Feminist

The modern's women's movement. The theory's origin is of the assumption that women are at a disadvantage point in society.  Female based therapies developed from merging this viewpoint with traditional based therapy. Feminist theory and therapy emerged as a direct response from ties.

In the 1960s, feminism emerged with events such as the marketing of the first birth control pill (1960), the publishing of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963), the Equal Pay Act of 1963, and the formation of the National Organization for Women (NOW) (1966).  

 The Feminist Theory continued to develop through analyzing women’s social roles in such areas as:

• Economics
• Literary
• Philosophy
• Pyschoanalysis

Key points of research on the condition of women in society are in:

• Discrimination
• Sexual objectification
• Oppression

There are many contributors responsible for this movement to name but a few notable persons are:  Jean Miller, Susan Bordo, Elaine Showalter, and Bell Hooks.

Miller (1928-2006) focused to prove that the patriarchy and capitalistic society was to blame and that "there was nothing wrong with women but rather with the way modern culture viewed them."

 

 

 

     

Bordo's work claimed that the body has been traditionally associated with the female and the mind with the male. She set out to show that this binary treatment such as he/she, solidifies generalizations. This supports the notion that women are property, objects and exchangeable commodities. We see this in our media daily in fashion, marketing and now, in the medical field under cosmetics. 

 

 

 

Elaine Showalter, highlights that our literary history is male biased therefore women are naturally in a subordinate position. An example is God being a male. 

 


 

 

 

Contemporary Bell Hooks, a member a the second wave of feminism, aligns herself as an advocate of feminism rather than being a feminist. She encourages that only with men supporting the movement, will the consciousness of men and thus society, be changed as a whole. 

Feminist therapy is utilized in a general manner in society for short-term therapy focusing on the individual and making a social change.

 

 

The goal of the therapy is to recognize the disadvantaged forces, create a solution and empower the client.

 

Techniques used in the therapy are integrating a feminist analysis, recognizing the client's socioeconomically status in access to mental health care, and accepting and validating the client's experience and feelings.

 

Links and Resources

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