Women's Studies

From Encyclopedia of Gender and Society
Lesbian feminism is a term introduced in the United States in the 1960s. It refers to a theory, an identity, and a political struggle. As a social movement, lesbian feminism emerged out of movements for women’s liberation, gay liberation, and the sexual revolution.

From Encyclopedia of Environment and Society
Ecofeminism posits that the same masculinist habits of thinking and behavior that devalue, oppress, and exploit women also do so to nature; and are mutually reinforcing hegemonic processes pivoting around artificial Western binary oppositions interpreted by religion, science, government, and other androcentric agencies.

From Women in Higher Education
A black feminist is a person, historically an African American woman academic, who believes that female descendents of American slavery share a unique set of life experiences distinct from those of black men and white women. Black feminists believe that the lives of African American women are oppressed by combinations of racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism.

From Women's Psychology: Feminism and Women's Rights Worldwide
“Global feminism” has increasingly been associated with contemporary international feminist nongovernmental (NGO) campaigns to make gender policymaking inroads into intergovernmental organization (IGO) policymaking with impacts on national policymaking.

From Feminist Philosophies A-Z
Friedrich Engels’ The Origin of the Family (1884/1972), a fundamental text in Marxist feminism, argued that the move to private property included a shift from matriarchy to patriarchy and was the initiating point for women’s subordination and oppression.

From Encyclopedia of Social Theory
This strand of feminist ideas and practices has as its hallmarks a disdain for, if not rejection of, hierarchy and a commitment to cultural as well as political transformation. Seeking more than the reformist measures associated with liberal feminism, radical feminism can be seen as revolutionary or at least aiming at wholesale rather than piece-meal social change.

From Encyclopedia of American Studies
Feminist art was not regarded as a movement per se but a revolutionary strategy intended to challenge received assessments of modernism, formal values, and stylistic hierarchies.

From The Reader's Companion to US Women's History
Feminist literary criticism can be defined as the study of literature by women, or the interpretation of any text written with an attention to gender dynamics or a focus on female characters.

From Women in Higher Education: An Encyclopedia
The development of a feminist methodology arises from feminist critiques of conventional ideas about how to do research. A number of feminisms exist. Employing them as guides to the conduct of research and the selection of techniques and epistemologies constitutes feminist methodology.

From The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology
In general terms, feminist social theory is concerned to understand and explain the subordinate position of women in society by reference to gender differences and specifically in terms of a theory of patriarchy.

From The Reader's Companion to US Women's History
Feminist theology is not primarily reflection on special “feminine” themes in theology and does not intend to create a special subcategory of theology relevant primarily to women. Rather, feminist theology arises from a recognition that traditional theology in Christianity (and other major religions) has been created almost exclusively by males.

From Gender and education: An encyclopedia
Men's studies is the study of gender as it applies to the experience of boys and men. Scholars of men's studies develop theory and carry out research that explores what it means to have a biological designation of being male in the context of culture, society, and human interaction.

From Encyclopedia of Gender and Society
Psychoanalytic feminism asserts that through the use of psychoanalytical techniques aimed at examining how gender is constructed, as well as differences between men and women, it is possible to alter socialization patterns at the early stages of childhood, primarily before the age of 3.