Feminism On Woman

Chapter I

On Woman

For a long time, since the beginning of the first wave movement of Feminism in the 19th century, the main goal has always been to liberate women in order to be equal to men. Though political rights have been achieved by the late 19th century which is the highlight of the first wave movement and economic independence has been granted to women as a result of the second wave movement, still women has not yet achieved the full liberation as the same men. This condition of women makes way to third wave movement that aims for social equality thus it seems that even until today, women are still left behind, to the point that we now question if “liberation” is attainable for women.

Beauvoir in this context stated that Woman has

In here, the human species has been divided into two; the male and female sex . Accordingly this division resulted from the assumption that “Woman is a womb”, where her existence has become necessary only to the perpetuation of human existence. Woman, as an incomplete being found its completeness through a man and when she bears a child in her womb, this has become her essence and a celebration of her “woman-ness”. The perception on woman has been based of her enslavement to her body, where she has been compelled to live as a woman and by that we mean to be a tool for reproduction. Further, to add to this, is the supposition that woman is a penis envy, where woman from the beginning is morally inferior to men. Freud asserts that in woman, while she is a girl and has discovered the absence of penis in her body, would feel envious. She is hurt on the fact that she cannot be like her father, a figure that she thinks is in power because of having penis. In here, Freud said that a girl develops Electra complex , she wish to be identified to her father that in the absence of penis, she would now opt to have a male child in the intention of “gaining” penis to compensate in her inferiority. Her desire towards her father has shifted to men in general where she becomes passive to

However there are still situations of women that are not been thoroughly modified, which leads us in the study of the condition of woman. Why she can’t completely transcend from her inferior state? From here we shall examine the factors that need to be considered: woman’s biological body, sexuality and economic worth. Also as she lived in the man’s world, how is she going to restrain from the imposed values that force her to remain in her inferior state. We will also inquire in Beauvoir’s concept of Independent woman to know if woman are likely to liberate herself from the system. But of course we must also identify what Patriarchal system is, and how it does affect woman’s condition and whether it is possible for woman to be fully liberated. Our goal is to first settle the condition of woman through her existing body and further turning to her situation in the society. Consequently we shall address whether Feminism is still significant in attaining gender equality, or is gender equality possible by all means. From here, the researcher will try to unfold the root cause of gender inequality by studying of the woman’s situation, since by disclosing the condition of woman we are also unveiling the condition of man in the