14.1 - Core Ideas and Principles of Feminism Flashcards
How many waves of feminism have existed since 1790?
4.
What were the waves of feminism, and when were they active?
First Wave - 1790s to 1950s (Liberal Feminism)
Second Wave - 1960s to 1980s (Liberal, Radical, Socialist)
Third Wave - 1990s to early 2000s (Postmodern, transfeminism)
Fourth Wave - early 2000s to date (Postmodern, Liberal, Radical, Trans)
How does feminism differentiate between sex and gender?
Sex - Biological differences between men and women.
Gender - Gender roles of men and women that are socially constructed.
What are the two main debates within feminism regarding sex?
Difference feminism vs. equality feminism
Transfeminism vs. Transfeminist sceptics
What do difference feminists argue about the differences between men and women?
The biological differences are important.
Belief in essentialism.
What is difference feminism?
Men and women are biologically and culturally different from men.
The differences need to be recognised and celebrated with women recognising they need to value their distinct gender characteristics.
What is essentialism?
The biological differences in men and women lead to differences in their fundamental natures.
What does transsexual mean?
People who’s gender identity differs from the biological sex that they were classified with at birth.
How does Germaine Greer weigh in on the trans debate?
Transgender women are ‘not women’.
How did Sheila Jeffreys weigh in on the trans debate?
Feminism should only be for ‘womyn-born-womyn’
How does Andrea Dworkin weigh in on the trans debate?
Sex is socially constructed.
The state should fund sex-change operations.
What are gender stereotypes?
Men’s and women’s roles are predetermined by society so they are socialised to behave in a certain way.
How did de Beauvoir think the biological differences between men and women had been employed in society?
The male-dominated state and society as a justification for predetermining the gender roles of women.
What is ‘otherness’?
Women are treated as an inferior minority who are subordinate to men in a patriarchal society.
How do Kate Millett and bell hooks think social construction begin?
In childhood due to the family unit.
What key ideology did first-wave feminism extend?
Classical liberalism.
What were the key texts for first-wave feminism?
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman - 1792 (Wollstonecraft)
Enfranchisement of Women - 1851 (Harriet Taylor Mill)
Why did first-wave feminism join to classical liberalism?
The ideas of negative freedom would allow them to be independent (vote, be economically active etc.)
What are the key texts of second-wave feminism?
The Feminine Mystique - 1963 (Betty Friedan)
The Female Eunuch - 1970 (Germaine Greer)
Woman’s Consciousness, Man’s World - 1973 (Sheila Rowbotham)
How did Liberal Second-Wave feminists think society could be improved?
The state should reform society and economy to allow female equality within the public sphere.
How did radical second-wave feminists think society could be improved?
The state is part of the problem, so there would need to be radical changes to both public and private sectors.
How did socialist second-wave feminists think society could be improved?
There would need to be revolution within a revolution. (Socialist revolution, but within a feminist revolution)
Capitalism and female oppression could both be solved through revolution.
What was the idea that united second-wave feminism?
Women are oppressed by men (the patriarchy).
How do liberal feminists think the patriarchy can be solved?
The patriarchy can be reformed by the state.
- Female emancipation
- Abortion
- Marriage and divorce law changes