Sally J. Scholz - Feminism: A Beginner’s Guide

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A Oneworld Book

Published by Oneworld Publications 2010
This ebook edition published in 2012

Copyright Sally J. Scholz 2010

The right of Sally J. Scholz to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved
Copyright under Berne Convention
A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library

ISBN 978178074 7121
ebook ISBN 9781851681550

Typeset by Jayvee, Trivandrum, India
Cover design by vaguelymemorable.com

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For Jane

My sister and I, you will recollect, were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two souls which are so closely allied.

Arthur Conan Doyle,

The Adventure of the Speckled Band

Contents

Acknowledgments

There are so many wonderful feminist mentors in my life and I am deeply grateful for the paths they paved and the struggles they won. Thank you! Thanks also to all of the students who took Philosophy of Women, Feminist Epistemologies, Feminist Theories, Seminar on Simone de Beauvoir, and Race, Class, Gender with me at Villanova University. No doubt they will recognize some of my well-worn expressions in the pages of this book.

Thanks also to the editors at Oneworld, Marsha Filion and Fiona Slater for their patience, advice, and good humor.

Most especially, I want to express my gratitude to Jane LePage. Jane gave me the prodding and encouragement I needed to complete this text; she read every word and offered excellent advice for revising the manuscript. I truly could not have completed this project without her.

I am extremely grateful to my family, my husband Christopher Kilby and our children Tessa Scholz Kilby and Luke Scholz Kilby, for their love, patience, and joy. Tessa and Luke teach me about the future of feminism each and every day.

What is feminism? Who is a feminist?

One thing is for sure, there is no membership card or pledge of allegiance to the cause, there is no litmus test or any sort of test actually. Perhaps we might answer that to be a feminist one merely has to claim it as an identity. But identity is itself a troubling word. If I say I am a feminist does that mean that everything I do will be as a feminist? Does it mean that I have to dress, act, and speak like others who also say they are feminists? Do I have to follow a feminist dogma? And what about this notion of an individual claiming an identity? What could that mean and do all individuals have the freedom and power to do such claiming? For that matter, why would we want to say being a feminist is merely a choice for an individual? Clearly, there is a lot to think about regarding these terms feminism and feminist.

The most common and perhaps most general understanding of feminism is that feminism is about equal rights for women. As general understandings go, this one rates only ok. Feminism is about equal rights for women but what that means is much more complicated than it appears at first blush. Moreover, feminism isnt just about equal rights for women. Feminism is a critical project. It looks at all aspects of life to identify those elements that might be oppressive and suggests alternatives. By critical I do not mean that feminism rejects anything that it does not like. Rather critical means that there is an inquiry into the message and values of something. Criticism is an activity that seeks to analyze and understand something a practice, a custom, a language, a social role. In seeking to understand, however, criticism also asks what values and presuppositions are being implied by the thing. A critical look at the world would dissect it into various parts language, laws, social roles, practices, for instance and seek to uncover what else is being suggested beyond the mere facts. A feminist reading, as a critical project, would look especially at what is being said about women: what social roles are they expected to take, what are their liberties or privileges in relation to men, and similar sorts of inquiries. In addition, if the feminist has specific interests or concerns, then she or he might emphasize particular aspects of the critical project. Feminists glimpse the world through a different lens and what they see usually requires a response. Feminism, in other words, follows the critical project with action to bring about social change.

Feminist methodologies

Many types of feminism abound and they take their motivations and inspirations from different sources. Nonetheless, there are some feminist methodologies that, while not universal to all feminisms, might be helpful to discuss as a way to answer that initial question: what is feminism?