In: Psychology
How did women attempt to subvert the predominant paradigm of femininity in the nineteenth century? In what ways were they successful or not successful?
Although we can trace the feminist thoughts back to 1673 from the work of Equality of Sexes by Poullain de la Barre and Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, it got intensified during the 19th century. It further got its root from French Revolution that overthrew the monarch and fought for the rights of the working class. They based their objectives on legal equality, property rights and political rights. Only during French Revolution women started to work collectively. Later it got intensified around the developed and industrialized countries and it was famously called as the First Wave Feminism and this focused on legal issues and the most famous among them was Women’s Suffrage, the right to vote.
Ideal feminine image – Victorian period suggested that men work outside and woman do household works and take care of the children. This was the first myth the early feminist activists opposed during the late 19th and they were successful in gaining their right of going outside the house to work and socialize.
Feminism in fiction – Famous women writers such as Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte etc tried to bring out the plight of women in society, religion and family. This created more awareness among the women readers and motivated them to wrap up and fight for their rights.
Educational reform – Education was reserved for only boys and not girls. Girls were educated at home but feminist fought and got the right to education by the end of the 19th century in developed countries. Women such as Davies and the Langham group made progress and forced Queen’s College and Bedford College in London to allocate seats for women in 1948.
Women's campaigns – More women came out together to show their solidarity with the suffering women. Another campaign by feminists were for Married Women’s Property Rights that was first passed in 1882. Josephine Butler led a campaign for the prostitutes fighting for their health. This resulted in Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act in 1869.
It was a humble beginning with lots of suffering but women made significant progress in changing the stigma in the men's mind thus achieving their rights gradually.