To What Extent, And For What Reasons,
To what extent, and for what reasons,
has feminism fulfilled its objectives in post-war Britain?
This question poses several different additional questions which will hopefully bring me to a conclusion as to whether or not feminism and feminists fulfilled their obligations in post-war Britain. Firstly the term feminism must be defined so as to assess their obligations. Also the effect that the World Wars had on society and in particular women to see whether there is a significant change in structure and whether or not this is where the obligations come from, where the change began and it was the duty of the feminist leaders to continue the change in the same or a differing vain.
After having assessed the nature and direction of these obligations, I will then be able to gage to what extent they have been fulfilled.
Feminism in itself is a tricky issue. Heywood describes feminism it is characterised primarily by its political stance: the attempt to advance the social role of women' . This although seemingly vague has its benefits due to the diversity of the ideology itself. The earliest feminist ideas derived largely from liberalism and reflected commitment to individualism and formal equality. In Contrast, socialist feminism, largely derived from Marxism has highlighted links between female subordination and the capitalist mode of production, drawing significance of women being confined to the family or domestic life. There is also the issue of radical feminists to consider as they moved beyond the perspectives of existing political traditions. This group believes that gender divisions are the most fundamental and politically significant cleavages in society, and call for the radical restructuring of personal, domestic and family life. However the word feminism has stretched to other more, specific pressure groups such as black feminism, psychoanalytical feminism, and post modern feminism. As is evident there are...
Please login to view the full essay...