19th Century Feminist Analysis

The feminists of the 19th century have actively discussed the question of religion and gender equality. And despite the claims about the question of religion being left out of the discourses of the feminists in the 20th century (Ann Braude 2004), we can prove the contrary and show that the 20th century women’s rights campaigners viewed critique of religion as fundamental to the advancement of women’s rights. It is true, however, that the role of religions in women’s lives was now less discussed by feminist theorists as they moved to a profound critique of religious institutions. Thus, with this I once again support my argument that the secular discourse was a prominent discourse of the feminists in the 20th century as well. This period only

More feminists today tend to rethink secularism in the context of globalisation and multicultural society by suggesting that multiculturalism requires acceptance of communatarism, where religious communities can practice their traditions and culture even when those contradict with “western notion of human rights”. By the late 1980s, there were clear signs of adopting new way of thinking following the suggested failure of feminism of the 20th century. In this time new feminist discourses emerged, different in aspiration and visions including to the question of religion. Among those discourses is multiculturalism and above all, the emergence of a notion about Religious feminism as a distinctive political movement with a prominent example of Islamic feminism. Mir-Hosseini describes this phenomenon as ‘feminist in its aspiration and demands, yet Islamic in its language and sources of legitimacy.’ Thus, the secular characteristics of feminism, even if still strongly manifested in western Europe, now often clash with new wave of religious and multicultural discourses. Sheila Jeffreys writes that recently it has become more and more difficult for feminists to criticise religion and point its harm to women’s rights. She suggests that there has been a rise of

This leads some to even distinguish those two discourses as two different feminism-s. As it was shown in the previous section, I argue that the modern feminist movement is philosophically closer to secularism and managed to depart from religious perspective on gender issues. From the beginning of the 20th century mainstream western feminism rarely argued for women’s rights in religious terms and more often vigorously opposed religious influence on public sphere, claiming religion is a matter of private life. Even if I still will argue that the majority of actual feminist discourses remain secular and feminist scholarship continues to express critical thought towards religions, I have to acknowledge a recent visible shift and emergence of new religious and communataurist feminist arguments. Suggested by many scholars “return of religions” and theories of “post-secularism” may help to understand this new trend in feminism. Post-secularasim refers to current times in which the idea of modernity is perceived as failing and, at times, morally unsuccessful, so that, rather than a stratification or separation, a new peaceful dialogue and tolerant coexistence between the spheres of faith and reason must be sought in order to learn mutually. (Buston, Fernando del.