How do you see the theme of feminism?

Answer 1

It depends on what you mean by the "theme"-- if you are asking about feminism in a particular work of literature, you did not tell us which one. Also, there are many kinds of feminism-- the movement began in the US in the 1840s, in what is referred to as the "first wave" of feminism. Later, the so-called "women's movement" of the mid-to-late 1960s was the second wave. And in our current era, there may even be a "third wave." First wave feminists wanted legal rights for married women (under the law back in the 1700s and 1800s, a married woman was the legal property of her husband, which meant he could treat her any way he chose and she had little say); and they also wanted suffrage (the right to vote) and greater opportunities for young women to attend school and perhaps even have a career in addition to being wives and mothers.

By the 1960s, when the second-wave emerged, much had improved, but problems still remained. Women got the vote in 1920, and by the 1930s and 1940s, a few women were getting elected to political office; more women attended college and some even had careers. But women's opportunities were limited by prejudice-- called "sexism," the belief that women were inferior to men in intelligence and ability. Most women were only encouraged to be teachers, nurses, social workers, or secretaries; while these are certainly fine professions, the high-paying jobs, as well as the jobs with authority, arbitrarily went to men. Second-wave feminists (myself among them) fought to change society's attitudes about what women were capable of, and to expand the kinds of careers and opportunities women could have.

By the 1970s, more women were able to enter careers previously open mainly to men: they became news reporters and broadcasters; lawyers, doctors, business executives, etc., as a result of the efforts of second-wave feminists. Even the language changed-- most professions had ended in -man because it was assumed only men would hold these jobs (mailman, businessman, etc), but now, there were efforts made to make the language more gender-neutral. In the old days, you would read about a "woman lawyer"-- the assumption was a lawyer was a man, so if a female became one, it was unusual. Today, people just talk about "lawyers" because there are both men and women in this profession.

So, the basic theme of feminism have varied with each generation-- in one era, it was about equality for married women and laws that would protect them from being treated like property. In another era, it was about giving women the right to vote or have a career or go to college. In another era, the theme was equal pay and equal respect-- an end to sexist language and sexist treatment. With each new generation, feminism morphs to address the needs of the women of that time. (And by the way, it should be noted that it is a myth that feminists "hate men"-- what feminists hate is prejudice and sexism.)