Skip to main content
Oxford English Dictionary
Advanced search
More informations
Revised 2012

feminismnoun

Quotations

Contents

Earlier version

  1. 1.
    1841–
    Feminine quality or character; femininity. Now rare.
    1. 1841
      Feminism, the qualities of females.
      Webster's American Dictionary English Language (revised edition) App. 963/1
    2. 1857
      Femminezza, feminality, feminism.
      J. Millhouse, New Eng. & Italian Dictionary (ed. 2) vol. II. 224/2
    3. 1898
      It is quite different with modern women's books of the introspective type... In them the true spirit of feminism dwells.
      Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine January 104/2
    4. 1915
      As a male corset wearer and with a strong strain of feminism in my nature, I have had some years' experience of corset wearing and the use of girls' clothing.
      in P. Farrer, Confidential Correspondence on Cross Dressing (1997) 100
  2. 2.
    1875–
    Medicine. The appearance of female secondary sexual characteristics in a male individual; feminization. Now rare or disused.
    1. 1875
      These attributes M. Lorrain designates by the terms infantilism and feminism.
      Medical Times & Gazette 24 July 105/1
    2. 1907
      Feminism in man on the other hand is characterized by masculine genital organs, little developed, feminine attitude and gait, large pelvis, prominent hips, [etc.].
      Med. Fortnightly 25 July 352/1
    3. 1945
      The symptoms of adrenal virilism and feminism are caused by an excessive production of androgen or oestrogen by the adrenal.
      H. Burrows, Biological Actions of Sex Hormones xxiii. 453
    medicinedisused
  3. 3.
    1893–
    Advocacy of equality of the sexes and the establishment of the political, social, and economic rights of the female sex; the movement associated with this (see note below). Cf. womanism n., women's liberation n.
    post-, radical feminism: see the first element.
    The issue of rights for women first became prominent during the French and American revolutions in the late 18th cent., with regard especially to property rights, the marriage relationship, and the right to vote. In Britain it was not until the emergence of the suffragette movement in the late 19th cent. that there was significant political change. A ‘second wave’ of feminism arose in the 1960s, concerned especially with economic and social discrimination, with an emphasis on unity and sisterhood. A more diverse ‘third wave’ is sometimes considered to have arisen in the 1980s and 1990s, as a reaction against the perceived lack of focus on class and race issues in earlier movements.
    1. 1893
      Questions relative to the ‘Rights of Women’ are the order of the day, and Feminism gains ground from year to year in all civilized countries.
      Literary Digest 1 April 591/1
    2. 1897
      You alluded, Mr. Goldwin Smith, somewhat disparagingly, to that phase of feminism which is so curious a feature of the present day.
      Daily News 6 September 8/6
    3. 1909
      Suffragists, suffragettes, and all the other phases in the crescendo of feminism.
      Daily Chronicle 29 May 4/4
    4. 1913
      I myself have never been able to find out precisely what Feminism is: I only know that people call me a Feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.
      ‘R. West’ in Clarion 14 November 5/2
    5. 1950
      Unlike sociologists and other tractarians, writers of fiction have recognized feminism as lying deeper than the demand for economic opportunity or political enfranchisement.
      J. L. Jessup, Faith of Our Feminists i. 10
    6. 1971
      In the radical feminist view, the new feminism is not just the revival of a serious political movement for social equality.
      S. Firestone, Dialectic of Sex ii. 16
    7. 2011
      Nowadays, saying bad stuff about men is not how feminism conducts itself.
      Guardian 15 January 33/5