“Fern-philanthropy”: the influence of feminism on the practice of charity activities

The theory and practice of charity is of scientific interest in such disciplines as the history of everyday life, sociology, philosophy, psychology and cultural studies, which study this phenomenon in a traditional form. In this study, philanthropic activity is described from the feminist theory point of view, which examines the modern institution of philanthropy as a potential benefit to feminism itself. The purpose of this study is to analyze the current state of gender-based philanthropy - women's charity, which the author named “fern-philanthropy”. The tasks of the study included the analysis of charity within the framework of the hypothesis and its approbation; consideration of active women's charity in the historical and modern aspects; the influence of “fern-philanthropy” on modern society. A hypothesis is put forward about hypothetical femininity in modern charitable practice.