Portal:Feminism

The Feminism Portal

Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern societies are patriarchal—they prioritize the male point of view—and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes, breaking down traditional gender roles, and improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women. A person who advocates for feminism is known as a feminist.

Originating in late 18th-century Europe, feminist movements have campaigned for women's rights, including the right to vote, run for public office, work, earn equal pay, own property, receive education, enter into contracts, have equal rights within marriage, and maternity leave. Feminists support access to contraception, legal abortions, and social integration; and to protect women and girls from sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Changes in female dress standards and acceptable physical activities for women have also been part of feminist movements.

Many scholars consider feminist campaigns to be a main force behind major historical societal changes for women's rights, particularly in the West, where they are near-universally credited with achieving women's suffrage, gender-neutral language, reproductive rights for women (including access to contraceptives and abortion), and the right to enter into contracts and own property. Although feminist advocacy is, and has been, mainly focused on women's rights, some argue for the inclusion of men's liberation within its aims, because they believe that men are also harmed by traditional gender roles. Feminist theory, which emerged from feminist movements, aims to understand the nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles and lived experiences. Feminist theorists have developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues concerning gender.

Numerous feminist movements and ideologies have developed over the years, representing different viewpoints and political aims. Traditionally, since the 19th century, first-wave liberal feminism, which sought political and legal equality through reforms within a liberal democratic framework, was contrasted with labour-based proletarian women's movements that over time developed into socialist and Marxist feminism based on class struggle theory. Since the 1960s, both of these traditions are also contrasted with the radical feminism that arose from the radical wing of second-wave feminism and that calls for a radical reordering of society to eliminate patriarchy. Liberal, socialist, and radical feminism are sometimes referred to as the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought. Modern feminist activism, scholarship, and policy tend to define contemporary feminism as a movement grounded in human rights, solidarity, and intersectionality; for example UN Women emphasized in 2024 that "the feminist goals of intersectional justice and gender equality can only be achieved if all women and all LGBTIQ+ people are included as part of a broad, intersectional feminist movement rooted in the universality and indivisibility of human rights," while a group of 28 Nordic feminist studies departments, academic journals and feminist organizations in 2025 defined feminism as "a universal human rights movement built on solidarity, intersectionality, and compassion."

Since the late 20th century, many newer forms of feminism have emerged. Some forms, such as white feminism and trans-exclusionary radical feminism (also known as gender-critical feminism), have been criticized as taking into account only white, female, middle class, college-educated, heterosexual, or cisgender perspectives. These criticisms have led to the creation of ethnically specific or multicultural forms of feminism, such as black feminism and intersectional feminism. These criticisms have also lead to the creation of movements such as the Men's Rights Movement. (Full article...)

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Fun Home is a graphic memoir by Alison Bechdel, author of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. It chronicles the author's childhood and youth in rural Pennsylvania, focusing on her complex relationship with her father. The book addresses themes of sexual orientation, gender roles, suicide and the role of literature in understanding oneself and one's family. Writing and illustrating Fun Home took seven years, in part because of Bechdel's laborious artistic process, which includes photographing herself in poses for each human figure. Fun Home has been both a popular and critical success, and spent two weeks on the New York Times' bestseller list. In the New York Times Sunday Book Review, Sean Wilsey called it "a pioneering work, pushing two genres (comics and memoir) in multiple new directions." Several publications named Fun Home as one of the best books of 2006; it was also nominated for several awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award and three Eisner Awards (one of which it won). A French translation of Fun Home was serialized in the newspaper Libération; the book was an official selection of the Angoulême International Comics Festival and has been the subject of an academic conference in France. Fun Home also generated controversy: a public library in Missouri removed Fun Home from its shelves for five months after local residents objected to its contents.

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Credit: Russell Lee, Farm Security Administration

Mrs. Bill Stagg of Pie Town, New Mexico with her embroidered patchwork quilt that displays all 48 (at the time) United States state flowers and birds, October 1940. Quilting was a very popular early American pastime, particularly in the Midwest, where quilting circles were a common social pastime for women. Annual town fairs generally included a quilting bee, to award excellence in quilting. Handmade quilts were a very common wedding gift for young couples, and were often mentioned specifically in wills due to their sentimental significance.

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12 October 1810 – Birth of Nísia Floresta Brasileira Augusta (pictured), considered the "first Brazilian feminist", she wrote the first Brazilian book to discuss women's rights
16 October 1869 – Girton College, Cambridge, first residential college for women in England, established by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon
16 October 1916 – Margaret Sanger opened the first family planning and birth control clinic in the United States.
17 October 1947 – Birth of Brinda Karat, an Indian activist within the labor and women's movements, she gained prominence reforming rape laws and became the first female member of the CPI(M) Politburo.
24 October 1929 – First publication of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, a book-length essay which includes the famous dictum "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction"

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I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormate or a prostitute.

— Rebecca West

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Joan of Arc is a national heroine of France and a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. She had visions, believed to be from God, which led to the liberation of her homeland from English dominance in the Hundred Years' War. The then-uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the disregard of veteran commanders and ended the siege in only nine days. Several more swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Rheims and settled the disputed succession to the throne. The renewed French confidence outlasted Joan of Arc's own brief career. She refused to leave the field when she was wounded during an attempt to recapture Paris that fall. Hampered by court intrigues, she led only minor companies from then on, and fell prisoner during a skirmish near Compiègne the following spring. A politically-motivated trial convicted her of heresy. The English regent, John, Duke of Bedford, had her burnt at the stake in Rouen. Pope Callixtus III reopened Joan's case; a new finding overturned the original conviction. Her piety to the end impressed the retrial court. Pope Benedict XV canonized her on 16 May 1920.

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... that the retelling of stories can focus on female characters to reflect the feminist perspective?
... that Mary Kahil, an Egyptian Christian mystic, cofounded one of the earliest women's movements in the Arab world?
... that after dying in her daughter's arms in an asylum in 1897, Maria Trubnikova was remembered as the "heart and soul" of feminist activism in Russia?
... that Margareth Rago seeks to establish a methodology for what she calls "feminist science"?
... that the subculture of Aristasia combined Guénonian Traditionalism with lesbian separatism?

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...that the use of the word "yeoman" in the U.S. Naval Reserve Act of 1916, rather than "man" or "male," enabled women to enlist in the United States Navy Reserve with the rank of Yeoman (F) (pictured) during World War I?
...that Loretta Perfectus Walsh was the first woman to enlist in the United States military?
...that Justice Leila Seth was the first woman judge on the Delhi High Court and the first woman to become Chief Justice of India?

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The following are images from various feminism-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1John Neal (from History of feminism)
Image 2Board of directors of "Jam'iat e nesvan e vatan-khah", a women's rights association in Tehran (1923–1933) (from History of feminism)
Image 3Gloria Steinem at news conference, Women's Action Alliance, January 12, 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 48M 2020 in Spain (from International Women's Day)
Image 5Sylvia Pankhurst (from History of feminism)
Image 6Cover of WSPU's The Suffragette, April 25, 1913 (after Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, 1830) (from History of feminism)
Image 7Irena Krzywicka (from History of feminism)
Image 8Huda Shaarawi, founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union (from History of feminism)
Image 9Margaret Sanger (from History of feminism)
Image 10A veil-burning ceremony in Andijan on International Women's Day in 1927 (from International Women's Day)
Image 11Dr. Pauli Murray (from History of feminism)
Image 12An Antimonumenta, installed in Mexico City on International Women's Day 2019, as photographed the day after. The circle part says "In Mexico 9 women are murdered daily" and the cross part says "Not one more!" On the opposite side, the Antimonumenta reads "We demand a national gender alert", and in the central part "No + Femicides" (from International Women's Day)
Image 13Ida B. Wells (from History of feminism)
Image 14María Elena Oddone holding a banner, on International Women's Day in 1984 in Argentina. The banner says "No to motherhood, yes to pleasure" (from International Women's Day)
Image 15The White Feather: A Sketch of English Recruiting" (Arnold Bennett, 1914) (from History of feminism)
Image 16Lucy Stone (from History of feminism)
Image 17The Nineteenth Amendment (from History of feminism)
Image 18
  Official holiday
  Holiday for women
  Non-official holiday
(from International Women's Day)
Image 19Florence Nightingale (from History of feminism)
Image 20bell hooks (from History of feminism)
Image 21Betty Friedan 1960 (from History of feminism)
Image 22Matilda Joslyn Gage (from History of feminism)
Image 23Bessie Rayner Parkes (from History of feminism)
Image 24Women's Liberation march in Washington, D.C., 1970 (from History of feminism)
Image 25Germaine Greer in June 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 26Nellie McClung (from History of feminism)
Image 27Simone de Beauvoir (from History of feminism)
Image 28Female members of the Australian Builders Labourers Federation march on International Women's Day 1975 in Sydney (from International Women's Day)
Image 29Yellow mimosa is the symbol of International Women's Day in Italy as well as in Russia, Ukraine and many other ex-Soviet Union republics (from International Women's Day)
Image 30Clara Zetkin (left) and Rosa Luxemburg (right) in January 1910 (from International Women's Day)
Image 31Catharine MacKinnon (from History of feminism)
Image 32The vandalized Concepción Feminist Mural in Spain, which was vandalized on International Women's Day 2021. (from International Women's Day)
Image 33Wealthy Chinese women with bound feet (Beijing, 1900). Foot binding was a symbol of women's oppression during the reform movements in the 19th and 20th centuries. (from History of feminism)
Image 34First edition print of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (from History of feminism)
Image 35Emily Davison (from History of feminism)
Image 36Camilla Collett (from History of feminism)
Image 37Giorgia Meloni, (third from right) the first female prime minister of Italy at a 2024 Women's Day event in Rome (from International Women's Day)
Image 38Women on the street celebrating International Women's Day in Cameroon (from International Women's Day)
Image 39Suffrage parade in New York, May 6, 1912 (from History of feminism)
Image 40Frances Cobbe (from History of feminism)
Image 41Marie Stopes (from History of feminism)
Image 42Author and scholar Helen Kendrick Johnson opposed women's suffrage. (from History of feminism)
Image 43Elizabeth Cady Stanton (seated) and Susan B. Anthony (from History of feminism)
Image 448M 2018 in Pamplona (from International Women's Day)
Image 45Christine de Pizan presents her book to Queen Isabeau of Bavaria. (from History of feminism)

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This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Feminism}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.

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Alice Manfield - Guide Alice, Mt Buffalo, c1900-30, SLV
Alice Park - Records of the National Woman's Party
Alice Paul (1915) by Harris & Ewing
Angela Davis in a half-length portrait by Bernard Gotfryd - crop
Anne Dallas Dudley LOC
Avril de Sainte-Croix - Restored, cropped
Bertha Lutz 1925
Cabinet Card of Sojourner Truth - Collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Convicts Lunatics and Women! Have No Vote for Parliament, ca. 1907-1918
Dr. Caroline Spencer 275029v
Ethel Smyth
Frances Benjamin Johnston, Self-Portrait (as "New Woman"), 1896
Fredrikke Mørck
George Charles Beresford - Virginia Woolf in 1902 - Restoration
Henrietta Rodman from the George Grantham Bain Collection
Henry Mayer, The Awakening, 1915 Cornell CUL PJM 1176 01 - Restoration
Hester Jeffrey
Hubertine Auclert 1910
Iris Calderhead
Joy Young Rogers outside the White House
Lucretia Mott, signed photo, by F. Gutekunst
Mabel Vernon, c. 1917, by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Marguerite Durand 1910 - Restoration
Marie Stopes in her laboratory, 1904 - Restoration
Mary Garrity - Ida B. Wells-Barnett - Google Art Project - restoration crop
Millicent Fawcett
Mrs. Crystal Eastman Benedict by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Mrs. Lillian Ascough, chairman of the Connecticut branch of the Woman's Party
Mrs. Pauline Adams 147002v
Official Program Woman Suffrage Procession - March 3, 1913
Portrett av Gina Krog (6276081582) - Restoration
Poster by Anna Soós Korànyi for the Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance
Ray Strachey restored
Sojourner Truth, 1870 (cropped, restored)
Victoria Claflin Woodhull by Mathew Brady - Oval Portrait
Voltairine de Cleyre (Age 35)
We Can Do It! NARA 535413 - Restoration 2