Introduction
Feminism is a collaborative attempt to strengthen the social, political and economic rights of women. It aims to address the concerns of women that created their other image. The other image reflects the negative nuances which the women faced through diverse perspectives, and at most of the times men were responsible. Feminist movement describe the ideologies and philosophies which are meant to strengthen the image of the women around the world. It mostly deals with the personal rights of women. Such personal rights have strong implications associated with them from cultural, political, social and economic perspectives. Feminists work in collaborations with other fellow women to establish a common stand for women in diverse fields of education, political participation and employment. Feminists support and promote the equality and rights of women, representing them as equivalent to men.
Feminist movements ponder innovative establishments to create positive image of the women. Their motto is to safeguard the equality and rights of the women. They conduct campaigns regarding the awareness of women towards their innate rights including right to vote, right to work, right to be paid equally, right to possess equal rights in marriage, right to own property, right to make decisions, and right to pursue education etcetera. One of the most important traits of feminism is that it campaigned about the equal employment status and equal pay. Postmodernism has its influence on the operation and functional strategy of feminism. It affects the immediate aspirations of the modern theorists that left a practical impact on the professional and personal life of women. The ideologies of feminism affect almost all the aspects of a society including Social, political and economic. All of these areas represent immediate fields that the feminist want to influence, and the feminist philosophies do affects the socio-political and economic structures of the society. Specifically speaking, wage gap is one of the important concerns that the feminists assess and address in order to gain equal status and equal pay. Various dogmas of the movements have constructed supporting auras that directly affects the economic status of women. For example, eradication of wage gap and assessment of equal rights so far as the employment is concerned.
Significance
The study intends to assess and address the economic concerns of women within the framework of employment opportunities and job contours. However, there are other aspects that dictate the social as well as economic status of women. These include qualification, experience, and good-fit for a specific position and of course, other personality traits that are helpful to portray women equally. The main purpose of the study is to look at the financial etiquettes of women through different perspectives. Broadly speaking, women face many hurdles due to their biological structure. For instance, they have to undergo maternity leave when they are pregnant but, the company or organization still has to pay them. Also, the company has to maintain their positions as they have legitimacy to join the work again. Such nuances have their impact on the economic status of women. Moreover, there other aspects that governs the socio-economic status of the women throughout the world, which the feminists address with apt aptitude. At the end, women are the main source of human resource, and they carryout domestic work in order to boost the human development. Such things find apt accountability in understanding the socio-economic status of women.
Review of literature
Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber, in her handbook, Feminist Research: Exploring, ‘Interrogating, and Transforming the Interconnections of Epistemology, Methodology, and Method’, provides a detailed set of diverse facets that paves better understanding of feminist approach to affect socio-economic perspectives of women positively (Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber, 13). There exists a consistent connectedness in critical theory, post-structural theory to postmodern theories under the shadow of postmodernism (Mazon, 7). However, the structural aspects involve their own researching differences including a term ‘other’ in the research process. Such sociological conceptions direct the influence of modern feminists (Yaiser, 18).
During Wilhelmine period (1888–1918), feminism began in Germany. It involves the participation of women for the betterment of women in order to revive the basic equal rights. Adolf Hitler stated, "Woman's world is her husband, her family, her children, her house" (Guenther, 11). However, the movement gained more dynamism in the 21st century. Similarly, French Feminism has its roots in French revolution.
Research objectives
The research study intends to:
Evaluate the socio-economic behaviour of working women.
Examine the employability status that is essential for personal and professional growth.
Analyse the prevalence wage gap among the working women.
Assess the quality of job as per the qualification of the women.
Investigate
Research questions
What are factors responsible for wage gap in context to working women?
How Does the holding jobs and paying mothers affect the company’s and the women’s economy?
What is the impact ‘holding jobs and paying mothers ‘on the legitimacy of potential mother's employment chances?
Hypotheses
Despite its consistent efforts, the feminist movement is still unable to eradicate the conception of wage gap even in so called develop countries.
Research methods
The researcher intends to implement a qualitative research method. Case study method seems much appropriate to collect the required information about the research study. This method would provide the researcher with valuable information about the contours of feminist struggle for women empowerment. The researcher will focus on a pregnant woman, who is at a maternity leave. The researcher will study and make authentic conclusions regarding the socio-economic status of women. The research will enable the investigator to look logically into the amendments of feminist movement.
Conclusion
Feminism, no matter, created many waves right from 19th century in the wake of inequalities suffered by women and permeated all over world and still continue to prevail because working women have not achieved the very basic motive of feminism ,which meant to attain equal space for working women. The cause of Feminism still lingers as women continue to face obstacles in offices and other work places. The Second wave of feminism; a period between 1960’s to 1980’s, which ideates cultural and political inequalities are intertwined. These ideas and efforts of second wave feminism continue to exist with third-wave feminism. The movement encourages working women to understand that their personal lives are deeply politicised. They need to break the shell of inequalities themselves. The political and cultural vanguards keep on raving and ranting for women cause but still there exists a gap not only in work front but also at domestic level. The amount of work women contribute in domestic arena is not acknowledged in any national or international domain.
The third wave of feminism started in the mid-1990s and is filled with post-colonial and post-modern thinking. In this period many notions regarding the concepts of sexuality and body have been proven flawed especially "universal womanhood”. The third wave demystifies the myth of beauty. In third wave it is stressed that women have the prerogative to flaunt her body and being as intelligent and as workaholic as her male counterpart. Her looks are her privilege which can’t make her any lesser than a man when it comes to be at work front.
Works cited
Guenther, Irene. Nazi 'Chic'?: Fashioning Women in the Third Reich. Berg. p. 94.ISBN 9781859737170. 2004.
Hesse-Biber, Sharlene Nagy, & Leckenby, Denise. How feminists practice social research. In Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber & Michelle L. Yaiser (Eds.), Feminist perspectives on social research (pp. 209–226). New York: Oxford University Press. 2004
Mazón, Patricia M. Gender and the Modern Research University: The Admission of Women to German Higher Education, 1865-1914. Stanford U.P. p. 53. 2003
