Feminism in the Study of Intellectual History
Wildan
Feminism greatly influenced the direction and focus of the social sciences in the early 20th century. In sociology, its studies have become more sensitive to gender issues and have spawned feminist social theory (Abercrombie, Hill, Turner, 2010: 202). Feminism is not only a school of thought and study of women but also a social movement that fights for women’s rights (Lubis, 2016, p. 122). History is also affected by the feminist movement. The feminist movement influences new themes of historical studies in the aspect of elevating the role of women in historic trends, the development of women’s position in the socio-cultural structure of society, and the intellectual history of Feminism thought itself. In its history, Feminism has developed into several streams, such as liberal, radical, Marxist, existentialist, postmodernist Feminism, and multicultural and global Feminism (Lubis, 2016, p. 103).
In the study of intellectual history, this movement discusses its thoughts, who developed the thought, and how that thought developed and influenced society. The intellectual history discusses “feminism” as a movement for the emancipation of women from male subordination, which does not merely question the inequality of women and men. However, it is a deeply embedded ideological structure movement that makes women always disadvantaged by men (Lechte, 2001, p. 247). Feminism sees women systematically weakened in their position in modern society (Abercrombie, Hill, Turner, 2010: 202). Criticism of patriarchy is a central theme in feminist studies. Women do not want to be identified with men but seek to develop a new and distinctive feminine language, law, and mythology (Lechte, 2001, p. 247)
Writings on feminist thought can be traced back to the works of Christine de Pizan (1354-1430), a French woman who wrote The Book of the Cities of Ladies (1405); Luce Irigaray, known for his Speculum of the Other Woman (1974), This Sex Which is Not One (1988), Culture of Difference (1990); Michele Le Doeuff, known for his works The Philosophical Imaginary (1980) and Hipparchia’s Choice (1989); Carole Pateman is known for her work Participation and Democratic Theory (1970), The Sexual Contract and The Disorder of Women: Democracy, Feminism, and Political Theory in 1989 (Lechte, 2001, pp. 248-267). Several French female figures, both of which have national and international reputations, besides Jeanne d’Arc, the names Marie Antoinette, Marie de Médicis, Madame de Staël and several other figures are widely known as female figures in the context of classical French history (Mathiex, 1996). In subsequent developments, only Jeanne d’Arc is still known as a symbol of the power of women. Even in the days of the First Empire or the time of Napoléon Bonaparte, he became a political symbol to be reckoned with.
Feminist thought continues to develop and provide new perspectives in historical studies, starting from the classic Feminism of Mary Wollstonecraft and Virginia Woolf to second-generation Feminism such as Simone de Beauvoir, Luce Irigary, Kate Milet, and Carole Pateman (Lechte, 2001: 242-266; Humm). , 2000: 354; Supardan, 2008). Akhyar Yusuf Lubis (2016: 96-102) divides the feminism movement into three waves, namely the first wave (the 1830s-1920s), second wave (1920s-1970s), and third wave.
The first generation had succeeded in improving the position of women in voting rights, workplace positions, and marriage and, in the early 20th century, fought for political and legal equality (Abercrombie, Hill, Turner, 2010: 202; Lubis, 2016: 98). Feminist leaders fight for women’s access to education and try to understand the factors that cause injustice and oppression to women (Lubis, 2016, p. 98).
The second wave emerged in the early 1960s, showing the current struggle for equal rights and opportunities. Feminist leaders are passionate about questioning the representation of women and all things feminist (Lubis, 2016, p. 96). Feminism leads to the search for new theories based on women’s experiences. The focus of the second wave of Feminism is women’s access to employment, education rights, egalitarianism, and trying to create a feminine world (Lubis, 2016, p. 99). A critical theory that assesses science has never been separated from the interest of giving rise to new directions for feminist studies, especially in the third wave.
The third wave was marked by the contact of feminism theory with contemporary critical thinking such as postmodernism, postcolonial, multiculturalism etc. (Lubis, 2016: 96). In The 1960s, Feminism was influenced by Marxism, Psychoanalysis, and Anarchism. The US and the British movement led to black civilian rights that intertwined with themes of anticolonialism, anti-imperialism, militarism, racism, and ecological issues. The mind of Derrida, Foucault, and Lacan raised a new direction of feminist studies, which are marked by the emergence of the political concepts of differences, anti-essentialism, identity politics, etc. The development of the 1980s showed the emergence of a contemporary female that appeared in the mind of C. Gilligan, Hooks, Weedon, Chondorow, and Riley (Abercrombie, Hill, Turner, 2010: 204). They are worried that the study of postmodernism will disburse feminist criticism of the patriarchy.
In the 1960s/1970s, courses and women’s study centres in the US and several European countries began to develop, so academic studies on women developed. However, negative responses saw that their studies did not meet scientific requirements (Lubis, 2016, p. 94). In France, the study focuses on how a woman’s body is represented or pressed in male writing (Abercrombie, Hill, Turner, 2010: 204). This is a concern of US feminist Judith Butler. Butler is a feminist thinker who emphasizes cultural construction in gender (Burke, 2015, p. 75). Butler (1990) once mentioned that the body only lives within productive limits of specific regulatory schemes; highly tendered and masculine. Butler believes that it is not an easy matter to oppose the power of performance that is very masculine, that men must appear handsome and should not be patterned behaviour like women and so forth. Gender understood by the community is based on and limited to an understanding of sex/biological sex (Butler, 1990). Butler’s thoughts received extraordinary criticism from Nussbaum because it was based on the “way of thinking” of Feminism that Butler built did not encourage women to break away from real-world problems – such as lower salaries or sexual harassment – and focused more on intellectual development and abstract theory (Nussbaum, 1999).
Humm (2000) records the development of feminism theories which initially reviewed social discrimination and inequality between men and women in various socio-cultural fields, such as; History, Philosophy, Anthropology, Politics, Economics and Art. In subsequent developments, a significant study discusses the themes of reproduction, representation, and division of work based on gender and the emergence of new concepts such as sexism and essentialism intended to sue social discrimination against developing science (Humm, 2000, p. 354). In the 1980s and 1990s, the study of Feminism was directed at the linkages between Feminism and science. Poststructural and postmodernism analysis makes feminists criticize feminine thoughts themselves. The most emerged criticism is related to the dominance of the mind of Feminism from the perspective of Western and North European middle-class women and the study of Feminism that is too universality (Abercrombie, Hill, Turner, 2010: 202).