What is feminism?
If you think, as a fine connoisseur of the Trésor de la Langue Française (TLFi), that it is a
“social movement whose aim is the emancipation of women, the extension of their rights with a view to equalize its status with that of man, in particular in the legal, political and economic fields”
, you would not be wrong… but not entirely right.
A look back at the evolution of a word full of history and meaning.
To discover
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Originating from the Latin “femina”, “woman”, the word “feminism” appeared in the 19th century.
It is then used to designate characteristics considered specifically feminine and is mainly used in the medical field, to the point of being the thesis of certain scientific works seeking to understand the causes of
"the cessation of the development of man towards adolescence which gives her certain attributes of femininity”
(Guérin Dictionary).
The French doctor Ferdinand Valère Faneau de la Cour used it as the title for his work
On feminism and infantilism among tuberculosis patients
, published in 1871.
“Author”, “Author” or “Author”?
A medical term still little used in society - despite a brief mention in the Salon of 1861, an artistic journal, "feminism" entered literature under the pen of Dumas fils.
The latter, ironically about the defenders of women's rights, would have been the first to qualify them as "feminists" in an 1872 pamphlet, L'Homme-femme:
"Feminists, pass me this neologism, say: Everything the evil comes from the fact that we do not want to recognize that women are equal to men, that we must give them the same education and the same rights as men.”
We understand, the word is then used for satirical and misogynistic purposes.
In 1882, in a letter from Hubertine Auclert, a major figure in the fight for female emancipation, “feminism” explicitly became the term defining the fight for women's rights.
Its adoption by the Larousse Encyclopedic Review in 1893, as well as the launch of the Feminist Review in 1895 by Clothilde Dissard, democratized the use of the word.
Finally, the French Academy included it in its dictionary in 1935 as
“a doctrine whose object is the extension of civil and political rights to women”.
The evolution of women's rights is reflected in the language, reflecting a society that strives to grant more space to women.
However, recurring debates regarding the feminization of profession names, titles and grades, such as inclusive writing, tend to show that the semantic adventure of feminism is far from over.
“Author”, “author”, “doctor”, “doctor” or “doctoress”: who will have the last word?