Feminist Literature And How It Affects Today's Society / Literature

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Feminist Literature
Feminist politics was a dominant issue through the 1990’s. All over the world, women have been vocal in airing their opinions. It started with Japan in 1911 when independent feminist group called Seitoscha was formed. Other women followed suit advocating for equal rights for women. With the passage of time, even men joined in with the common goal of advocating for the rights of women all over the globe. From the 1960s, women of different races and nationalities joined in and started giving powerful responses to political and social issues surrounding them (Snodgrass 195). The endeavors of these people contributed significantly to some of the most important writings in the twentieth century and affected today’s society/literature significantly.
History of Feminist Literature
The first movement advocating for equal treatment for women started in New York in 1848. In a speech delivered by Elizabeth Stanton, she called on all women to stand up and speak for themselves for they alone would be able to know the problems that faced them (Rahaman n.p). Women during this era advocated for their education, employment, and legal rights. The campaign soon spread to the Western part of Europe and feminist groups all over the world started forming international alliances. Most work that is now considered feminist literature was written from 1960s. The period marked the “first wave” of feminism that focused on how men treated women. The criticism took on male novelists that demeaned marginalization or treatment of female characters.
The “second wave of feminism” was called gynocriticism that was pioneered by a book called “A Literature of Their Own (1977)” by Elaine Showalter. The focus of gynocriticism was considering how fema...