女性主义原理

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: “A threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

As one of the most important social movements and political currents of thought, Feminism has undergone three stages of development throughout its more than a hundred-year history: the first stage is its first upsurge which existed from the end of 19th to 1920s. Period between 1920s and 1960s is a stagnation of feminism, which makes up the second stage. From 1960s to this day is considered the third stage, among which the first twenty years and the period between 1980s and 1990s are generally accepted as its second and third upsurge.

Men in European countries enjoy equal political rights and social freedom regardless their different races, religions, social backgrounds and ethnics. they attained voting rights, which is commonly considered the most important political right of all. However, women are still powerless in terms of this. Consequently women rights movement emerged and quickly reached its first climax. V oting rights, right to education and employment (esp. married women) are the top three demands for this phase. After WWI women of lots of European countries gained rights such as the right to vote, to receive higher education, business right and the right of inheritance. Then in the second phase, the movement experienced a stage of standstill during following 40 years. There are two reasons that account for this: one is feminist movement temporary lost its guide after gaining the above social rights. The other is one positive effect brought by WWII－women gained both financial and political independence as a result of their participation in war production and front line support. Although it is because of a lack of male labor at war time, objectively their performance and contributions changed people’s stereotypes over them. But gain of above rights does not mean complete equality to men and as more and more women-related issues exposed latter on without enough attention and proper solutions, a new feminist movement or the so-called the second upsurge of feminism emerged in 1960s and 1970s. The creed of this period is to eliminate gender difference which was considered to be the main cause of subordinate status of woman. What they fight against is the so-called “gender oppression”: unconscious prejudices upon woman

exist in any field, culture, ideology or language. Simone de Beauvoir, one of the representatives, asserted in her The Second Sex“个人并不是生而为女性而是变成女性的” . ([法]西蒙娜·德·波伏娃：《第二性》，陶铁柱译，中国书籍出版社，1998年版第37页). She states precisely that how women are molded and regulated by men in society and the process of female’s alienation under patriarchic culture in her theory. Betty Friedan and her epoch-making The Feminine Mystique (1969)marked as a new current of feminist movement in 1960s.

“The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning [that is, a longing] that women suffered in the middle of the 20th century in the United States. Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries … she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question —'Is this all?" (Betty Friedan. Feminine Mystique. Harmondsworth ： Penguin， 1982)

Kate Millett in her famous Sexual Politics which based on her PhD dissertation, it was published in 1970. Millet argues that "sex has a frequently neglected political aspect" and goes on to discuss the role that patriarchy plays in sexual relations. Looking especially at the works of D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, and Norman Mailer, Millet argues that these authors view and discuss sex in a patriarchal and sexist way. Sexual Politics was a theoretical milestone for the second wave feminism of the 1970s.

The third climax begins in 1980s and 1990s, corresponded to postmodernism, feminism of this period has the feature of diversified developments under the banner: such as feminism of the Third World, Eco-feminism, Lesbian feminism, Post-feminist and so on. The outstanding characteristics of feminism of this period are the acknowledgement and compliment of the otherness, tolerance of the interconnection of female, nature and private domain. Feminists of this period hold that body and embodiment are the essence of political theory development and earnestly practise the notion“the personal is the political”. its focus is to deconstruct the dual structure theory, emphasizes “female’s” perspective, and insists its diversity and differentiation.