Portal:Feminism

The Feminism Portal

Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern societies are patriarchal—they prioritize the male point of view—and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women. A person who advocates for feminism is known as a feminist.

Originating in late 18th-century Europe, feminist movements have campaigned and continue to campaign for women's rights, including the right to vote, run for public office, work, earn equal pay, own property, receive education, enter into contracts, have equal rights within marriage, and maternity leave. Feminists have also worked to ensure access to contraception, legal abortions, and social integration; and to protect women and girls from sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Changes in female dress standards and acceptable physical activities for women have also been part of feminist movements.

Many scholars consider feminist campaigns to be a main force behind major historical societal changes for women's rights, particularly in the West, where they are near-universally credited with achieving women's suffrage, gender-neutral language, reproductive rights for women (including access to contraceptives and abortion), and the right to enter into contracts and own property. Although feminist advocacy is, and has been, mainly focused on women's rights, some argue for the inclusion of men's liberation within its aims, because they believe that men are also harmed by traditional gender roles. Feminist theory, which emerged from feminist movements, aims to understand the nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles and lived experiences. Feminist theorists have developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues concerning gender.

Numerous feminist movements and ideologies have developed over the years, representing different viewpoints and political aims. Traditionally, since the 19th century, first-wave liberal feminism, which sought political and legal equality through reforms within a liberal democratic framework, was contrasted with labour-based proletarian women's movements that over time developed into socialist and Marxist feminism based on class struggle theory. Since the 1960s, both of these traditions are also contrasted with the radical feminism that arose from the radical wing of second-wave feminism and that calls for a radical reordering of society to eliminate patriarchy. Liberal, socialist, and radical feminism are sometimes referred to as the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought. Modern feminist activism, scholarship, and policy tend to define contemporary feminism as a movement grounded in human rights, solidarity, and intersectionality; for example UN Women emphasized in 2024 that "the feminist goals of intersectional justice and gender equality can only be achieved if all women and all LGBTIQ+ people are included as part of a broad, intersectional feminist movement rooted in the universality and indivisibility of human rights," while a group of 28 Nordic feminist studies departments, academic journals and feminist organizations in 2025 defined feminism as "a universal human rights movement built on solidarity, intersectionality, and compassion."

Since the late 20th century, many newer forms of feminism have emerged. Some forms, such as white feminism and gender-critical feminism, have been criticized as taking into account only white, middle class, college-educated, heterosexual, or cisgender perspectives. These criticisms have led to the creation of ethnically specific or multicultural forms of feminism, such as black feminism and intersectional feminism. (Full article...)

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The Girl Scouts of the United States of America (GSUSA) is a youth organization for girls in the United States and American girls living abroad. The Girl Scout program developed from the concerns of the progressive movement in the United States from people who sought to promote the social welfare of young women and as a female counterpart to the Boy Scouts of America. It was founded by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912 and is based on the Scouting principles developed by Robert Baden-Powell. The GSUSA uses the Scout method to build self-esteem and to teach values such as honesty, fairness, courage, compassion, character, sisterhood, confidence, and citizenship through activities including camping, community service, learning first aid, and earning numerous badges that can teach lifelong skills. Girl Scouts are recognized for their achievements through rank advancement and various special awards. GSUSA has programs for girls with special interests, such as water-based activities. Membership is organized according to age levels with activities appropriate to each age group.

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Credit: Steven G. Johnson

The "Maid of Orleans", Joan of Arc is a national heroine of France and a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. She helped inspire Charles VII's troops to retake most of his dynasty's former territories, which had been under English and Burgundian dominance during the Hundred Years' War. She later was convicted of heresy (overturned posthumously) and burnt at the stake at the age of nineteen. Pope Benedict XV canonized her on 16 May 1920 and she is now one of the most popular saints of the Catholic Church.

Shown here is a statue of Joan of Arc inside Notre-Dame de Paris, a Gothic cathedral in Paris, where she was beatified in 1909.

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In this month

May 1892 – Publication of "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (pictured), a prominent American writer, and utopian feminist who argued for women's economic independence in Women and Economics
16 May 1929 – Birth of Adrienne Rich, award-winning lesbian American poet and feminist
20 May 1806 – Birth of John Stuart Mill, British philosopher whose essay The Subjection of Women argued for the equality of women
21 May 1970 – First Women's studies program established in the United States at San Diego State College after a year of intense consciousness raising, rallies, petitions, and unofficial classes
24 May 1990 – Judi Bari Day, honoring the American ecofeminist and labor leader who worked to protect the redwood forests of Northern California

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The people who resent me do so because I'm a woman, I'm young, and I'm a Bhutto. Well, the simple answer is, it doesn't matter that I'm a woman, it doesn't matter that I'm young, and it's a matter of pride that I'm a Bhutto.

— Benazir Bhutto

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Hilda Doolittle, better known by the pen name H.D., was an American poet, novelist and memoirist. She is best known for her association with the key early 20th century avant-garde Imagist group of poets, although her later writing represents a move away from the Imagist model and towards a distinctly feminine version of modernist poetry and prose. Doolittle was one of the leading figures in the bohemian culture of London in the early decades of the century. Her work is noted for its use of classical models and its exploration of the conflict between lesbian and heterosexual attraction and love that closely resembled her own life. Her later poetry also explores traditional epic themes, such as violence and war, from a feminist perspective. H.D. was the first woman to be granted the American Academy of Arts and Letters medal.

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... that the subculture of Aristasia combined Guénonian Traditionalism with lesbian separatism?
... that Margareth Rago seeks to establish a methodology for what she calls "feminist science"?
... that Mary Kahil, an Egyptian Christian mystic, cofounded one of the earliest women's movements in the Arab world?
... that the retelling of stories can focus on female characters to reflect the feminist perspective?
... that after dying in her daughter's arms in an asylum in 1897, Maria Trubnikova was remembered as the "heart and soul" of feminist activism in Russia?

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...that Soviet sniper Roza Shanina's (pictured) declaration "I shall return after the battle" would be paraphrased in a book title?
...that feminist American magazine Ms. has not carried advertisements since 1989?
...that the feminist group Women on Waves, which built a gynecology unit on a ship, performs abortions in international waters?

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The following are images from various feminism-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Ida B. Wells (from History of feminism)
Image 2Margaret Sanger (from History of feminism)
Image 3Clara Zetkin (left) and Rosa Luxemburg (right) in January 1910 (from International Women's Day)
Image 4Germaine Greer in June 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 5Author and scholar Helen Kendrick Johnson opposed women's suffrage. (from History of feminism)
Image 6First edition print of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (from History of feminism)
Image 7bell hooks (from History of feminism)
Image 8Female members of the Australian Builders Labourers Federation march on International Women's Day 1975 in Sydney (from International Women's Day)
Image 9
  Official holiday
  Holiday for women
  Non-official holiday
(from International Women's Day)
Image 10A veil-burning ceremony in Andijan on International Women's Day in 1927 (from International Women's Day)
Image 11Bessie Rayner Parkes (from History of feminism)
Image 12The White Feather: A Sketch of English Recruiting" (Arnold Bennett, 1914) (from History of feminism)
Image 13Florence Nightingale (from History of feminism)
Image 14An Antimonumenta, installed in Mexico City on International Women's Day 2019, as photographed the day after. The circle part says "In Mexico 9 women are murdered daily" and the cross part says "Not one more!" On the opposite side, the Antimonumenta reads "We demand a national gender alert", and in the central part "No + Femicides" (from International Women's Day)
Image 15John Neal (from History of feminism)
Image 16Simone de Beauvoir (from History of feminism)
Image 17Lucy Stone (from History of feminism)
Image 18Marie Stopes (from History of feminism)
Image 19Cover of WSPU's The Suffragette, April 25, 1913 (after Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, 1830) (from History of feminism)
Image 20Irena Krzywicka (from History of feminism)
Image 21Sylvia Pankhurst (from History of feminism)
Image 22Frances Cobbe (from History of feminism)
Image 23Elizabeth Cady Stanton (seated) and Susan B. Anthony (from History of feminism)
Image 24Huda Shaarawi, founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union (from History of feminism)
Image 25Women's Liberation march in Washington, D.C., 1970 (from History of feminism)
Image 26Emily Davison (from History of feminism)
Image 278M 2020 in Spain (from International Women's Day)
Image 28Giorgia Meloni, (third from right) the first female prime minister of Italy at a 2024 Women's Day event in Rome (from International Women's Day)
Image 29Women on the street celebrating International Women's Day in Cameroon (from International Women's Day)
Image 30Camilla Collett (from History of feminism)
Image 31Betty Friedan 1960 (from History of feminism)
Image 32The Nineteenth Amendment (from History of feminism)
Image 33María Elena Oddone holding a banner, on International Women's Day in 1984 in Argentina. The banner says "No to motherhood, yes to pleasure" (from International Women's Day)
Image 34Christine de Pizan presents her book to Queen Isabeau of Bavaria. (from History of feminism)
Image 35Nellie McClung (from History of feminism)
Image 36Board of directors of "Jam'iat e nesvan e vatan-khah", a women's rights association in Tehran (1923–1933) (from History of feminism)
Image 37The vandalized Concepción Feminist Mural in Spain, which was vandalized on International Women's Day 2021. (from International Women's Day)
Image 38Yellow mimosa is the symbol of International Women's Day in Italy as well as in Russia, Ukraine and many other ex-Soviet Union republics (from International Women's Day)
Image 398M 2018 in Pamplona (from International Women's Day)
Image 40Suffrage parade in New York, May 6, 1912 (from History of feminism)
Image 41Gloria Steinem at news conference, Women's Action Alliance, January 12, 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 42Matilda Joslyn Gage (from History of feminism)
Image 43Catharine MacKinnon (from History of feminism)
Image 44Wealthy Chinese women with bound feet (Beijing, 1900). Foot binding was a symbol of women's oppression during the reform movements in the 19th and 20th centuries. (from History of feminism)

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This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Feminism}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.

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Alice Manfield - Guide Alice, Mt Buffalo, c1900-30, SLV
Alice Park - Records of the National Woman's Party
Alice Paul (1915) by Harris & Ewing
Angela Davis in a half-length portrait by Bernard Gotfryd - crop
Anne Dallas Dudley LOC
Avril de Sainte-Croix - Restored, cropped
Bertha Lutz 1925
Cabinet Card of Sojourner Truth - Collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Convicts Lunatics and Women! Have No Vote for Parliament, ca. 1907-1918
Dr. Caroline Spencer 275029v
Ethel Smyth
Frances Benjamin Johnston, Self-Portrait (as "New Woman"), 1896
Fredrikke Mørck
George Charles Beresford - Virginia Woolf in 1902 - Restoration
Henrietta Rodman from the George Grantham Bain Collection
Henry Mayer, The Awakening, 1915 Cornell CUL PJM 1176 01 - Restoration
Hester Jeffrey
Hubertine Auclert 1910
Iris Calderhead
Joy Young Rogers outside the White House
Lucretia Mott, signed photo, by F. Gutekunst
Mabel Vernon, c. 1917, by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Marguerite Durand 1910 - Restoration
Marie Stopes in her laboratory, 1904 - Restoration
Mary Garrity - Ida B. Wells-Barnett - Google Art Project - restoration crop
Millicent Fawcett
Mrs. Crystal Eastman Benedict by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Mrs. Lillian Ascough, chairman of the Connecticut branch of the Woman's Party
Mrs. Pauline Adams 147002v
Official Program Woman Suffrage Procession - March 3, 1913
Portrett av Gina Krog (6276081582) - Restoration
Poster by Anna Soós Korànyi for the Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance
Ray Strachey restored
Sojourner Truth, 1870 (cropped, restored)
Victoria Claflin Woodhull by Mathew Brady - Oval Portrait
Voltairine de Cleyre (Age 35)
We Can Do It! NARA 535413 - Restoration 2