Feminism

== Politics ==

[[File:Rose Cohen IMG 0437 1024.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|British-born suffragist [[Rose Cohen (feminist)|Rose Cohen]] was executed in Stalin's [[Great Terror]] in 1937, two months after the execution of her Soviet husband.]]

Feminism had complex interactions with the major political movements of the 20th century.

=== Socialism ===
{{main|Left-wing politics#Social progressivism and counterculture|Socialist feminism}}
Since the late 19th century, some feminists have allied with socialism, whereas others have criticized socialist ideology for being insufficiently concerned about women's rights. [[August Bebel]], an early activist of the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|German Social Democratic Party]] (SPD), published his work ''Die Frau und der Sozialismus'', juxtaposing the struggle for equal rights between sexes with social equality in general. In 1907 there was an [[International Socialist Women's Conferences#Stuttgart 1907|International Conference of Socialist Women]] in [[Stuttgart]] where suffrage was described as a tool of class struggle. [[Clara Zetkin]] of the SPD called for women's suffrage to build a "socialist order, the only one that allows for a radical solution to the women's question".<ref>{{cite book |author=Badia, Gilbert |title=Zetkin. Femminista senza frontiere |year=1994 |publisher=University of Michigan. |isbn=978-88-85378-53-7 |page=320}}</ref><ref name="hww5"/>

In Britain, the women's movement was allied with the [[Labour party (UK)|Labour party]]. In the U.S., [[Betty Friedan]] emerged from a radical background to take leadership. [[Radical Women]] is the oldest socialist feminist organization in the U.S. and is still active.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Radical Women Manifesto: Socialist Feminist Theory, Program and Organizational Structure |year=2001 |publisher=Red Letter Press |location=Seattle, WA |isbn=978-0-932323-11-8}}</ref> During the [[Spanish Civil War]], [[Dolores Ibárruri]] (''La Pasionaria'') led the [[Communist Party of Spain (main)|Communist Party of Spain]]. Although she supported equal rights for women, she opposed women fighting on the front and clashed with the [[Anarcha-Feminism|anarcha-feminist]] [[Mujeres Libres]].<ref name="Ib">{{Cite book |author=Ibárruri, Dolores |title=Speeches & Articles, 1936–1938 |year=1938 |publisher=University of Michigan |page=263}}</ref>

Feminists in Ireland in the early 20th century included the [[revolutionary]] [[Irish Republicanism|Irish Republican]], [[suffragette]] and [[Socialism|socialist]] [[Constance Markievicz]] who in 1918 was the first woman elected to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|British House of Commons]]. However, in line with Sinn Féin [[abstentionism|abstentionist]] policy, she would not take her seat in the House of Commons.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irishresistancebooks.com/internment/intern6.htm|title=Internment – Women Internees 1916–1973|author=John McGuffin|year=1973
| access-date=22 March 2009}}</ref> She was re-elected to the [[Second Dáil]] in the [[1921 Irish elections|elections of 1921]].<ref name=elecs_irl>{{cite web|url=http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?id=994|title=Countess Constance de Markievicz|website=ElectionsIreland.org|access-date=22 March 2009}}</ref> She was also a commander of the [[Irish Citizens Army]], which was led by the socialist and self-described feminist Irish leader [[James Connolly]], during the 1916 [[Easter Rising]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Bunbury|first1=Turtle|title=Dorothea Findlater – One Hundred Years On|url=http://www.turtlebunbury.com/interviews/interviews_misc/interviews_misc_dorotheafindlater.html|access-date=5 January 2016|quote=Perhaps the most awkward arrest Wheeler made was Countess Markievicz, his wife's first cousin.}}</ref>

=== Fascism ===
{{further|Fascism and ideology|Women in Nazi Germany}}
[[File:Feministas en lucha anti Pinochet (de Kena Lorenzini).jpg|thumb|Chilean feminists protest against the [[Military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990)|regime of Augusto Pinochet]].]]
Fascism has been prescribed dubious stances on feminism by its practitioners and by women's groups. Amongst other demands concerning social reform presented in the [[Fascist manifesto]] in 1919 was expanding the suffrage to all Italian citizens of age 18 and above, including women (accomplished only in 1946, after the defeat of fascism) and eligibility for all to stand for office from age 25. This demand was particularly championed by special Fascist women's auxiliary groups such as the ''fasci femminilli'' and only partly realized in 1925, under pressure from dictator [[Benito Mussolini]]'s more conservative coalition partners.<ref name="hagg">{{cite book |last=Hägg |first=Göran |year=2008 |title=Mussolini: En studie i makt |trans-title=A study in power |language=sv |publisher=Norstedt |location=Stockholm |isbn=978-91-1-301949-9}}</ref><ref name="passmore">{{cite book |last=Passmore |first=Kevin |author-link=Definitions of fascism#Kevin Passmore |year=2003 |title=Women, Gender and Fascism in Europe, 1919–45 |publisher=Rutgers Univ. Press |location=Piscataway, N.J. |isbn=978-0-8135-3308-7}}</ref>

Cyprian Blamires states that although feminists were among those who opposed the rise of [[Adolf Hitler]], feminism has a complicated relationship with the [[Nazi]] movement as well. While Nazis glorified traditional notions of patriarchal society and its role for women, they claimed to recognize women's equality in employment.<ref name=Blamires>{{cite book |title=World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia |last=Blamires |first=Cyprian |volume=1 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-57607-940-9 |pages=232–33|year=2006 }}</ref> However, Hitler and Mussolini declared themselves as opposed to feminism,<ref name=Blamires/> and after the rise of [[Nazism]] in Germany in 1933, there was a rapid dissolution of the political rights and economic opportunities that feminists had fought for during the pre-war period and to some extent during the 1920s.<ref name=hww5/> Georges Duby et al. write that in practice fascist society was hierarchical and emphasized male virility, with women maintaining a largely subordinate position.<ref name=hww5>{{cite book|last1=Duby |first1=Georges |last2=Perrot |first2=Michelle |last3=Schmitt Pantel |first3=Pauline |title=A History of Women in the West |year=1994 |publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0-674-40369-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofwomenin00gold/page/600 600] |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofwomenin00gold/page/600 }}</ref> Blamires also writes that [[Neo-fascism|neofascism]] has since the 1960s been hostile towards feminism and advocates that women accept "their traditional roles".<ref name=Blamires/>

=== Civil rights movement and anti-racism ===

The [[civil rights movement]] has influenced and informed the feminist movement and vice versa. Many American feminists adapted the language and theories of black equality activism and drew parallels between women's rights and the rights of non-white people.<ref name="Levy">{{cite book|last=Levy |first=Peter |year=1998 |title=The Civil Rights Movement |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Conn. |isbn=978-0-313-29854-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/civilrightsmovem00levy }}</ref> Despite the connections between the women's and civil rights movements, some tensions arose during the late 1960s and the 1970s as non-white women argued that feminism was predominantly white, straight, and middle class, and did not understand and was not concerned with issues of race and sexuality.<ref>{{cite book |last=Code |first=Lorraine |title=Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories |chapter=Civil rights |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-415-13274-9 |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaoffe0000unse |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaoffe0000unse }}</ref> Similarly, some women argued that the civil rights movement had sexist and homophobic elements and did not adequately address minority women's concerns.<ref name="Levy" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=hooks|first=bell|date=3 October 2014|title=Feminist Theory|doi=10.4324/9781315743172|isbn=978-1-315-74317-2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Manditch-Prottas|first=Zachary|date=2019|title=Meeting at the Watchtower: Eldridge Cleaver, James Baldwin's No Name in the Street, and Racializing Homophobic Vernacular|journal=[[African American Review]]|volume=52|issue=2|pages=179–195|doi=10.1353/afa.2019.0027|s2cid=197851021|issn=1945-6182}}</ref> These criticisms created new feminist social theories about identity politics and the intersections of [[racism]], classism, and sexism; they also generated new feminisms such as black feminism and [[Chicana feminism]] in addition to making large contributions to lesbian feminism and other integrations of [[Queer of color critique|queer of colour]] identity.<ref>{{cite book|last=Roth |first=Benita |title=Separate Roads to Feminism: Black, Chicana, and White Feminist Movements in America's Second Wave |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-521-52972-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/separateroadstof00roth }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Winddance Twine |first1=France |first2=Kathleen M. |last2=Blee |title=Feminism and Antiracism: International Struggles for Justice |publisher=NYU Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8147-9855-3 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/feminismantiraci0000unse }}{{page needed|date=October 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|title="The Combahee River Collective Statement" (1977)|work=Available Means|pages=292–300|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press|isbn=978-0-8229-7975-3|doi=10.2307/j.ctt5hjqnj.50|year=2001}}</ref>

=== Neoliberalism ===

[[Neoliberalism]] has been criticized by feminist theory for having a negative effect on the female workforce population across the globe, especially in the global south. Masculinist assumptions and objectives continue to dominate economic and geopolitical thinking.<ref name="Peterson">{{cite book |last=Peterson |first=V. Spike |year=2014 |chapter=International/Global Political Economy |editor-last=Shepherd | editor-first=Laura J. |title=Gender Matters in Global Politics |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C2AKBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT291 |edition=2 |publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-75259-1 }}</ref>{{rp|177}} Women's experiences in non-industrialized countries reveal often deleterious effects of modernization policies and undercut orthodox claims that development benefits everyone.<ref name="Peterson"/>{{rp|175}}

Proponents of neoliberalism have theorized that by increasing women's participation in the workforce, there will be heightened economic progress, but feminist critics have stated that this participation alone does not further equality in gender relations.<ref name="elias">{{cite book |last1=Elias |first1=Juanita |last2=Ferguson |first2=Lucy |year=2014 |chapter=Production, Employment, and Consumption |editor-last=Shepherd | editor-first=Laura J. |title=Gender Matters in Global Politics |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C2AKBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT291 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-75259-1 }}</ref>{{rp|186–98}} Neoliberalism has failed to address significant problems such as the devaluation of feminized labour, the structural privileging of men and masculinity, and the politicization of women's subordination in the family and the workplace.<ref name="Peterson"/>{{rp|176}} The "feminization of employment" refers to a conceptual characterization of deteriorated and devalorized labour conditions that are less desirable, meaningful, safe and secure.<ref name="Peterson"/>{{rp|179}} Employers in the global south have perceptions about feminine labour and seek workers who are perceived to be undemanding, docile and willing to accept low wages.<ref name="Peterson"/>{{rp|180}} Social constructs about feminized labour have played a big part in this, for instance, employers often perpetuate ideas about women as 'secondary income earners to justify their lower rates of pay and not deserving of training or promotion.<ref name="elias"/>{{rp|189}}