ABSTRACT
The term “feminism” refers to the movement seeking “the equality of the sexes” and the “rights of the female sex.” Its origins in Enlightenment thinking mark it as a Western ideology, though that has not prevented it from finding a foothold in places around the world. Adherents of feminism have always contested the meanings of the word, for the concept of women’s equality with men is at once breathtakingly simply and dazzlingly complex. On the face of it, nothing could be more straightforward. But when one proceeds to break down the definition into its various parts, difficulties immediately arise about the nature, content, context, and constituency of the term. Equal rights to what? For all women? Who is considered a woman in the context of feminist demands? This essay looks at disputes over three areas of border crossing that have characterized feminist movements since the late eighteenth century: the transgressive, the transnational, and the transgendered.
