What Does Women's Suffrage Have to do with Modern Liberal Feminism?

In contrast to the modern definition of Liberal Feminism, it is understandably difficult to associate it with the traditionally held understanding of women’s suffrage movement of the early Twentieth century. The goals that were introduced at that time were arguably less prodigious than those of modern day feminists. However, those goals were the beginning of a concept of equality under the law that persists as the basis for the modern day Liberal Feminist Movement. Many feminists at that time were hoping merely to add their voice to the democratic process without the need to be married and vote vicariously through their husbands. Yet, as that voice gained courage and momentum feminists sought, not only influence the government, but to be considered equals under its jurisdiction.


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Women's Empowerment in the Workplace: Why Equality Doesn't Cut It

When Peggy McIntosh wrote her ground-breaking treatise on white privilege her beginning statements outlined that the impetus for her ability to notice these privileges was born out of her research on male privilege in general. It was this inception which allowed her to extend her understanding of a hierarchical society to include white privilege as a whole. Meaning that, while men in general have intrinsic privileges that women do not, white women are also intrinsically over-privileged, with relation to black women and men because of their color.

Her premise in “Unpacking the Invisible Backpack” mentions a school-mate and colleague, who puts it quite succinctly,

“Whites are taught to think of their lives as a morally neutral, normative, and average, also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work which will allow “them” to be more like ‘us’.”

While she was referring to the on-going problem of racial privilege, it also quite aptly describes the innate problem with the emergence of women’s rights with in a man’s world.

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Female Genital Mutilation: The Facts

Female Genital Mutilation sometimes called Female Genital Cutting, is a practice where reconstructive surgery is performed on various parts of the vagina tissue with the intent to reduce sensation to the area. It has been suggested that Female Genital Mutilation could also be a significant factor in the acceleration of the spread of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and full-blown Aquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) through numerous mechanisms. There are many variants of this procedure and as many goals. The World Health Organization has divided the most common types into Four Basic Types.

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Title IX Coordinators: What Every Woman Needs to Know

In 1972 Congress passed a groundbreaking piece of legislation which required gender equity for boys and girls in every educational program that receives federal funding. In order to ensure compliance, each recipient of Federal Funding must designate a coordinator which oversees and regulates compliance. These coordinators provide, not only a lifeline for gender equality, they are the backbone which gives substance to the legislation by ensuring that the Title’s intentions are carried out to the letter of the law.

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Full Frontal Feminism Leaves Few Options for Teen Girls

Jessica Valenti is a popular, outspoken blogger from the feminist website Feministing.com who has taken her column to print in her new book, “Full Frontal Feminism”. The book touts itself as a wake-up call for a generation of young women who have grown up in a world spurred on by feminists but where the actual word “feminist”, carries for them a negative social connotation of pushy, angry, self-absorbed, man haters. While some view her book as an excellent primer for a group of girls not yet versed on the basics of feminist theory, others see it as an immature hodgepodge of dumbed down, self-help sound bites that neither educates nor adequately portrays neither the feminist struggle nor the ideals to which the fore-mothers of the women’s suffrage and feminist portions of the civil rights movement gave their passion, sweat and blood.

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