FEMINISM – A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION
Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide.
We are surrounded by gender lore from the time we are very small. It is ever-present in conversation, humor, and conflict, and it is called upon to explain everything from driving styles to food preferences. Gender is embedded so thoroughly in our institutions, our actions, our beliefs, and our desires, that it appears to us to be completely natural.
In 1946, Simone de Beauvoir began to outline what she thought would be an autobiographical essay explaining why, when she had tried to define herself, the first sentence that came to mind was “I am a woman.”
After thinking about the sweep of history and viewing the present world with anxious care, I find my spirits depressed by the most melancholy emotions of sorrowful indignation. I have had to admit, sadly, that either nature has made a great difference between man and man, or that the world is not yet anywhere near to being fully civilized. I have looked into various books on education.
There was a time when it seemed all knowledge was produced about men for men. This
was true from the physical and social sciences to the canons of music and literature. Looking from the angle of mainstream education- studies, textbooks, and masterpieces were almost all authored by white men. It was not uncommon for college students to go through entire courses only reading the work of white men in their fields.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course.
Mothers, daughters, sisters [and] representatives of the nation demand to be constituted into a national assembly.
There are a number of terms that people use when they talk about gender. Many of these, such as ‘heterosexual’ and ‘homosexual’, seem self-evident and we tend to think that such terms have always existed.
Universities and professional associations usually are organized in ways that tend to separate scholars in adjoining disciplines and perhaps even to promote stereotypes of each other and their scholarly endeavors.