Feminism, an important part of The World According to Garp (reader response)

Rachel K.

Feminism is an essential part of The World According to Garp. Jenny is a true feminist and is devoted to her cause. Her book The Sexual Suspect is based around her feminist views and is her autobiography. Feminism is both an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for women and the end of sexism in all forms. However, there are many different kinds of feminism. Feminists disagree about what sexism consists in, and what exactly ought to be done about it; they disagree about what it means to be a woman or a man and what social and political implications gender has or should have. Nonetheless, motivated by the quest for social justice, feminist inquiry provides a wide range of perspectives on social, cultural, and political phenomena. Important topics for feminist theory and politics include: the body, class and work, disability, the family, globalization, human rights, popular culture, race and racism, reproduction, science, the self, sex work, and sexuality.

Early feminists and primary feminist movements are often called the first wave and feminists after about 1960 the second wave. Second wave feminists were concerned with gaining full social and economic equality, having already gained almost full legal equality in many western nations. Increasingly, women recognized that campaigning was limited whilst women could not make their voices heard directly. The vote took 70 years to gain. It was not until 1928 that all women, not just those over 30 and of the right property qualifications, could legally vote. Despite arguments that women should accept merely local suffrage, or universal male suffrage, or limited suffrage, the suffragettes persevered. The rise of the Militant suffragettes and the contribution of a mass of women workers during war time pressurized the Government to grant limited suffrage. Now it is debatable as to how much impact the vote has actually had in campaigning for women's rights, but it was a crucial landmark in the history of feminism. In the 1940s and 50s, the war had challenged stereotypes in the workplace and so women began to enter the employment market in much larger numbers. It soon became apparent that some of the burden of family responsibility needed to be shifted onto the state. Together with the trade unions, the women's movement fought hard for a welfare state system which would provide this and act as a safety net for society's most vulnerable. The decades of the 1960s and 70s saw the radicalization of the feminist movement, led by American women. The mass entry of women into the workforce and the Pill changed women's traditional role within the family. Feminists demanded the right to abortion on demand, free childcare provision and equal pay.

The World According to Garp would not be such an important part of literature with out Jenny’s true devotion to feminism. John Irving truly captured the heart of the feminist movement in his book and this is what makes Jenny such a truly important character. Feminism has been around for a long time, but only in the last century has it become such a big part of global culture.

I belive that feminism has been an important part of American culutre. It is what helped to earn women the right to vote, and the right to be equals in the view of the law and in everyday life. Jenny, in the novel, is a true feminist. She is fighting hard for what she believes and recruits others to help her as well.