Feminism Overview Types
Feminism is the theory which defines equal rights for women in social, political and other forms of aspects. The woman issue aims at gender equality and the feminists believe that women should take equal gender roles.
It is the gender problems that give birth to the feminism as we find unequal stratifications between men and women in almost every aspects of life. Based on the philosophy, there are three major types of feminism.
Liberal Feminism
This type of feminism is known by the emphasize of equality. The ideology believes that to be equal, all opportunities in society should be wide opened, especially for women. The vision achieved as women take place men’s positions in particular roles in the society.
Gender isn’t defined by the biological factor; hence, women and men should be treated equally under the law. Liberal feminism is often found in western.
Radical Feminism
In order to make changes in society, there has to be equality between men and women. The philosophy believes that patriarchy must be transformed or there will be no justice at all. However, some extreme radical feminists tend to separate men and women institutions.
Radical feminism opposes the idea of political structures that is somehow always closely related to patriarchy.
Socialist feminism
The philosophy talks about the overhaul of society in order to achieve equality. As capitalism emphasizes on power and capital, socialist feminists believe that collective empowerment will help to generate same position between men and women. The power should be distributed in the society.
Women oppression is the issue that restrains equality from developing. Thus, to reach equality, the oppression of women in economic and culture aspects has to be ended.
Third wave feminism
The theory focuses on a more individual purpose. The idea is constructed by the thought that women must define themselves in the postmodern world. The term encourages women to think as they are survivors instead of victims. The philosophy also celebrates the women’s choices at once.
The three types of feminisms are the most common types in the world. Although there are pros and cons on the movement, the idea of feminism truly supports women to be one step ahead in becoming equal with men regardless their roles, socially or intellectually. The debates are perhaps still going on until today, but feminists believe that someday the pursuit of liberation does come true and the biological factor can no longer differentiate the opportunity in social order.
