Feminist Issues In The 21st Century

Feminist issues have always been controversial throughout history and gender topics remain debatable matters in the context of the democratic society of the 21st century. Social, political and economic inequality between men and women are still important issues for the contemporary world. Women’s rights concerning motherhood or abortion, domestic violence within the family, the right to equal pay or sexual discrimination and harassment are all issues that are frequently debated in the society of our century. The first point to be made , when discussing feminist issues is the fact that the concept of gender is usually defined in terms of social performance. Gender does not exist as such, but is the product of social practice.It is “continually produced, reproduced, and indeed changed through people’s performance of gendered acts, as they project their own claimed gendered identities, ratify or challenge others’ identities, and in various ways support or challenge systems of gender relations and privilege”. Charlotte Bronte

From the very beginning of the novel Jane has the courage to defy her aunt when she is unfairly punished in the red room. The cultural and social context of the age must be taken into account when analyzing such behavior. At the time, Jane Eyre’s gesture of talking back to people was totally improper, because women especially poor ones were expected to meekly accept their lot in life. But she cannot keep quiet and merely accept her condition as a poor orphan, because at the end of her discourse, she feels her soul begin "to expand, to exult, with the strangest sense of freedom, of triumph, I ever felt... as if an invisible bond had burst and that I had struggled out into unhoped-for liberty". This is the beginning of a spirit that Jane carries forward into her future relationships with men, beginning with the detestable Mr.