Feminism Flashcards
Liberal feminists
● Concerned with human and civil rights and freedoms of the individual
● They believe all humans should have equal rights including women
● Laws and Policies - women can achieve gender equality through policies/laws against discrimination in employment and education
● Cultural change - traditional prejudices and stereotypes are a barrier to equality
● Reject idea of biological differences make women less competent than men
Sex and gender
● Sex - biological differences between males and females such as reproductive, hormonal role and are fixed
● Gender - culturally constructed differences between ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ roles and identities assigned to males and females vary over time
● Sexist attitudes and stereotypical beliefs about gender are culturally constructed through socialisation.
● Seek to promote appropriate role models in education and family e.g. female teachers in male subjects
● Changes in socialization and culture gradually leading to rational attitudes to Fanshawe overcoming prejudice
● Political action to introduce anti-discriminatory laws and policies
Critique of functionalists
over-optimistic see obstacles to emancipation as prejudices that can be gradually reformed
● Ignore the possibility that there are deep-seated structures causing women’s oppression e.g. capitalism and patriarchy
Evaluation of liberal
over-optimistic see obstacles to emancipation as prejudices that can be gradually reformed
● Ignore the possibility that there are deep-seated structures causing women’s oppression e.g. capitalism and patriarchy
Radical feminism
● Patriarchy is universal - exists in all societies
● Patriarchy is primary and most fundamental form of inequality and conflict
● All men oppress women - all men benefit from patriarchy e.g. sexual services and unpaid domestic labour
Personal as political
● Patriarchal oppression is direct and personal
● Occurs in both private and public sphere of work
● All relationships involve power and they are political when one person dominates another
Sexuality
● New light of sexuality
● Malestream sociology regards sexuality as natural biological urge
● But radicals argue that patriarchy constructs sexuality to satisfy men’s desires e.g. women are portrayed in porn as passive sex objects
Ways to change
○ Separatism - living apart from men new culture of female independence (Germaine Greer matrilocal all female households)
○ Consciousness-raising - sharing experiences other women come to see that other women face same problems e.g. slutwalks
○ Political lesbianism - heterosexual relationships are inevitably oppressive as ‘sleeping with enemy’ and lesbianism is only non-oppressive form of sexuality
Evaluation of radical
● No explanation of why female subordination takes different forms in other societies
● Assumes all women in same position ignore class, ethnicity etc
● Reject women’s violence against men and violence in lesbian relationships
● Patriarchy on the decline - women’s position improved due to social reform and changing attitudes better education, opportunities becoming a reality
Marxist feminist
● Women’s subordination as a result of capitalism
● Main beneficiary of women’s oppression is capitalism
● Oppression resulting from primary role of homemaker making them economically dependent
Functions of women
● Women as a source of cheap, exploitable labour - paid less as partially dependent of husbands earnings
● Reserve army of labour - moved into labour forces during economic booms and out at recession. Marginal workers as primary role is at home
● Reproduce labour force - unpaid domestic labour, nurturing and socialising children to become the next generation of workers.
● Absorb anger - Ansley ‘takers of shit’ soak up frustration husbands feel due to alienation and exploitation at work - explains male domestic violence against women
Barrett’s ideology of familism
● Overthrow the ideology of familism which underpins conventional family
● Free women of restrictive stereotypes and sexual repression
● Deeply rooted femininity- Juliet Mitchell difficult to overthrow capitalism still patriarchal ideology
Evaluation of Marxist - Feminism
● Greater understanding of structural factors than liberal feminism due to capitalism and subordination
● Fails to explain subordination in non-capitalist societies
● Unpaid domestic labour may benefit capitalism but doesn’t explain why it is women that don’t perform it
● Insufficient emphasis on the way in which men oppress women and benefit from unpaid labour
Difference feminism
● Claims feminist theory claimed false universality - experiences of only white western, heterosexual middle-class women
Problem of essentialism
● Essence - all women share the same experiences of oppression
● Fail to reflect the diversity of women’s experiences and exclude other women from problems
