Feminism as a social movement primarily focuses on redefining politics to reduce gender-based inequality. The result of this movement is that women are viewed historically through a biological lens. This view of women has resulted in the current condition of women's subordination to a predominantly patriarchal society. Therefore, one cannot discuss feminism without assuming that all women share the same common factor: their biology. The first wave of feminism was centered around women's right to vote. The first textual example of a feminist argument is found in Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women. Wollstonecraft took a liberal stance in campaigning for political equality for women. The logic that can follow from this argument is that women are denied the right to vote because of their gender. This discourse cannot take place without believing in an underlying homogeneity among women. Thus, women are reduced to their basic biological identity of XX sex chromosomes. The physical composition of women is then used to formulate their social identity. In society, there is an explicit reliance on gender roles. These roles are formed around biological and social elements based on biological inequalities. “Women will always be women,” Simone De Beauvoir uses as a scathing example of the impact of biology on public perception. De Beauvoir believes that a woman is determined “by the way in which her body and her relationship to the world are modified by the actions of others other than herself”. The woman's position is then modified to conform to social expectations. Changing women's roles in relation to society effectively reduces women's power in politics. This is...... middle of paper ...... as a group to be active in the political arena, there must be a justification to unite them against the constraints of society. To pretend that feminism can be discussed without believing in a common factor intrinsic to femininity is to abolish the movement. There cannot be feminism without women and, therefore, it cannot exist without similarities that can inspire debate. Biological beliefs constitute the social construction of “femininity” and inspire the debates raised by feminism. From ovaries to motherhood, and from motherhood to a political voice, there are certain similarities that shape feminism and cannot be ignored. Works Cited Festenstein, Matthew and Michael Kenny. Political Ideologies: A Reader and Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Heywood, Andrew. Political ideologies: an introduction. 5th ed. Dog Mills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.