emerged. Including young women and women of colour, third-wave feminists have radically challenged heterosexuality and conventional gender roles.
By definition, feminism and gender politics have put sex and gender under the microscope to explore and challenge received notions about masculinity and femininity. While sex refers to biological, anatomical differences, gender is a social construct that describes and defines the emotional and psychological expectations of a given culture towards physical maleness or femaleness. This may be as simple as a widespread assumption that women are ‘naturally’ emotional, peaceful, caring and passive, while men are less emotional, independent, active and aggressive. Feminists argue that, based on these kinds of assumptions, patriarchal societies impose gender appropriate roles on women and men in all areas of life, from family roles through to schooling, work, sexuality and political activity – an imposition that has discriminated against women and trapped men, too. Feminist activists have fought traditional sexual roles, particularly heterosexuality and gender stereotyping, as a means of liberating women and enabling some men to challenge socially imposed roles as well.
Sexuality is a profoundly political issue because it is used as a basis for discrimination. The gay rights movement emerged in the late 1960s, advocating equal rights for gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender persons. In 1969, a defining moment occurred when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York. Nearly 400 people resisted over several nights, and the American gay rights movement was born. It subsequently spread worldwide. Gay rights activists have campaigned on many issues: anti-gay legislation, discriminatory practices in employment, housing and other aspects of civil society, bans on military service for gays, the lowering of the age of consent and same-sex civil partnerships and marriages. Since the 1980s, attitudes have changed and in the USA, Canada, Britain, Iceland and Belgium, openly gay individuals have held high political office. Since 1989, starting with Norway, many countries have legalized civil partnerships and same-sex marriages, most recently in Ireland in 2015. Virulent anti-gay laws, however, still exist in Russia, Iran and Uganda.
