SOME PROBLEMS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN’S MOVEMENT AND THEORY OF FEMINISM

AYUPOVA Zaure Karimovna

Kazakh national university named after Al-Farabi

Department of international relations,

Doctor of law, professor of the Chair of international law,

Fulbright Scholar

KUSSAINOV Daurenbek Omirbekovich

Kazakh national pedagogical university named after Abai,

Doctor of philosophy, professor of the Chair

of social-humanitarian disciplines

In the middle of the XIX century, women began to win the legal rights and freedoms. In various cultures and civilizations of the past, women held very different position. Some of them didn’t possess the property; others enjoyed their rights, protected by law. But even then, men had more rights, and considered themselves superior to women. The first woman, who wrote about the rights and dignity of the same sex, was probably the Frenchwoman Christine de Pisa (1364-1430) [1]. In her “Book of the City of Women”, published in 1504, she defended the rights of women to education and political influence. One of the earliest documents written in the spirit of feminist ideology is the “Declaration of the Rights of Women and Citizen” published French writer Olympe de Gouges in 1791 [2, p.29]. The classic textbook on Feminism was written by the English writer Mary Wollstonecraft, “Women's Rights”. It was published during the French Revolution. In 1848 Seneca Falls (New York) published “Declaration of Sentiments” and a series of resolutions on the rights of women, which begun to develop proper feminist thought and organized women's movement. “Declaration of Sentiments” was published in USA in order to response to the proclamation before the Declaration of Independence. It was addressed to the issues of social, civil and religious rights and freedoms of women. Its authors dreamed to bring the status of women. It was stressed that the revolution in the United States gave the women the promises that have not been implemented [3, p.70-71].

Early feminists used the term “feminism” and called themselves “advocates for the rights of women”. The word “feminism” is derived from the Latin “femina”, that means a woman. It was introduced into scientific socialism by the French thinker Charles Fourier in the first half of the XIX century. He wrote about “new woman”, who will participate in the change of social life, and at the same time, the change in a society based on association and reciprocity. Fourier stressed that “the empowerment of women - is the main source of social progress” [4, p.174]. But the main founding father of feminism (gender feminism), which is known to the world today, is Friedrich Engels, who in his work “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State” defined the oppression of women as the most ancient and most brutal form of oppression someone else in history [5].

In the middle of the XIX century in the United Kingdom and the United States of America began the campaign for voting rights, which have acquired a number of supporters, but almost did not succeed in the fight against the traditional views of society [6, p.70].  Few liberal states (New Zealand, Australia, Finland, Norway) gave the women the right to vote before the First World War. The Second World War and the subsequent recovery obscured feminism, although the feminists have not gone away, they just become noticeable. However, by the mid-60s of the XX century in the United States of America appeared the forms of the movement for women's rights.

The development of the women's movement and feminist thought since the late 60's. contributed to a rethinking of many traditional theories do not account for the value of gender differences in the society [7, p.14]. Feminist scholars have drawn attention to the division of role between the sexes, which is characteristic of all societies, ancient and modern, and have shown the political significance of such a separation. In the XX century Feminism has evolved into a certain ideology that offers such concepts and theories that challenged many of the traditional claims of political thought. For example, pointed to the political nature of the relationships between the sexes, male dominance and subordination of women in most or even all societies. Many thinkers also note the gender inequality, but recognized it as continuing and even desirable features of social life.

It is impossible to talk about feminism as some monolithic ideology (even if feminism was one ever). At least four different directions in feminism - liberal, Marxist, radical, socialist - offer their vision of the causes and mechanisms of oppression of women, their decision theory of women's issues as a global issue. Not considering them specifically in this section, we only point out some basic differences.

From the point of view of radical feminism oppression of women - is the result of the operation of patriarchy, i.e., a system of domination in which men as a group have power over women as a group. Some scholars (AV. Borodina, D.Y. Borodin) define “matriarchy as the mirror image of patriarchy. Contrast suggests symmetry antonym, reflection phenomena with opposite sign, side of the coin” [8, p.11].

In the Marxist feminist analysis, the main source of oppression serves capitalism. The dominance of men in society is seen here as a direct consequence of the domination of capital over labor. Liberal feminism as opposed to radical and Marxist does not believe that the system - the patriarchy or capitalism - determines the oppression of women. Liberal feminism sees the problem in men's prejudices about women's equality, “preserved” in the law and expressed in the exclusion of women from specific areas of life.

In modern science, a universal definition for such a multi-faceted and internally contradictory phenomenon as feminism does not exist. The Oxford Dictionary of Sociology Feminism is defined as the theory of equality in society, but also as a social movement in order to achieve equality between the sexes, especially through the empowerment of women in all spheres of life [9, p.178]. In “The Encyclopedia of feminism” L. Tuttle said the existence of more than 300 definitions of “feminism”. The author notes that “at present there is only a set of individual definitions of feminism, and its fundamental definition is still under discussion” [10, p.107].

The collapse of the Soviet Union, the unification of the two German states, the independence of countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Bosnia, etc. accelerating the formation of market relations, privatization of property and its privatization has been accompanied by social inequality, made changes to the development of national women's movements [11, p.65-77]. In Russia, the state forms of the women's movement controlled by the Union of Women, thus, in fact, unify all aspects of political life of the female population. Unfortunately, the women themselves manifested dogmatic thinking, self-doubt. The awakening of the female energy in most of the CIS countries began when the accelerated formation of market relations has led to the feminization of poverty. Experience of Western women's movement has shown that only an independent, articulated by the women themselves, and not for them, the strategy can actually change the position of women in society and, thus, to make itself a more human society [11, p.71].

Modern feminism domestic researchers interpret it differently. S.G. Aivazova, author of numerous studies on the theory and history of the women's movement, defines feminism as “the philosophy or ideology, even not so much of women's equality as the liberation of the individual from the oppressive power type, separation, autonomy of the individual from the generic principles” [12, p.25].

In the XX century, the practice of feminist social and political movement for women's equality has grown into a general cultural phenomenon from the expanded scale philosophical concept, based on gender-based methodology. According to feminist philosophy, not gender, but gender causes psychological qualities, abilities, activities, occupations of men and women through education, traditions and customs, legal and ethical standards.

Thus, originally initiated in the framework of Western culture as an area of struggle for the universal freedom of the individual (freedom of women from the “machismo”), feminism now tends to become a global phenomenon [1].

In the conclusion we would like to stress the following: during the centuries in the most countries and cultures, women are treated as essentially inferior. Beyond it's clearly stated function of motherhood and housework. The first reformist ideas were associated generally with the idea of recognizing all people “equal before God”. Thus, the first course of feminism focused on the recognition of individual rights for women - to have an opinion and be able to express it. Subsequently, in the course of its development the women's movement has been slowly fight for social and economic rights - the right to education, right to work. It was only in the mid-XX-th century, actualized the issue of achieving gender equality in governance and politics. Only relatively recently, women began to fight for their civil and political rights, almost have received the right to elect and be elected, to choose citizenship, etc. In this sense, the enormous achievements in the field of gender equity were achieved in the XX-th century. In less than a hundred years the women's movement all over the world has been actively evolved and is able to achieve great changes in the society and in people's minds.

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