Feminisms are too rich and multi-faceted to boil down to a series of questions, but these offer a place to start. Please notice that I've avoided, "Where do you see women oppressed or mistreated?" Oppression is an issue of course, but simply pointing it out without investigating how it is presented (linguistically, stylistically, etc.) and the context leaves us with little insight. The questions below try to take a more nuanced approach.
- What kind of ideas, social structures and institutions, or language influence women in a text?
- Who benefits by various constructions of femininity and masculinity in a text?
- Where do women resist conventional classification, responsibilities, or other expectations, especially those established within the text itself?
- What do women writers/speakers do with “masculine” conventions of writing/speech?
- How are women divided from/united with other women through identifications of race, class, or ethnic identity? What social outcomes result from this division, what are the stakes involved?
- Where is women's "work"--contributions to economy, society, culture, family, political life--ignored, suppressed, or denied recognition? What might the effects be of revaluing it?