The F-Word by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner & Fear of Feminism by Lisa Maria Hogeland

Quotes

"Truth famously encountered men who said that women are weak and 'need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches,' noting, 'I have ploughed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman?'"  Sojourner Truth was an African American woman who spoke against slavery and for women's rights.  Here she is denying mens' claims that women need the help of a man do to things.  She justifies this by saying that she has done much harder things in her lifetime (than getting in a carriage and stepping over a ditch) better than any man could ever do. She then says "And ain't I a women?" implying that all women can do what men do, and sometimes better.

"An amendment to the U.S. Constitution to give women the right to vote was first introduced, and defeated, in 1878.  The amendment was reintroduced every year for the next forty years before it finally passed.  In 1920 American women voted for the first time in a presidential election, after the Nineteenth Amendment was finally passed and ratified."  What does this show?  That women are persistent.  And without womens' persistence, we would probably not have gotten the amendment passed and would still have no rights.  In fact, the whole women's movement expresses persistence.  1878-1920, that’s 42 years that women persisted about the same thing once a year, every year, until we got what we wanted.  THAT IS PERSISTENCE.

"Fear of feminism, then, is not a fear of gender, but rather a fear of politics.  Fear of politics can be understood as a fear of living in consequences, a fear of reprisals."  Hogeland believes that the fear of feminism is not a fear of gender, but rather, a fear of politics.  This makes sense because politics play a great role in the issue of feminism.  Hogeland goes on to say that the fear of politics breaks down to a fear of living in consequence (that you voted for the wrong person I would assume), and a fear of being injured or possibly fined for voting and/or your beliefs. 

Check out women's rights in the UK:
http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/