Types of feminism and its different schools of thought

What kinds of feminism exist and what ideas does each current advocate?

Feminism is a set of very varied social and political movements.. Partly because of its long historical trajectory and partly because of the diversity of ideological traditions within it, there are many types of feminism, some of which not only propose different strategies for pursuing their goals, but also have different objectives.

Below we will look at the different main currents of feminism.

Main types of feminism

This classification of currents of feminism should be understood as a simplification, since there are many types of feminism and here are many different types of feminism. there are many types of feminism and only the main branches are shown here..

1. First wave of feminism

The first wave of feminism, which appeared between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, focused on the search for formal equality between men and women.. That is, they fought for the right to vote for women, non-discrimination of women in the law and the possibility that women could also have access to property instead of being mere administrators of the domestic economy.

The type of feminism of this period was fundamentally liberal, and was based on the principles of the Enlightenment. It was a movement that started from the idea that there was no valid reason to break the principle of equality defended by the Enlightenment intellectuals and discriminate against women.

Thus, the perspective of analysis of the reality of the first wave of feminism was based on individualism: women's problems were not seen as something social, but as attacks on their individuality and their ability to accumulate private property.

2. Second wave of feminism

Beginning with the second wave of feminism, which occurred between the 1960s and the 1990s, the number of types of feminism becomes more diversified by adopting influences from postmodern philosophy and by moving away from the individualism of liberal feminism. and by moving away from the individualism of liberal feminism.

In this new feminism, the basic problem to be eradicated (hence the term "radical") is considered to be a social and historical phenomenon, i.e. something that must be attacked from a collectivist point of view. This means that the influence of postmodern ideas is joined by the dialectic inherited from Marxism.

In this generation of feminism, two main branches appear: the feminism of difference and the feminism of equality. Both, however, are grouped in a category known as radical feminism, from which it is interpreted that the nature of discrimination against women does not depend on specific legal forms but is part of a historical system of economic, political and cultural oppression called patriarchy.

Feminism of equality

From the feminism of equality the objective is that women should be able to attain the same status as men alone, among other things.among other things. In addition, it is understood that gender is a social construct that has historically served to convey the oppression of women through the gender roles artificially assigned at birth.

Consequently, equality feminism emphasizes the idea that men and women are essentially human beings, beyond imposed genders. However, this does not mean that in practice the immediate objective of feminism for equality is equality per se; since it is understood that the starting point is an imbalance between the sexes, positive discrimination can be advocated in some areas, for example, as a temporary measure. For example, a minimum of female representation in parliaments can be demanded.

Historically, equality feminism has been strongly influenced by Marxism.Unlike the feminism of difference, it focuses on material aspects of the most basic human needs while starting from an analysis centered on social phenomena.

2.2. Feminism of difference

Feminism of difference the objective is to end the oppression of women without taking male status as a reference point.. This type of feminism defends the idea of vindicating feminine values (revised so that they are not dictated from a masculine point of view) and their difference with masculine values.

Thus, it distances itself from the idea of feminism understood as a movement that leads to equality, since it is assumed that the feminine needs to have its own space to develop and to endure. This has led both within and outside feminisms to criticize feminism harshly. feminism of difference has been harshly criticized for being essentialist and for fundamentally defending concepts and not people. and fundamentally defend concepts and not people.

3. Third wave of feminism

The third wave of feminism began in the 1990s and continues to the present day. If in the first wave of feminism an identity and interpretative nuance had already been introduced in feminism, here this emphasis on subjectivities is much more extensive, giving space to identities that ****rMuslim feminism and many other variants. The idea is to question the perspective of the white, Western, heterosexual woman as the pillar of feminism.

In this generation there is a type of feminism that stands out for its difference from the previous ones: transfeminism.

Transfeminism

This is one of the types of feminism that draws more from one of the most radical critiques of gender binarism: queer theory.the queer theory. According to this theory, both gender and what is considered to be the Biological sex of people are social constructs.

Consequently, people with physical characteristics associated with the feminine are no longer the main subject to be emancipated through feminism, but rather empowerment must be achieved by all types of minorities, including people who experience their gender differently from the traditional one and are therefore discriminated against: transsexuals with and without gender dysphoria, genderfluid, etc.

Thus, the feminism that is present in transfeminism no longer has the biological sex of people as a criterion that demarcates who is oppressed and who is not, and also incorporates identity matrices that have nothing to do with gender, such as race and religion.

Bibliographical references:

• Bocchetti, Alessandra (1996). Lo que quiere una mujer. Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra.

• Molina Petit, C. (1994). Dialectica feminista de la Ilustración. Barcelona: Anthropos.

• Varela, N. (2005). Feminismo para principiantes. Barcelona: Ediciones B.