ABSTRACT Table of contents I Introduction All women display extraordinary resilience , bravery and compassion (Sophie McBain, 2018); however, no matter how excellent they are in this society, discrimination against women is obvious Unequal social status, gender wage gap and violence are apparently seen as normal circumstances Therefore, in order to gain parity, female have raised their voices in education, politics, culture, morality and so on Due to this trend, feminism has been given birth with the aim to equalize, and has led to a number of impacts, both positive and negative Thus, this paper based on secondary data, will discuss the definition, the development of feminism and its effects on society II Discussion of findings What is the concept of Feminism? The term Feminism originated from a French phrase “ féminisme” which was first used by a French socialist Charles Fourier in 1837 to illustrate the emancipation of women In the late 1880s, this phrase appeared in Hubertine Auclert’ s journal “La Citoyenne as La Feminitè” to criticize male domination (Amina, 2014) By the first decade of the twentieth century, the term appeared first in Britain and America, then in the 1920s in the Arab World Lara Huda Faris (2013) once described: “…women have traditionally been dehumanized by a male dominated society, which they call patriarchy ” What’s more, based on biological differences reflected in the organization of society between the two sexes, women have been treated as inferior to men Consequently, “feminism” was born to achieve social justice with the belief that women should be given the same rights and opportunities as men politically and sociologically (Oxford English Dictionary, 1895) This term represents women’s feelings and wishes to spread equality symbol in all aspects of live all over the globe despite painful segregation and hard inequality Furthermore, this term does not involve the preferential treatment of the feminine over the masculine or the against of women towards men, on the other hand, advocating gender equality in terms of social rights, treatment respect , interests and in all chances Waves of Feminism It is wondered by how Feminism paved the way for women to be the significantly important creature after painfully suffering for ages The history of Feminism had witnessed so many activities or could be called The Three Waves 2.1 The First Feminist Wave: Votes for Women When arguing about the right to vote currently, all people would say that individuals can freely vote, choose and give their opinions no matter whether he is a man or not Unfortunately, this did not take place centuries ago It took more than a century of struggle to achieve full voting rights for all women regardless of age, race, or marital status; hence, it can be easily justified Juliet Mitchell’s claim that feminism is ‘the longest revolution’ The first Feminist Wave dates back to World War I, when members of the National Women’s Party (NWP) made a strike in USA outside the White House They were carrying banners about the undemocratic practices done by the government over American women in order to internationally prove to leaders of the world that there were no dreams and happiness in the land of dreams The National Womens Party in USA was considered as an illicit party since it mentioned bizarre things about American government by doing parades, marches, picketing mainly the White House (Campbell, 1989) During the World War I, without the control of men in public places, women were not allowed to anything Male domination over women mainly existed in all the fields with no exception Women were judged and be given a stereotypical image as no more than a housekeeper, a mother and a wife (Susan Faludi,1991) Mentioned in The Subjection of Women (John Stuart Mill, 1869) the wife is bond servant of her husband, restricted in terms of the ownership of property, not having the full rights over her body The first wave of feminism in the United States, in the early stages, was interwoven with other reform movements, which enabled woman to get involved in all the fields not only politics or voting The well-known work of Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), which was one of the earliest self-consciously feminist works, mentioned the first wave as a revolution Due to the popularity of several suffrage societies like Women’s Social & Political Union (WSPU) or National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), the government decided to introduce forced feeding to suffragette in prison to deal with this problem, then all of this came to an end with the First World War Undoubtedly, the first wave stressed the common human nature that must be valued regardless of sex, setting the stage and paving the way for the second (Giddens, 2009) 2.2 The Second Feminist Wave: The Personal is Political The scholar Estelle Freedman compares the first and second wave feminism saying that the first wave focused on rights such as suffrage, while the second wave was largely concerned with both public and private injustices The term second-wave feminism referred mostly to the radical feminism and mainly to Women’s liberation movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and it was seen that women’s cultural and political inequalities was inextricably linked There was a competition called Miss America Pageants in 1968 and 1969 in which woman was presented as cattle: therefore, this event made feminists in America and some other nations feel angry Trying to stop this event by throwing bras, false eyelashes, make-up and high heels into a trash can in front of reporters, they wanted to prove the world that woman is equal creature as men, not just a marionette in the hands of man In 1949, The Second Sex, a ground-breaking book published by Simone de Beauvoir, demonstrated how women were viewed by societies and the role in which they played Her work represents how society fosters the idea of what women should or behave, forcing women upon gender roles and the like In that period, women; therefore, were not only looking for equality but they also wanted to be dependent in all aspects of lives , containing her body and feelings Those ideas were discussed and expanded in Women, Resistance, and Revolution (1972) and Women, Race, and Class (1981) written by Sheila Rowbotham and Angela Y Davis respectively ( Amina, 2014) The fault of the system in restricting women to the household and menial tasks was also highlighted in The Feminine Mystique (1963) by Betty Friedan, contributing to individuality and identity loss In 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded, under Friedan- the first President, attempting to enforce more job opportunities for women This organization had achieved many victories, and the image of women as simply “domestic goddesses” was altered Housework and gender roles are politically relevant for women and must be brought into the public sphere The act of building woman identity had proved women all over the world the right to live the way she likes by all means This wave can be characterized by a solidarity feeling among women fighting for equality, bringing them into the mainstream; nonetheless, it had its mistakes By learning from these will determine what shape the movement takes next 2.3 The Third Feminist Wave: Transversal Politics In Beyond Patching: Faith and Feminism in the Catholic Church (1991) written by Schneiders, the third wave feminism was described as a movement of liberation with a fundamental reimagination of humanity in relation to reality, including non-human creation At that time, the weakening of the welfare state made the governments reduce their support to women and oppose affirmative action (LeGates, 2001) By all means, this was an effective activity because of its leaders By preparing several parties about young women interets, they wanted women to love themselves both from the inside and outside also believed in their abilities to change the world New ideas about feminism soon were spread by using new methods of technology like TV, magazines, radio and recently the net Moreover, many works related to this idea are to remove the stereotypical pictures of women and to build new images of women’s rights in the Riot girls: Hillary Belzer: Words + Guitar: The Riot Grrrl Movement and ThirdWave Feminism (Thesis, Georgetown University, USA, 2004) Additionally, Third wave’s spirit shone through the raw honesty, humour, and horror of Eve Ensler’s book The Vagina Monologues, an exploration of women’s feelings about sexuality that included vagina-centred topics as diverse as orgasm, birth, and rape Nevertheless, according to some points of view, the third wave of feminism was not strong enough as it lacked a cohesive goal and promiscuity , and it usually seen as an extension of the second wave More importantly, it does not have a set definition that can distinguish itself and its different goals from second-wave feminism However, there is no doubt that they have paved the way to other activities to appear and help woman to get her social, political, cultural, religious and sexual rights in its own different ways The impacts of Feminism Undoubtedly, having faced countless forms of discrimination, women attempt in seeking equality in the social, political is laudable However, there are differences between hostile and benevolent feminism 3.1 Negative points Professing Feminism: Cautionary Tales from the Strange World of Women's Studies coauthored by Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge has shown endless examples of irrational and blatantly falsifiable feminist positions Some forms of feminism have been harmful in which they built an ideological anti-male foundation Wishing away sex differences, and creating imaginary narratives about the power of socialization in shaping all sex differences, seem idiotic It does not take a sophisticated Darwinist to recognize that we are a sexually dimorphic and sexually reproducing species Specifically, feminist biochemistry proposes that DNA is an instrument of male dominance as evidenced by its "master molecule" narrative (McElroy, 1996) By definition, this implies that men and women possess some innate biological-based differences Moreover, public money are used by feminists to create services for women; however, they deny those services to men Men are told that women are just like them get out in the real world and find that women still want to be treated like women 3.2 Positive points The U.S Constitution’ s guaranteeing women the right to vote was brought by the feminist activists of the 19th century Perhaps Title IX should also be mentioned, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in education, also a result of feminist activism; the Violence Against Women Act as well as the Family and Medical Leave Act In fact, the theory and practice of feminism has had significant and longstanding impacts on society, transforming and benefiting the lives of women and girls in the U.S and worldwide Feminism has challenged and confronted social injustices; addressed the intersecting impacts of gender, culture, nation, religion, sexual orientation, and disability; and drawn attention to countless other compelling instances of inequity and oppression For centuries feminists all over the world have worked to identify, interrogate, and redress the real and complex problems that have undermined and threatened women's and girls' well-being It's been a tough road Women seeking the most basic civil rights — the right to vote, the right to own property, the right to work, the right to control one's own body In the 1890s, journalist Ida B Wells' business office was burned, and she was forced to flee the South when she challenged the racist myths behind lynchings The British suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst was force-fed in prison Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year-old Pakistani girl, was shot for promoting girls' education We owe these feminists a great debt The work of feminism continues to sustain and change our local communities III Conclusions This research aims to demonstrate how women have raised their voices for gender equality, and fight against social injustices As has been mentioned in Thornton Wilder's play The Skin of our Teeth: "We're not what you're all told and what you think we are We're ourselves And if any man can find one of us, he'll learn why the whole universe was set in motion." ... discuss the definition, the development of feminism and its effects on society II Discussion of findings What is the concept of Feminism? The term Feminism originated from a French phrase “ féminisme”... chances Waves of Feminism It is wondered by how Feminism paved the way for women to be the significantly important creature after painfully suffering for ages The history of Feminism had witnessed... second wave feminism saying that the first wave focused on rights such as suffrage, while the second wave was largely concerned with both public and private injustices The term second-wave feminism