FEMINIST WRITINGS (Pages 19-28) by Dr. R. Sangeetha in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

Feminism refers to an intense awareness of identity as a woman and interest in feminine problems. The term ‘feminism’ itself is used to describe a cultural, political or economic movement aiming for equal rights for both women and men. Many female writers and feminists argued that what they needed was recognition of what women need to fulfil their potential and their own natures and not only equality. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. Although the image and ideal of womanhood varied in all periods, it is strikingly clear that the one thing that these ideals had in common was that they created relatively great limitations for women, both in allowing them to forge a human identity and in enabling them to become active social and cultural subjects.eminism refers to an intense awareness of identity as a woman and interest in feminine problems. The term ‘feminism’ itself is used to describe a cultural, political or economic movement aiming for equal rights for both women and men. Many female writers and feminists argued that what they needed was recognition of what women need to fulfil their potential and their own natures and not only equality. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. Although the image and ideal of womanhood varied in all periods, it is strikingly clear that the one thing that these ideals had in common was that they created relatively great limitations for women, both in allowing them to forge a human identity and in enabling them to become active social and cultural subjects.Keywords: feminine problems, cultural, political or economic movement, female writers, human identity, fellow-creatures, calm generally etc.