Throughout the history, Feminism has been a social movement. I defined my own definition of "Feminism" at the beginning of this Women Studies course as "Female, Women, Gender; the values of women have in the society; the roles women play in the society; the rights that women have in the society, ex. Abortion rights, equal work, equal pay rights; women's positions in politics, science, and education." After one month's readings, study, journals, movies and discussions on Feminism issues, I still agree on my initial definition of Feminism, but obviously, I ignored several meanings factors of Feminism. I would like to add "A social movement throughout history; a struggle to end sexist oppression; varies according to class, race, and ethic group. .
"Feminism is a struggle to end sexist oppression." (Bell Hooks, author of Ain't I a Woman: Black Women & Feminism, 1984) Throughout history women have worked hard to improve their lives in the schools, in workplaces, and in communities. They worked for the equal social, political, and economic position in the society. The first wave of feminism, which emerged in the 1840s, began with a broad ranging critique of women's social, political, and economic position in society as expressed by the Resolutions of the Seneca Falls Convention. (Change our world, pp.504) The second wave of feminism developed among different groups of women whose combined resources and insights augmented its power. (Amy Kesselman, "A History of Feminist Movements in the U.S." pp.511, 2nd paragraph) There is a magnificent difference between women and men. In many ways, women's value in our culture has been defined by their bodies. Although we are working very hard to accomplish "equality" between women and men, but in our society now, we still can see or hear, or maybe it is happening around us right now, women are observed as a sexual object by men, and many women have been sexual abused or beaten by men.