Catholic Dictionary
Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.
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WOMEN'S LIBERATION
The movement in modern times to free women form the discrimination to which they have been subject in civil society and in political legislation. As such, it has two discernible roots, one sociological and the other ideological. On the sociological level is the recognized fact that women in all parts of the world are coming more and more into their own, to find their places alongside of men, making their distinctive contribution in the professions, in education, and in the sciences. The other root is not so much factual as ideological, and stands at variance with Christian principles. It argues from a massive discrimination of women by men, and urges women to revolt against men. The best known propoment of theis ideology was Nikolai Lenin (1874-1924), who urged that "the success of a revoltution depends upon the degree of participation by women." On these terms, women's liberation is simply part of the larger struggles for the eventual creation of a classless society.
