Acronyms that contain the term liberal feminism 

Liberal feminism

Liberal feminism, also called mainstream feminism, is a main branch of feminism defined by its focus on achieving gender equality through political and legal reform within the framework of liberal democracy. As the oldest of the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought, liberal feminism has its roots in 19th century first-wave feminism that focused particularly on women's suffrage and access to education, and that was associated with 19th century liberalism and progressivism. Traditional liberal feminism has a strong focus on political and legal reforms aiming to give women equal rights and opportunities. Liberal feminists argue that society holds the false belief that women are, by nature, less intellectually and physically capable than men; thus it tends to discriminate against women in the academy, the forum, and the marketplace. Liberal feminists believe that "female subordination is rooted in a set of customary and legal constraints that blocks women's entrance to and success in the so-called public world", and strive for sexual equality via political and legal reform. Liberal feminism "works within the structure of mainstream society to integrate women into that structure."Liberal feminism is also called "mainstream feminism", "reformist feminism", "egalitarian feminism", or historically "bourgeois feminism", among other names. As one of the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought, liberal feminism is often contrasted with socialist/Marxist feminism and with radical feminism. Liberal feminism and mainstream feminism are very broad terms, frequently taken to encompass all feminism that is not radical or revolutionary socialist/Marxist, and that instead pursues equality through political, legal and social reform within a liberal democratic framework; as such liberal feminists may subscribe to a range of different feminist beliefs and political ideologies within the democratic spectrum from the centre-left to the centre-right. The broader liberal feminist tradition includes numerous, newer and often diverging sub fields such as equality feminism, social feminism, equity feminism, and difference feminism, but liberal feminism also remains a tradition of its own; Nordic state feminism belongs to the liberal tradition.Mainstream liberal feminism places great emphasis on the public world and typically supports laws and regulations that promote gender equality and ban practices that are discriminatory towards women; mainstream liberal feminists may also support social measures to reduce material inequality within a liberal democratic framework. Inherently pragmatic in orientation, liberal feminists have emphasized building far-reaching support for feminist causes among both women and men, and among the political centre, the government and legislatures. While rooted in first-wave feminism and traditionally focused on political and legal reform, the broader liberal feminist tradition may include parts of subsequent waves of feminism, especially third-wave feminism and fourth-wave feminism. The sunflower and the color gold became widely used symbols of liberal feminism and especially women's suffrage from the 1860s.

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