What is liberal feminism?

Liberal feminism has been called the main form of feminism of all the subtypes.

Liberal feminism is said to be an individualistic form, concentrating on women having the ability to maintain their equality by being responsible for their own actions and choices.

The ideology of the liberal feminist is that women will transform society through their own personal interactions with the opposite sex.

The liberal feminist believes that “all women are capable of asserting their ability to achieve equality, therefore it is possible for change to occur without altering the fabric of society.”

Liberal feminists also believe that the equality of men and women can only be achieved through changes that are made through political and legal reforms. They want the eradication of institutional bias and the implementation of fairer laws towards women.

Some of the major issues of liberal feminism include abortion and reproductive rights, sexual harassment, voting rights, education, affordable child care, and affordable health care.

Liberal feminists in the United States campaign for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and the Constitutional Fairness Amendment. They want to make sure that men and women are treated as equals under the democratic laws that influence and govern women’s lives.

They also bring to the fore the issues of sexual and domestic violence perpetrated against women.

Other issues that liberal feminists identify with are disability rights, ecofeminism, family, marriage equality, mother’s economic rights, and media activism.

Liberal feminist writers Mary Wollstonecraft and John Stuart Mill published within the first wave of feminism during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The second wave of feminism during the 1960s and 1970s produced liberal feminist writers like Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem and Rebecca Walker, who is one of the third wave liberal feminist writers.

Critics of liberal feminism say, “Individual assumptions make it difficult to see the ways in which underlying social structures and values ​​harm women.”

They claim that even if a woman is no longer dependent on an individual man, she will still live in a patriarchal state. Therefore, institutional changes alone are insufficient to give women equality in society.

The liberal feminist has also been criticized for drawing on the issues of middle-class white women. It was pointed out that they had ignored the plight of other women of different races, cultures or classes.