[Jessica Bomarito]Feminism In Literature : A Gale Critical Companion, Volume 2 19th Century, Topics & Authors (A-B)(pdf){Zzzzz}

Feminism, sometimes put in the plural feminisms, is a loose confederation of social, political, spiritual, and intellectual movements that places women and gender at the center of inquiry with the goal of social justice.
What has literary studies taught us about feminism? That being gendered is a text that can be read, interpreted, manipulated, and altered.
That feminisms themselves are texts written by real people in actual historical situations, and that feminists, too, must always recognize our own biases, and let others recognize them. That feminism is forever growing and changing and reinventing itself in a continual cycle of statement, reaction, and revision. As the definitions and goals of feminisms change before our eyes, we have learned that feminism is a process, its meaning constantly deferred.