(LARES) VOL 18, No. 1, Apr 2018 A publication of Department of English, University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos, Nigeria LARES Lagos Review of English Studies A journal of Language and Literary Studies FEMINIST AND WOMANIST IDEOLOGIES: AN OVERVIEW Ebele Eucharia Okafor Feminism Feminism has different meanings depending on the school of thought concerned. Freedman (2004:1) defines Feminism as “concerns with women’s inferior position in society and the discriminations encountered by women because of their sex.” To Idyorough (2005: 14) Feminism is a belief that women are suffering from subjugation, domination, exploitation, oppression and deprivation in different aspects of life in contrast to men; and also a movement aimed at securing and defending equal rights and opportunities for women.” On the other hand, Hooks (2006: 41) sees “Feminism as a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression.” The proponents of Feminism view patriarchy (chauvinism) as being the cause of real or perceived oppressive ideals against women. Hence, Feminism is indisputably an ideology that seeks to safeguard the interest of women in the society at large. Fraise (1995 cited in Freedman, 2004: 2) argues that there are debates over when and where feminism was used. According to Fraise, the term ‘feminist’ seems to have first been used in 1871 in a French medical text to describe a cessation in development of the sexual organs and characteristics in male patients, who were perceived as thus suffering from ‘feminization’ of their bodies. The term was then picked up by Alexandre Dumas fils, a French writer, republican and anti-feminist, who used it in a pamphlet published in 1872 entitled l’home-femme, on subject of adultery, to describe women behaving in a supposedly masculine way. Fraise also points out that in medical terminology feminism was used to signify a feminization of men, while in political terms, it was first used to describe a virilization of women. This description of feminism by Fraise generates gender confusion. He maintained that feminism is used in a modified form in today’s