Henslin: A Feminist Analysis

In Essentials of Sociology, Henslin defines feminism as “the view that biology is not destiny, that stratification by gender is wrong and should be resisted, and that men and women should be equal --- met with strong opposition, both by mean who had privilege to lose and by women who accepted their status as morally correct (Henslin, 2014, p.302). The definition of feminism in the dictionary is much simpler stating it is the theory of political, economical, and social equality of the sexes. There are three phases of feminism and we are currently living in phase number three.

The first phase of feminism was from 1830's to the early 1900's and it consisted of women's fight for equal contract and property rights. They planted the idea that women could contribute just as much as men. They fought for the right to vote realizing this to be a way to gain political power in order to bring about change regarding sexual, reproductive, and economical matters.

The second phase of feminism took place in the 1960's through the 1980's and was used to broaden the debate. They spent this time sowing the seed they planted in phase one. These were times of unrest as the US was still restructuring from World War II and then went into the Vietnam War. They affiliated with many of the groups participating in many of the …show more content…
We have broken it down into many subgroups where women are making their voices heard in many different areas of concern such as ego-cultural, radical, liberal/reform, electoral, academic, ecofeminist, and much more. We are still fighting for equal pay, women's reproduction rights, ending domestic violence, and to be understood and accepted as feminists. None of this would be possible had it not been for the first phase of feminism; our first pioneer feminists who were strong women that paved the way for us to be at the point we are