Over the course of modern history, the immediate goals of feminists have changed to suit the times. However, the overarching goal has always been the promotion of equality for women both legally and socially. It has been argued that at times the movement has stepped far outside of that stated goal, which is probably true in some cases. Feminists in general take a holistic approach to politics, believing the saying of Martin Luther King Jr., "A threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". In that belief, feminists usually support other movements such as the [civil rights movement]? and the [gay rights movement]?.
Feminism has effected many changes on society, including womens' suffrage, broad employment for women at equivalent wages ("equal pay for equal work"), the right to divorce?, the right to abortion, and many others. As society has become increasingly accepting of feminist principles, some of these are no longer seen as specifically feminist, because they have been adopted by all or most people. Some beliefs that were radical for their time are now mainstream political thought. Almost no one in Western societies today questions the right of women to vote, a concept that seemed quite strange 200 years ago.
In some cases (notably equal pay for equal work) major advances have been made but feminists still struggle to achieve their complete goals.
Feminists are often proponents of of what is sometimes disparagingly referred to by its opponents as political correctness, using "Ms." to refer to both married and unmarried women, for example, or the ironic use of the term herstory instead of history. This view of language is sometimes associated the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, although feminists in most cases advance their desired language either to promote a respectful treatment of women or to affect the tone of political discourse, rather than in the belief that language directly affects reality.
Some notable feminists include:
See also Feminist Spirituality, Feminist science fiction
See also Lesbian (suggest we leave this link here for convenience until more pages are produced.)
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