What Is Feminism?

Stereotypes of feminists are almost as commonplace as stereotypes of women in general and certainly as unflattering. For some people, particularly men, feminists are women with hairy legs; for others they are aggressive, strident women; for yet others, they are women who are afraid of men and who seek the protection of women's company as a shield against a harsh, violent masculinist world. Even for those women who identify themselves as feminists or with feminist issues, there is confusion over the debates that rage within feminism, over the different kinds of feminism and the relationship between women's struggles and struggles against other forms of oppression and exploitation. This paper tries to make sense of these issues by examining in turn the five main categories of feminism which prevail today; namely “liberal feminism”, “radical feminism”, “marxist feminism”, “socialist feminism” and “feminism in the third world”.