International Women’s Day: what is feminism

International Women’s Day what is feminism

On March 8, as more than 40 years ago, the fight for women’s equality is commemorated where feminism takes an increasingly important role, what is it and what is there to know?

This March 8 marks International Women’s Day.  The date remembers the struggle of women for equality , recognition and effective exercise of their rights . And it refers to what  happened in 1857 in New York with employees of a textile factory who demonstrated seeking equal pay.

The protest ended in a repression that caused the death of 120 workers.

The feminist movement is intimately related to that day and in recent years it has been taking more and more prominence.

Specialists have defined this movement in different ways , however, they all agree that the fight for equality is one of its objectives.

8M: WHAT IS FEMINISM?

As mentioned above, there are several answers to the question “what is feminism?”. The Royal Spanish Academy defines it in two ways:

1. Principle of equal rights of women and men . _
2. Movement that fights for the effective realization in all orders of feminism.

On the other hand, several prestigious encyclopedias and dictionaries define feminism as the search for social, economic and political equality for women.

These descriptions of the movement relate the main bases of feminism, however, it is important to emphasize that today the thoughts have evolved and their struggle has expanded.

FEMINISM AND MACHISM

Many people mistakenly confuse the term feminist assimilating it as the equivalent of machismo but this is not the case since they are two terms that do not share the least in their definition.

On the one hand, machismo speaks of an attitude of “male preponderance” while feminism is based on the principle of equality , it does not seek women to be above men.

FEMINISM: ITS HISTORICAL EVOLUTION

Feminism tends to be seen , from a chronological perspective, as a sequence of historical waves . However, these stages were preceded by various works of a feminist trend even before this social movement was determined as feminism.

The first wave emerged in various countries throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, both in Europe , mainly England, and in the United States and other Latin American countries. At that time , women fought , in principle, for obtaining equal rights in marriage and later , for the right to vote .

The second wave was determined to claim family, sexual, labor and reproductive rights.

For its part, the third wave , covers from the 1990s to the present day, and seeks to amend the errors of the second wave. Consequently, it seeks to demonstrate that women can assume various risks and obligations , develop in multiple spaces and be highly competitive and independent, therefore, it is related to the liberation of women.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY: A DATE FOR REFLECTION

Returning to history, in 1910 the second International Conference of Socialist Women took place in the Danish capital, Copenhagen.