from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. Belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.
- n. The movement organized around this belief.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A social theory or political movement arguing that legal and social restrictions on females must be removed in order to bring about equality of both sexes in all aspects of public and private life.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The qualities of females.
- n. The presence of specifically feminine characteristics in the male.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. the movement aimed at equal rights for women
- n. a doctrine that advocates equal rights for women
And the one basic, most important fight in feminism is for choice.
"The word feminism has become synonymous with the idea of man-hating when in fact it has more to do with women than men," she wrote, using the example of Christine Lagarde, the former French finance minister who became the first female head of the International Monetary Fund.
The word feminism itself had not exactly inspired a ferocious defense by its own adherents.
For this reason, many women's organizations consciously avoid the term feminism in their strategic actions, in order to more successfully convey their message to the public.
Asking me if I believe in feminism is like asking me if I believe in integration.
Being conscious of this vast disparity between our experiences, I'm appalled the word feminism has been denigrated to a place of almost ridicule and I very passionately believe the word needs to be revalued and reintroduced with power and understanding that this is a global picture.
Whilst the Third World women do not often like to associate with the term feminism as they feel the First World feminism is blind to imperialism, class and race, it is important to recognise that this important form of women's politics is an example of women environmental politics, that is not 'soft' and 'peaceful' in a sense, and is often underreported.
"It's gotten to the point where the term feminism brings to mind patriarchal images of hairy, angry hags more often than the idealism that the movement initiated"
It's gotten to the point where the term feminism brings to mind patriarchal images of hairy, angry hags more often than the idealism that the movement initiated "That women have the basic human right to make their own choices"
The term feminism itself has been turned on its head and is up for reinterpretation.