Development of Feminism

Rosemarie Tong does an excellent job of laying out the progress of feminism and how it has changed through the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. In the 18th century middle class ladies were perfect women. They sacrificed everything for their husbands and were not permitted to make their own decisions. What I was surprised to learn about was that there was a well known woman author speaking out for women at this time. Mary Wollstonecraft urged women to become autonomous decision makers. For her the ideal woman was less interested in fulfilling her duty that in self control and was a rational agent whose dignity consisted of self determination. Then as the 19th century came around people began to build on the idea of women's rights with the beginning of the suffragist movement. Men began to get involved in the movement following Wollstonecraft's idea that women need to be able to think rationally. I was very interested when Tong began to talk about John Mill a man supporting women. I really enjoyed Mill's saying that "even if all women are worse than all men at something, this does not justify forbidding women from trying to do it." This is a very important step for the women's movement because this is a man saying it is okay for women to try and to be able to  do the same things men do. By the time the 20th century came around women gained the right to vote and the focus moved more towards equal rights. What I found interesting is that the equal rights they were fight for then are still being sought after today. We are waiting for the day when all human beings are able and willing to manifest both traditionally male and traditionally female traits.