Feminism

The term feminism refers to movements that strive for improvements for people aimed perceived as women. The aim is to achieve the same rights and opportunities and the same appreciation as men. The term feminism is further subdivided into the political and social theory that focuses on the construed differences and inequalities between genders, and social movements that fight against the patriarchy, misogyny and sexism and for equal opportunities for women.

Over time, different feminist movements have developed across various countries, advocating different values, aims and approaches. Originating in the USA in the mid 1990s, criticism grew against a too White, too eurocentrical feminism as the various experiences of discrimination from women across the world were reduced to universal feminist theories. Upon the initiative of the African American feminist and lyricist Audre Lorde, Katharina Oguntoye and Katja Kinder formed the first organized Black women’s movement in Germany.

The intersectional approach from the USA places a greater focus on construction and distinction into categories such as man/woman or Black/White and ultimately also considers queer gender identities in feminism. Queer feminism criticizes previous feminist movements for failing to deconstruct the binary, patriarchal and hierarchical gender system, although it is the original source of the discrimination of people perceived as women and thus discriminates against gender identities outside the binary system. Queer feminist movements follow an intersectional perspective that also takes racism, classism and other types of discrimination into account. In contrast, TERFs (“trans-exclusionary radical feminists”) take an anti-trans position by denying the existence of other gender identities, in particular of transgender people. For example, they do not recognize a trans woman as a woman, but rather they continue to view them as a man and as a threat to women.

The terms feminism or feminist are used in a derogatory manner by some groups to discredit certain people or groups of people who claim male privilege or inequality and demand change (see antifeminism).

Source: IDA-NRW; Digitales Deutsches Frauenarchiv; frauenseiten.bremen