Feminist geographies . The intellectual and political significance Essay

Feminist geographies . The intellectual and political significance - Essay Example It was coined by the French philosopher Charles Fourier. It spread to Great Britain and America by the year, 1910 (HAAN, DASKALOVA And LOUTFI, 2006). Feminist Geography or Feminist theory is the expansion of the study of feminism into a wide horizon of issues and experiences that women encounter. It covers the realms of both philosophical and theoretical aspects of female rights and place. It is primarily aimed to fathom the fabric of gender inequality and its causes and effects on human nature and society; it investigates women’s experiences, social roles, interests, and studies and develops theories on feminist politics in fields such as sociology, philosophy, economics, anthropology, education, psychoanalysis, literary, communication. In addition, feminist theory expounds on female welfare, promotion of women’s interests and gender inequality. Research on Feminist theory revolves around two key points: 1, the research should analyze and expound on the state of women in society; 2, the research should be a derivative of the assumption that women are generally considered subordinates to men. However, it abstains from being excessively political and negates research that is conducted to only achieve gender equality. The fields of interest for researches on feminist theory are sexual objectification, patriarchy, art history, oppression, stereotyping, contemporary art and discrimination (KOLMAR And BARTKOWSKI, 2005). Feminist theory in the past has gone through many changes; from being a movement that just aimed at consolidating and establishing women as a universal entity, to being more motivated towards individuality, diversity and social differentiation. Modern-day feminism has assumed the role of promoting the following issues faced by women: equality in property law, voting rights and rights to run for office, equality in contract law, reproductive rights, this includes open access to contraceptives and abortion, physical integrity, equal pay f or women, articulation of for protection of women from domestic violence, sexual assault and sexual harassment. This has led to the advocacy for workplace rights, such as maternity leave. However, feminist theory has also concluded that for female rights and feminism to succeed, men should also be liberated and that men also suffer from gender inequality (HANNAM, 2007). The popularity and rise of feminism has produced different forms of political movements which have branched into a larger part of society, such as conservatism and liberalism, and some interlink feminism with environment. Liberal feminism aims to achieve individuality and equality of women and men through legal and political reforms without morphing the framework of culture and society. Radical feminism aims at extremes; it deems the notion and practice of male dominance on women through capitalist rule as the primary reason behind oppression on women, this leads to the advocacy of total conversion of society and imp lementation of rules that change the total outlook of society according to the manner that women desire. Furthermore, Conservative feminism only aims to achieve the basic human rights for women and stipulates that women should be conservative against men according to the society in which they live. Libertarian feminism believes that people are self-owners and thus entitled to govern themselves according to their wishes, in reference to women, and that