‘The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes’ (Oxford Dictionaries, n.d.) is how the Oxford English dictionary describes the term ‘feminism’, this simply cannot suffice; one is left unknowing of the 200 plus years of women, and men alike, fighting for the ‘second sex’(Beauvoir, 1949 (1997)) to stand alongside their male counterpart as equals. According to Miriam Schneir, Simone de Beauvoir wrote that the first woman to “take up her pen in defense of her sex” was Christine de Pizan in the 15th century (Schneir, 1972 (1994)). Since then, both women and men have ‘[taken up their pen]’ for the sake of women’s rights. Feminism has not only been portrayed through literary texts on the concept of feminism, such as Judith Butler’s ‘Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity’ (1989), but also, the idea that women are as strong as men has been laced within fiction novels such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘Herland’ (1915). The theory of feminism is also available to inform the feminist literary criticism, using feminist principles and ideology to critique works of literature. Seeking how the literature portrays the narrative of male domination by exploring the economic, social, political, and psychological forces embedded within literature. To properly delve into whether literary texts have somewhat accurately recounted the political climate surrounding the advances of gender equality, it is necessary to revise the four waves of feminism: the first wave being 1910s to the 1950s; the second wave being from the 1960s to the 1980s; the third from 1990s to 2008; and the fourth beginning in 2008 and continuing to the present day. With this, it is important to see how political culture has progressed in the sense of gender equality throughout these time periods; women are largely underrepresented in politics, and this can be seen with the number of female MPs who sit in the House of Commons. Although the number of sitting females has increased in 2010 from 143, to 208 in the recent 2017 election, this number is still less than half of the seats available in the Commons, and does not reflect the fact that over half of the UK’s population is in fact female. Hence, why some may argue that feminism has become a political movement, as well as social movement, as acts such as the Representation of the People Act in 1918, which extended the franchise to 8.4 million women, was a result of the momentum gathered by liberal thinkers such as John Stuart Mill (Parliament, n.d.), even though the Suffragettes had pushed for this right prior to World War 1. Yet, arguably although the feminist movement has made some progress in its social and political movements, the extent to which it has is not to a level in which we can say that the genders in modern Britain are ‘equal’.
The earliest feminist thought in Britain is often attributed to Mary Wollstonecraft, known as the grandmother of British feminism, who wrote The Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792. The historical development of the feminist movement in the country can be summarised through the ‘wave model’. The first wave of the feminist movement in Britain, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was mostly concerned with women’s civil rights. The campaign for the right to vote was led by suffragettes and suffragists, united under the leadership of Millicent Fawcett, and grew particularly strong and militant at times. Women above the age of 21 got the right to vote on par with men in 1928 in Britain. The second wave of feminism in Britain, in the 1960s and 70s, also known as the Women’s Liberation Movement or Women’s Lib, expanded feminist discussions to equality in marriage and the workplace; sex and sexuality; and violence against women. Notable developments included the introduction of the contraceptive pill (1961), sewing machinists at the Ford factory in Dagenham striking for equal pay (1968), and the passing of the Sex Discrimination Act (1975). From the 1990s onwards, the debate within feminism over diversity grew bigger. This third wave of feminism criticised the movement so far for focusing on issues of white, middle class women and ignoring the diverse experiences of women of different ethnicities, classes and cultural backgrounds. Instead, they argued, the movement should pay attention to how different kinds of discrimination overlapped, a process often referred to as intersectionality, in order to understand the complexity and diversity of women’s lived experiences (Crenshaw, 1989).
Society harbors an ambivalence over the term ‘feminism’; the stereotypical imagery of ‘bra-burners’ brandishing the minds of many upon hearing the ‘f-word’. In 2013, during an interview (Carter, 2013), David Cameron refused to ‘label’ himself a feminist, and yet “believe[s] men and women should be treated equally”. This refers to the large-scale reluctance of the public to define themselves as feminists. A poll taken by YouGov (Chambers, 2013), also in 2013, found that 66% of the British people stated that they were definitely mot feminists, though when asked about equal rights, 81% believed that men and women should have equal rights and status in society. This demonstrates the stigma attached to the political movement, and yet progression of this movement is not necessarily clear, four years on from the poll and Cameron’s interview. 2017 gave us the general election, which saw 208 female Members of Parliament elected, and the securing of the second female Prime Minister; Theresa May. Although this may be viewed as a clear win for the ‘second sex’, as these numbers have shown an increase since the 2015 election which only saw the election of 191 female MPs (Khomami, 2017), but this means that only 32% of the House of Commons is female. This equates to a distortion of 19%, seeing as though 51% of the British population is made up of women (Country Meters, 2017). It may be argued that equality of the genders is not necessarily with politics, due to the fact that an experienced politician is able to represent all factions of society, without necessarily belonging to that faction. Yet, this lack of representation for women in a male dominated collective may go some way to explain why women are seemingly disrespected within politics. Labour aimed to give more female MPs seats in the House of Commons through their implementation of all-women shortlists in the 2017 general election, as Jeremy Corbyn – Labour leader – tried to work towards his hope of a gender balanced parliament (Edwards, 2017). However, elsewhere in the Commons, proposals to increase the number of female MPs in the House was rejected (Elgot, 2017). All six proposals to give parliament more equal female representations, including fines for parties that do not select enough women as candidates were rejected, with the government saying they thought increasing women’s representation was an “important aim” but did not feel legislation was a viable way of bringing this about. Although women’s stance within politics has become somewhat more powerful, female MPs still face discrimination, both in and out of the Commons. For example, when speaking in the House, it has been noted that “MPs used to gesture like they were weighing their breasts when women spoke in Parliament” (Gillett, 2017), said Diane Abbott, who also said that “the culture for women has improved since [she] joined the House of Commons in 1987 but there is still a long way to go”. Similarly, the United Kingdom’s second biggest selling daily newspaper; the Daily Mail transformed two of the most powerful British female politicians to mere pin-up girls. Their headline ‘Never mind Brexit, who won Legs-it!’ (Henderson, 2017), which was also broadcast on Twitter, met with instant criticism from politicians and the public. Former Labour leader Ed Miliband replied with “The 1950s called and asked for their headline back. #everydaysexism” (Miliband, 2017), thus portraying the recognition that little progression has been made on behalf of the feminist movement in relation to treatment of women in professions such as politics. The fact that such an important negotiation as Brexit, was simply put aside to make a reference about the anatomies of two females, contradicts the whole essence of politics – to negotiate better conditions for a community by members who hold power. How can we, as a country, pride ourselves on our democracy when those who we elect into positions of power receive no respect from neither their colleagues nor the public, of whom their interests lie? Arguably, politics itself remains to be a ‘rich man’s game’, and this is also seen across the world, not just Britain; In 2016, the US presidential election and the Australian federal election confirmed it was not the year for political women. Hillary Clinton was denied the presidency, even though she won the popular vote, and fewer women now sit in Australian federal parliament. In a society that is becoming more aggravated by the use of the term ‘feminism’, the lack of gender equality in politics is not met with the same aggravation, which is unfortunate for the feminist movement.
The negative portrayal of women within literary texts has roots which stem back to Greek tragedies. Many Greek tragedies take place in a society in which women’s “very existence was a testimony to the gods’ hatred of mankind” (Arthur, 1998). Tales such as Medusa, featured a strong female character, whose beauty and fair maiden nature was taken from her after falling in love with Poseidon. Poseidon ‘wooed’ Medusa, making her forget her devotion to a life of celibacy, and so she was punished by Athena with her hair, which had once charmed her husband, being turned into snakes. Her eyes, now a weapon to turn men to stone, and her former milk-white skin was now of a greenish colour. This once beautiful and content female, was shunned by the world for simply falling in love, and yet Poseidon faced no consequence from this. Some depictions also claim that Poseidon in fact used Medusa to “humiliate Athena by raping [Medusa] on the steps of Athena’s temple”, and rather than coming to Medusa’s aid, Athena “looked down in anger and cursed Medusa for betraying her” (Oates, 2016). So rather than Medusa being the villain, one may be able to see a portrayal wherein Medusa is actually a victim, cursed to live in solitary through no fault of her own; a once beautiful and loyal female, attacked by a male, and cast aside by a female she adored. This conveying of Medusa as an enemy was similarly seen in the 2016 presidential election: Hillary Clinton was depicted as a Medusa-like character, wherein conservative writers argued “the reason no naked Hillary Clinton statues have appeared in public… is simply that anyone who saw them would turn instantly to stone” (Pollak, 2016). Meanwhile, her opponent Donald Trump has been portrayed as her conqueror, the Greek demigod Perseus. Medusa remains a potent icon during a period in which female leaders continue to be viewed skeptically. It has been seen that influential female figures such as Condoleezza Rice, Madonna, Angela Merkel and Theresa May have been ‘photoshopped’ to possess snake-like hair. These women who possess power made the same ‘mistake’ that Susan B. Anthony identified when she commented on the lack of women’s voices in 19th century newspapers: “Women… must echo the sentiment of these men. And if they do not do that, their heads are cut off.” With second wave feminism, many writers and artists started to re-evaluate the tale. “How to believe the stories I am told?” poet May Sarton asked of herself in 1971 when she looked on Medusa, and rather than turning to stone, she was “clothed in thought.” On a similar vein, feminist scholar Marija Gimbutas re-read the myth of Medusa as a beheading of early matriarchal societies by Greco-Roman culture. According to this interpretation, Poseidon’s rape of Medusa and Perseus’s subsequent beheading of her represent the same effort to legitimise male privilege by muting female authority. The image of Medusa has been used in the 20th century as a personification of women’s rage; Emily Erwin Culpepper wrote an article in the magazine ‘Woman of Power’, that “The Amazon Gorgon face is female fury personified. The Gorgon/Medusa image has been rapidly adopted by large numbers of feminists who recognize her as one face of our rage.” (Wilk, 2007)