Feminism and Feminist Criticism

Pages:104
Kusum Sindhu and Sanjay Dangi (School of English, Singhania University, Pacheri Bari, Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan1, Govt. College Meham, Rohtak2)

Feminism existed long before the term “feminism” come to be coined sometime in the twentieth century. Historically, the term “feminist” was first used in 1871 in a French medical text to describe a male patient whose male characteristics and stopped growing to their fullness, resulting in the “feminization” of his body. But today feminists are not men with stunted bodies but normal human beings both female and male, who have propagated and struggled for the rights of woman in a male dominated society. Feminism came in form of two waves in England and else where in the western world feminism. The first wave feminism refers to the feminist movements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The second wave feminism came in the late 1960s and 1970s. By then the right to vote had already been earned by women. The latter-day feminists struggled for and achieved the right to work and earn and have power and independence at par with the male of the species.