TOP TRENDING TOPICS FOR FEMINISM DISSERTATIONS IN 2024

In today’s fast-paced and modern world, we hear, witness, and discuss various feminism dissertation topics and ideas daily. However, the majority of these subjects are also on global trending lists. There are several dissertation study subjects on which individuals fight, debate, and write. However, presenting such situations in society can occasionally result in retaliation.

As it becomes a public problem, it sometimes pulls political and activist figures to the forefront of the media. 

Feminism dissertation topics and ideas are topics to discuss that are trending internationally and gaining popularity in large numbers. Feminist concerns may be classified into several categories, including historical, political, and social movements. These themes are diverse and are separated into sub-categories; some examples of these topics are shown below: 

 

• Gender identity and sexual orientation
• Gender and Parental Connections Feminism Myths
• Being a Feminist Is Difficult 
• Feminist conspiracy theories

 

What Idea Feminism Represents

Feminism is a notion that symbolises women’s historical, political, and social understanding. Women who support the feminist movement promote the concept of gender equality.

Dissertation Topics on Global and Trending Feminism

After learning about the definition and idea of feminism, let us now turn our attention to our main title, which is about feminist research paper themes and concepts. So, here are some worldwide popular dissertation themes about feminism. These are the themes covered below:

 

Feminist Debatable Topics: 

• Can genuine gender equality be achieved?

• Does female children’s education represent a squandering of resources?

• Does feminism foster the development of contemptuous women in the community?

• Does feminism advocate for the enlistment of adolescent girls in the armed forces as well?

• Feminism’s endorsement of beauty pageants?

• Are there any occupations that women ought to avoid undertaking?

 

Discussion Topics Regarding Feminism:

• The cultural significance of feminism

• Untruths Regarding Feminism

• Why do female feminists outnumber their masculine counterparts?

• Contemporary Feminism’s Obstacles

• In your society, how has the MeToo movement influenced the rise of feminists?

• Does feminism represent a sign of strength?

 

Feminist Subjects for Essay Composition:

• The effect of gender on the selection of employment roles

• Harassment of women sexually

• Female and political responsibilities

• The position of women in modern culture

• The Role of Parents within the Feminist Movement

 

Feminist Research Paper Subjects:

• The adverse effects of feminism on the masculine gender

• The societal ramifications of sexual education targeting children

• The Christian function of women of middle-age

• The government must construct a prosperous feminist society.

• A path to a more wonderful community: the eradication of gender inequality

 

Controversial Feminist Topics: 

• Is gender any way influential on subjectivity?

• What distinguishes a feminist’s man from just another male?

• Anger of feminism towards men?

• Every feminist ought to be a sadist.

• Do feminists originate from happy households?

• In the feminist movement, what is the function of the government?

 

Following our exploration of dissertation topics about feminism, the subsequent content shall delve into the fundamental catalyst for the proliferation of the feminist movement and explain its origins. Further reading will provide additional enlightening information regarding feminism.

 

Principal Ambitions Of Feminism

Throughout the majority of Western history, gender categories were male-dominated, relegating women to domestic responsibilities. Throughout mediaeval Europe, property ownership, academic pursuits, and public participation were forbidden for women. Certain regions of Germany continued to permit spouses to sell their wives at the close of the 19th century, and women in France were still required to conceal their heads in public. 

At the beginning of the twentieth century, neither Europe nor the majority of the United States (although several territories and states had granted women suffrage decades before the federal government) permitted women to vote or run for political office. Participating in business activities without a male representative, such as a son, father, sibling, spouse, or legal agent, was strictly forbidden for women.

 Matrimonial consent was essential for married women to exercise dominion over their progeny. Additionally, women were barred from accessing the majority of professions and were not permitted to attend education. Women in numerous regions in the world continue to be subject to such restrictions.

 

Feminism Dissertation Topics With Aims And Objectives

 

• South Asia is famous for its gender imbalance.

Aims and objectives:

The reasons for gender inequality in South Asia are studied in this feminist dissertation. Gender differences in India and Pakistan, in addition to poverty, are cultural variables that contribute to this problem. Gender inequality has a disproportionate influence on women’s health and education. Furthermore, this research aims to prove that the gender gap in this specific sector is the largest among other locations globally.

 

• The media’s influence on the acceleration of feminism.

 

Aims and objectives:

This study analyses the relationship between feminism and the media and the movement’s historical and present effect on traditional media. Allegations of sexual assault in the media imply that the two occurrences appear to be inextricably linked. Since the early modern revolution, feminism has progressed through distinct stages, with each surge symbolising its final incarnation. 

 

This research project will evaluate the media’s stance on each wave during its era by assessing newspaper headlines and the popularity of specific feminist literature. It will demonstrate that the press has a beneficial impact on society and actively contributes to bringing about social change.

• Early modern English literature witnessed the expansion of feminism.

Aims and objectives

This research will examine the development of feminism dissertation topics and ideas in English literature throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and provide a brief overview of how feminism is perceived. Feminism, being a multifaceted phenomenon, requires additional discourse. Early modernity signified a turning point in the history of Great Britain. 

In addition, it will analyse evidence indicating that feminism has evolved substantially over time and that the suffragette movement initiated the current gender equality revolution. Nonetheless, “feminism” may continue to carry negative connotations for some individuals.

• An Analysis Of Feminism’s Impact On Education In Contemporary Society.

Aims and Objectives:

This research endeavours to provide an insider’s perspective on the early phases of feminism and will utilise analysis to underscore changes in current global agendas. This research will provide additional support for examining the practical and theoretical contributions that feminism has made to education.

 Demographic and economic conditions that enabled the rapid, considerable growth and impact of feminist work in education are discussed at the outset of the essay. Following this, the article analyses the prevalence of feminist initiatives during the specified period and highlights significant shifts in focus from that era to the present.

• Women from the Third World and Feminist Politics.

Aims and objectives 

This study looks at the difficulties that women confront in developing countries. Because the third world is concerned with decolonisation, neo-colonisation, and colonisation, the goal of the feminism dissertation topics and ideas research paper is to uncover the inequities that women in the West face as a result of these catchphrases. 

In recent decades, multinational feminism has overtaken third-world feminism as the dominant feminist stance concerning women in the third world. 

Furthermore, it is trendy to dismiss nation-states and nationalism as unimportant to feminism. In contrast to the present tendency, this topic argues for acknowledging third-world feminism as nation-states and national feminism.

• An investigation of the relationship between feminist theory and feminist activism in contemporary society 

 

Aims:

Investigate how feminist theory has influenced feminist activism in contemporary culture

To discover the relationship between feminist theory and various forms of feminist activism, including grassroots movements, online activism, and institutional advocacy

Evaluate how feminist activism has influenced social and political transformations and its effectiveness in promoting gender equality.

 

Objectives:

Please provide a complete overview of the history of feminist theory and its evolution over time, including its key ideas and thinkers.

 

Examine the various forms of feminist activism that have emerged in contemporary society and how they are up-to-date with feminist theory.

 

To find and study all the challenges and opportunities faced by feminist activists in promoting gender equality, including resistance from individuals and institutions and the impact of intersectionality

 

Examine how feminist activism has shaped social and political transformations, such as improving legal rights, social norms, and cultural attitudes towards gender equality.

 

Find out the strengths and limitations of feminist theory as a framework for feminist activism and propose ways in which feminist theory can continue to inform and inspire feminist activism in the future. 

 

Add to the current knowledge on feminist theory and feminist activism, and offer guidance for decision-makers, advocates, and researchers who aim to advance gender equality and social justice in today’s world.

 

• An examination of the representation of women in mainstream media, concentrating on the impact that feminist movements have had on such depictions. 

 

Aims:

To examine the portrayal of women in popular media, such as television, film, and advertising, with a critical eye.

 

This analysis aims to examine the various potential impacts of feminist movements on the media representation of women and assess the degree of advancement achieved in pursuing gender equality within the media.

 

To evaluate the impact that media portrayals of women have on gender norms, stereotypes, and perspectives concerning gender equality

 

Objectives:

 

Present an exhaustive synopsis of the historical development of feminist media studies, encompassing all significant gender-related concepts and theories.

 

This essay shall undertake an analysis of contemporary media portrayals of women, encompassing the pervasiveness of gender stereotypes, the inadequate presence of women in leadership positions, and the objectification and sexualisation of women’s bodies.

 

To investigate the impact of feminist activism and advocacy on media representation of women, this study will explore campaigns advocating for more excellent female representation in the media and improved working conditions for women. Additionally, it will analyse the reciprocal relationship between the media industry and feminist media criticism, which challenges gendered power structures and representations in media culture.

 

Examine how social media has altered the perceptions and voices of women, in addition to the obstacles and possibilities that online feminist activism and advocacy present.

 

This analysis aims to evaluate the impact of media portrayals of women on gender norms and attitudes towards gender equality. It will explore the correlation between media exposure and body image, career aspirations, gender-based violence, and body violence.

 

Suggest approaches to enhance the portrayal of women in the media and foster gender equality, encompassing suggestions for policymakers and media producers to further the cause of women’s rights and justice.

 

• Examine the influence of feminist legal theory on formulating gender equality-related laws and policies. 

 

Aims:

 

To analyse the domestic and international ways feminist legal theory has influenced the development of laws and policies concerning gender equality.

 

 Assess how feminist legal theory has advanced gender justice and women’s rights by pressuring the legal system to ensure gender equality, eliminate gender-based discrimination, and uphold women’s human rights.

 

To discern and assess obstacles and prospects that may arise while furthering the progress and application of feminist legal theory within policy and legal spheres.

 

Objectives:

Provide an exhaustive synopsis of feminist legal theory, including its central concepts and ideas and its evolution over time.

Analyse the reciprocal influence between feminist legal theory and legal and policy developments concerning gender equality, including legislation about labour rights, violence against women, and sexual and reproductive rights.

Examine the contributions of feminist activists and legal advocates to advancing gender equality.

Evaluate the influence of feminist legal theory on policy instruments and international law about gender equality, including but not limited to the Beijing Platform for Action and the CEDAW. 

Defend the obstacles and prospects that arise in the pursuit of expanding and implementing feminist legal theory within policy and legal contexts. These may include the resistance towards feminist legal accomplishments, the significance of intersectionality, and the perpetual necessity for feminist legal activism and advocacy.

 

The Inception Of Feminism 

The initial Surge of Feminism

Further evidence of early organized opposition to this restricted status is required. In the third century BCE, when consul Marcus Porcius Cato rejected efforts to eliminate regulations limiting women’s access to costly goods, The Capitoline Hill was flooded with Roman ladies who obstructed each entrance to the Forum.”

If they are victorious now, what will they not attempt?” Cato lamented. “When they become equal to you, they will become superior.” 

However, that uprising was considered extraordinary. A minority of voices opposed to the inferior status of women for the majority of recorded history foreshadowed forthcoming debates. Christine de Pisan, the inaugural feminist philosopher, issued a daring call for female education during France’s late 14th and early 15th centuries, challenging prevalent attitudes towards women at the time. 

 

Epistolae familiares (1488; “Personal Letters”; Eng. trans. Collected Letters of a Renaissance Feminist) was a compilation of correspondences authored by Laura Cereta, a Venetian woman of the 15th century. This literary work addressed an extensive array of grievances expressed by women, including but not limited to educational denial, marital oppression, and the frivolity of women’s attire.

Il merito delle donne (1600; The Worth of Women), a feminist broadside authored by Moderata Fonte, another Venetian, had evolved into a literary subgenre by the end of the 16th century. Supporters of the status quo depicted women as superficial and inherently immoral. However, budding feminists presented extensive anthologies of successful and courageous women and proclaimed that women would attain intellectual parity with men if granted equitable educational opportunities.

England did not engage in the “debate about women” until the late 16th century, at which point pamphleteers and polemicists disputed the true nature of femininity. Jane Anger, the inaugural feminist pamphleteer in England, responded to a series of satirical writings that made derogatory remarks about women with the publication of Jane Anger’s Her Protection for Women (1589). 

The discourse persisted for over a century until Mary Astell, an English author, presented a more logical and reasonable response in her work A Serious Proposal to the Ladies (1694, 1697). It was suggested in the two-volume work that women who do not wish to enter into matrimony or pursue religious vocations establish secular convents as places to reside, study, and instruct.

 

The Feminist Second Wave

The women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s dubbed the “second wave” of feminism, appeared to represent a sharp break from the idyllic suburban existence portrayed in American popular culture. However, the roots of the new insurrection were buried in the discontent of college-educated mothers, whose blow drove their daughters in a new direction. 

If the abolitionist movement inspired first-wave feminists, the civil rights movement, with its accompanying debates about equality and justice and the revolutionary upheaval of anti-Vietnam War protests, swept their great-granddaughters into feminism.

Long before this public debate, President John F. Kennedy was concerned about women’s issues. In 1961, he created the President’s Commission on the Status of Women and appointed Eleanor Roosevelt to chair it. 

Its 1963 report strongly supported the nuclear family and prepared women for motherhood. It did, however, demonstrate a nationwide trend of job discrimination, unequal compensation, legal injustice, and a lack of support services for working women. To address it, it required legislative promises of equal pay for equal work, equal job prospects, and enhanced child-care services.

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 established the first guarantee, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was amended to prevent gender discrimination by employers.

In a society where classified advertisements still segregated job postings by gender, state laws restricted women’s access to contraception, and rape and domestic violence occurrences went unreported, some considered these attempts as insufficient

 The concept of a women’s rights movement originated in the late 1960s, along with the civil rights movement, and women of all ages and circumstances were swept up in debates about gender, discrimination, and the definition of equality.

 

The Racism Factor

Like the first, the second wave was defined and led by educated middle-class white women who built the movement primarily around their interests. This resulted in an uncertain, if not hostile, relationship with women of many classes and races. 

The fight against wage and employment discrimination contributed to the movement’s reconciliation with white labour union women. 

However, feminism’s connection with African American women has always been more challenging. Gender, according to white feminists, is the fundamental root of their exclusion from full participation in American life. 

Black women were obliged to tackle the interplay of racism and sexism, as well as figure out how to have Black males consider gender issues while making white women think about race. Such cases were addressed by black feminists such as Michele Wallace, Mary Ann Weathers, bell hooks, Alice Walker, and Bettina Aptheker.

 

The demand for unity and solidarity made by white feminists was based on the assumption that women formed a gender-based class or caste that was bonded together by common oppression. Many Black women had difficulty seeing white women as feminist sisters; after all, white women, in the opinion of many African Americans, were just as much oppressors as white men. Toni Cade Bambara, in The Black Woman: An Anthology (1970), inquired,

 

 “How relevant are the truths, experiences, and findings of White women to Black women?” “I don’t know that our priorities are equal, that our issues and strategies are similar.” Since Sojourner Truth, black feminists have held that white feminists are incapable of understanding their difficulties.

 

During the first National Black Feminist Organisation meeting in New York City in 1973, however, some Black women, mainly middle-class Black women, contended that being Black and female was fundamentally different from being Black and masculine. 

 Many of the mainstream feminist movement’s goals—daycare, abortion, maternity leave, violence—were also significant to African-American women, according to black women activists. 

 

As a result, African-American and white feminists built a solid working relationship on specific issues.

Globalization of Feminism

By the end of the twentieth century, European and American feminists had begun to contact emerging feminist groups in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Women in developed countries, particularly intellectuals, were surprised to find that in some countries, women were expected to wear veils in public or suffer forced marriage, female infanticide, widow burning, or female genital mutilation/cutting (FGC). 

 

Many Western feminists regarded themselves as saviours of Third World women, oblivious that their notions of and remedies to societal problems were sometimes at odds with the realities and concerns of women in these regions. 

Only until European colonialism arrived did the status of women in many parts of Africa begin to decline significantly. The notion that patriarchy, rather than European imperialism, was the primary problem in those countries seemed absurd.

Women’s disputes in developed and developing nations were most visible at international conferences. Following the 1980 World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development, and Peace in Copenhagen, women from underdeveloped nations stated that the veil and FGC were chosen as conference objectives without considering the women who would be most affected. 

 

Their Western colleagues did not appear to be paying attention to them. 

Third-world women protested outside the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994, claiming that Europeans and Americans had stolen the agenda. 

The demonstrators had expected to hear about how poverty kept women back. Instead, the conference planners decided to concentrate on abortion and contraception.

“[Third-World women] observed that they couldn’t possibly be concerned with other issues while their children died of thirst, hunger, or war,” Azizah al-Hibri, a law professor and Muslim women’s rights specialist, wrote. 

Instead, the conference focused on minimising the number of Third World newborns to preserve the earth’s resources, despite (or is it ‘because of’) the fact that the First World consumes a large portion of these resources.” 

At the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, third-world women chastised American and European women for prioritising reproductive rights, language and issues of sexual orientation discrimination, as well as their disinterest in the platform proposal that was most important to developing countries—restructuring international debt.

Nonetheless, women worldwide were making progress at the end of the twentieth century, albeit in fits and starts. Feminism was derailed in countries such as Afghanistan, where the Taliban, who are staunchly anti-feminist, forbade everything, including females’ education. However, feminism has resulted in significant gains for women in other areas, such as the abolition of FGC in many African countries or government measures in India to abolish widow burning (Sati). 

Feminism has influenced every aspect of modern life, communication, and debate, from growing concern over sexist language to the development of academic disciplines such as women’s studies and ecofeminism. In many parts of the world, feminism influenced sports, divorce laws, sexual norms, and organised religion.

However, issues such as how Western feminism will deal with women who believed the movement had gone too far and had become too extreme persisted. How consistent and effective can global feminism be? Could women’s concerns in Pakistan’s mountains or the Middle East’s deserts be addressed in isolation, or must such issues be addressed through international forums? 

 

Given the disparities in economic, political, and cultural situations worldwide, Nairobi’s and New York’s solutions to these questions appeared highly different.

Feminism’s Third Wave 

The third wave of feminism emerged in the mid-1990s. It was driven by Generation Xers, born in the developed world in the 1960s and 1970s and grew up in a media-saturated, culturally and economically diverse society. Although they profited tremendously from the legal rights and protections obtained by first- and second-wave feminists, they also critiqued second-wave feminism’s viewpoints and unfinished business.

 

The base

The second wave’s increased economic and professional power and position, the late-century information revolution’s vast expansion in options for communicating ideas, and the maturation of Generation X academics and activists all contributed to the third wave’s emergence.

Second-wave daughters were among the early champions of the new system. 

Third Wave Direct Action Corporation (founded in 1992) morphed into the Third Wave Foundation in 1997 to assist “groups and individuals working towards gender, racial, and economic equality.” 

Both organisations were founded, among others, by Rebecca Walker, the daughter of novelist and second-waver Alice Walker. 

 

Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future (2000) authors Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards were both born in 1970 and raised by second-wave feminists who questioned the sexual division of labour in their homes and raised their daughters to be self-aware, empowered, articulate, and high-achieving women.

These women, like many others, were raised with the expectation of success and examples of female success, as well as a sense of the barriers provided by sexism, racism, and classism. They chose to overcome such obstacles by inverting sexist, racist, and classist symbols, resisting patriarchy through irony, responding to violence through survivor accounts, and combating further exclusion through grassroots activism and radical democracy. Third wavers, rather than becoming a part of the “machine,” began dismantling and recreating it.

Third-wave feminists sought to dispute, reclaim, and reinterpret ideas, language, and media that expressed concepts such as womanhood, gender, beauty, sexuality, femininity, and masculinity, among other things. Gender concepts altered considerably, assuming that some attributes are exclusively male and others exclusively feminine, giving rise to a gender continuum. 

According to this point of view, each individual possesses, expresses, and suppresses the entire gamut of characteristics historically identified with one gender or the other. As a result, “sexual liberation,” a primary goal of second-wave feminism, was enlarged to imply the process of first becoming aware of how society has influenced one’s gender identity and sexuality and then actively establishing (and becoming accessible to express) one’s true gender identity.

 

Disputes

Third wavers, understandably, were chastised. While the third wave found its voice, some writers labelled themselves postfeminism, claiming the movement had outlived its usefulness. Meanwhile, older feminists believed that the issues had not changed and that younger women were not making a significant contribution. 

By 2000, some writers, both within and outside the movement, declared that the wave had crested. Furthermore, there was debate about whether revealing clothing, designer-label stiletto heels, and amateur pole dancing reflected true sexual emancipation and gender equality or concealed oppression.

Wave Four of Feminism

As of 2012, according to some scholars, a fourth phase of feminism emerged, which emphasized issues including body shaming, sexual harassment, and rape culture. The application of social media was critical in generating and addressing these issues. A limited number of notable cases catalyzed the recent upswing. A young woman was murdered and subjected to a heinous gang rape in India in December 2012, inciting local protests and international outrage.

Two years later, the Gamergate controversy materialized as a tangible manifestation of the alleged “men’s rights movement” whose inception occurred on the online Forum 4chan. Despite its initial goal of advancing ethical principles in video game journalism, Gamergate inadvertently evolved into a harassment campaign targeting individuals advocating for social justice.