Intellectual Experience Post 1

History of Feminism in Philosophy Lectures

Source: Oxford Philosophy Department

Dr. Pamela Sue Anderson is a brilliant philosopher and I had the honor of attending her lectures on the History of Feminism in Philosophy.  These lectures were the first feminism lectures in the history of Oxford according to Dr. Anderson.

The first lecture in the 8 week series set up the definitions for not only the waves of feminism in philosophy but a few different types of feminism. In this context, we used the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792 as the beginning of the first wave of feminism. The publication of Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex in 1949 marked the beginning of the second wave. We used a less firm date for the beginning of the third wave of feminism leaving the date at either 1974 with either Luce Irigaray's Speculum of the Other Woman  or bell hooks' Ain't I a Woman in 1981. Along with waves of feminism there are different types of feminism including liberal, radical, Marxist, and Post-structuralist.

To quote bell hooks, "Feminism is for everybody."

This has been the hardest post to write because Dr. Anderson's seminars were incredibly complex and covered a vast amount of material. I was also there sitting in awe of the great minds around me including my tutor and Dr. Anderson.

Feminism is not a dirty word and feminism is only guilty of trying to make the world a better place.