This course is one of the most interesting I have been going through so far. Issues that we study and discuss are beyond any doubt up to date and applicable to the real life.  So far I think I have been rather successful in this course, as some basic ideas concerning the gender issue in the US and in the world have become much clearer to me. My views and beliefs are currently evolving, together with the progress of the course, and this process is very capturing. The process of the class is also rather satisfactory; we look into the vital problems concerning the women’s rights movement. Deeper understanding of the factors that influenced the gender relations is an extremely important tool. The historical and sociological context that we are exploring is crucial for the better realization of the gender issue. Overall, I am satisfied with the process of our studying, but would like to implement more practical implementation – up to date case assignments that would reflect the modern realities.

Reading for this section of the course has also been highly valuable – Estelle Freedman is a great author that managed to thoroughly reflect the history of the feminist movement and the background that gave birth to it. Periodization of the feminist movement is one concept that helped me a lot to develop an overall vision of this phenomenon. It surprised me that the scientists divide the processes into several “waves” that are rather distinctive from one another. Estelle Freedman in her book “No Turning Back” states that the first feminist movement wave was not much concerned of the overall discrimination of the females and was more focused on the suffrage issue (Freedman 2009). It was rather strange to learn that the first feminist activists agitated for more rights for the rich and did not care much about the others. I always thought of feminism as of a highly democratic and humane movement, but the reality turned out to be different. Estelle Freeman, however, explained the reasons for such a disproportion – feminism, as any process is influenced by the outer environment, and therefore was largely predetermined by social norms and principles present at that movement. Author also explains the further development of the feminist ideas in the context of the democratization and liberalization that all of the developed countries eventually experienced.

One issue still remains relatively unclear to me – the today’s state of the gender relations and the perspective of feminism today. It seems that the feminist movement is slowing down and loosing its social significance. I used to think so for the past several years. Indeed, the results that have already been achieved seem to indicate that there is little use in fighting for equal rights. Women are now sharing similar rights as the males, receive basically the same salaries and are not discriminated on the large scale. I am still exploring Freedman’s idea that the feminist movement cannot stop, it has come too far. Estelle argues there are still important issues to resolve. Such problems as sexual freedom, rights for abortion and the lesbians’ rights are still to be discussed and eventually solved.

To conclude, I would like to say that there is still much to learn about the gender issue and the development of women rights today. I look forward to further discussions in the class concerning the role of feminism concerning the modern realities, as well as learn to  implement that theories that we study to my personal cultural experiences.