Feminism

Feminism is usually thought of as a political and/ or social movement, but it also includes the analysis of power in its various forms as it relates to women. It advocates critical inquiry into the more and less obvious mechanisms that distribute power. One cannot state that feminism is a movement advocating equality for women, because some feminists argue that standards of equality developed by the state are based on the exclusion of female identity: The abstract neutral citizen is presumed to be male. Feminist political theory includes a consideration of political action, institutions, movements, social change, and cultural practices, in addition to developing lens of analyses to understand how power is distributed, redistributed, and challenged. Feminist political practice has often aimed at inclusion into the political process and advocated for transformations of governance and the policies of institutions so that they serve the interests of the population in its entirety.

Feminism has proven to be particularly important for the field of political theory, as it points out how our ideas about femininity and masculinity have structured the opportunities available to and expectations for all human beings. Feminism recognizes how ideas and perceptions create the social world. One characteristic of feminism has been to develop a stronger linkage between theory and practice, seeing that challenging commonly held ideas can lead to changing practices, and that emerging practices can challenge received wisdom. For this reason, it is impossible to segregate feminist political theory and feminist political movements; they need to be considered in conjunction with one another. The development of new forms of critique has spurred feminist political action, and [Page 500]feminist political action has changed theoretical analytics of power.