Gender Roles In The Second World War (UK) Essay

Gender Roles In The Second World War (UK) - Essay Example The term begins to take new meaning at the beginning of feminist’s movement who asked for equal rights, so it was called the first wave of feminism. The movement was briefly forgotten during the war upon which, feminism took a new meaning for them, that of leaving the patriarchal society to become members of the men’s world. The study of Ziegler, Kathryn, refers to two kinds of feminity, one is conventional and the other is the formidable femininity. To her, conventional roles are those associated with docility, passivity, and weakness. A formidable feminity has a redefined role in that they use their bodies to enact manly techniques. Their femininity is redefined as their performances are constituted with fighting, feminine fashions, and sexiness. Thus Kathryn, Ziegler, said, formidable femininity â€Å"diminish their dependence on men, maintain their femininity. She concludes that women can be both feminine and formidable at the same time. They can learn to protect t hemselves by learning techniques for fighting.Feminity is also defined by Brownmiller, Susan, as â€Å"making oneself as harmless, and that the feminine principle is composed of compliance and conflict†. Brownmiller argues that femininity merges female weaknesses with conflict avoidance. Brownmiller is a controversial writer because of her assertion that â€Å"rape is a process of intimidation in which all men keep women in a state of fear† She said rape is a tool used by men ever since as a form of oppression to women.