2.5: Feminism

Question 1

How many waves of Feminism are there and what are they?

Answer 1

FEMINISM WAVES

1. First-wave feminism (1790s - 1950s)
   a) Focused on the legal and political rights of women, most famously in the UK through the Suffragette movement which culminated in equal suffrage with men in 1928.
   b) Extended classical liberalism’s ideas about human nature and freedom of the individual so that they explicitly included women.
   - State to reform society and the economy.
   c) Liberal feminism.
   - EXAMPLE. Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Women’ (1792) argued that women were just as rational as men and should receive the same educational opportunities.
   - EXAMPLE. Harriet Taylor Mill’s ‘Enfranchisement of Women’ (1851) argued that women should have the same right to vote like men and also play a role in making the law.
   - EXAMPLE. Charlotte Perkin Gilman argued that women should have equal opportunities in the workplace and conceptualised the idea of economic independence of women.
   - EXAMPLE. Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sex (1949)’ discusses the treatment of women throughout history.
2. Second-wave feminism (1960s - 1980s)
   a) Focused on the different roles that society expected of men and women.
   - Concepts of patriarchy, sex and gender and the ‘personal is political’ were discussed.
   - United on the idea of oppression through patriarchy.
   b) Liberal feminism.
   - Calls to reform society and the economy, allowing women equality within the public sphere of society.
   - EXAMPLE. Betty Friedan’s ‘The Feminine Mystique’ (1963) talks about “the problem that has no name” as a housewife which lacks fulfilment.
   c) Radical feminism.
   - Saw the state as the problem and wanted radical changed to the public and private spheres of society.
   - EXAMPLE. Kate Millett’s ‘Sexual Politics (1970)’ discusses the role that patriarchy plays in sexual relations.
   - EXAMPLE. Germaine Greer’s ‘The Female Eunuch (1970)’ talks of “traditional” suburban, consumerist, nuclear family represses women sexually, and that this devitalises them, rendering them eunuchs.
   d) Socialist feminism.
   - Only under a socialist feminist revolution could the inequalities of both capitalism and female oppression be solved.
   - EXAMPLE. Sheila Rowbotham’s ‘Woman’s Consciousness, Man’s World (1973)’ she states how domestic household work done by women was a part of commodity production as it allowed the production and reproduction of men’s labour.
3. Third-wave feminism (1990s to 2000s)
   a) Concerned with the idea that feminism had solely focused on white-middle class women, failing to recognise the concerns of other cultures (BAME).
   b) The emergence of postmodern feminism and transfeminism.
   - EXAMPLE. Sylvia Walby identified 6 overlapping patriarchal structures that promoted discrimination.
   - EXAMPLE. bell hooks argued in ‘Ain’t I a woman (1981)’ examines the effect of racism and sexism on black women, the civil rights movement, and feminist movements from suffrage to the 1970s.
4. Forth-wave feminism (2000s to 2020s)
   a) Inequality based on media images of women, online misogyny, sexual harassment, pay, representation and uses arising through the expansion of social media.
   - Expanded in the developing world, with female genital mutilation and forced marriages.
   - Characterised particularly by the use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube.
   b) Further development to postmodern feminism, liberal feminism, radical feminism and transfeminism.
   - EXAMPLE. The rise of #metoo movement and the Weinstein effect by Hollywood whistleblowers such as Tarana Burke and Rose McGowan.

Question 2

What are the 6 core ideas and principles of feminism?

Answer 2

6 CORE IDEAS AND PRINCIPLES OF FEMINISM

1. Sex
2. Gender
3. Patriarchy
4. The personal is political
5. Equality and difference feminism
6. Intersectionality

Question 3

What is the principle of Sex?

Answer 3

SEX PRINCIPLE

1. The biological difference between men and women.
   a) Humans are assigned sex at birth: male or female.
   b) Observable physical attributed:
   - External and internal anatomy.
   - Chromosomes.
   - Hormone prevalence.
   c) Two main debates within feminism concerning sex:
   - Difference feminism vs Equality feminism.
   - Transfeminism vs Transfeminist sceptics (Trans-exclusionary feminism - TERFs).
2. Difference feminism vs Equality feminism.
   a) Difference feminists argue that the biological difference between women and men are important and believe in essentialism.
   - EXAMPLE. Carol Gilligan argued that biological difference affect the way that men and women think: there are specific male and female characteristics and each sex has a specific ‘nature’
   b) Equality feminists argue that women’s ‘nature’ is socially constructed.
   - This is determined by society, not biology.
3. Transfeminism vs Transfeminist sceptics (Trans-exclusionary feminism - TERFs).
   a) Transsexual referees to those whose gender identity differs from the biological sex that they were classified at birth
   b) Transfeminism argues that sex is socially constructed.
   - This is a minority viewpoint within global society and feminism, as sex is a biological fact.
   - EXAMPLE. Andrea Dworkin supports the socially constructed definitions of sex, arguing that the state should finance sex-change operations for transsexuals.
   - EXAMPLE. In 2014, Denmark passed legislation to allow individuals to change their identified sex without court approval.
   c) Transfeminist sceptics (TERFs).
   - Feminists who believe that transsexual women should not be apart of the feminist argument.
   - EXAMPLE. Radical second-wave feminist, Germaine Greer has stated that transgender women are ‘not women’.
   - EXAMPLE. Sheila Jeffreys has asserted that feminism should only be for ‘womyn-born-womyn’.

Question 4

What is essentialism?

Answer 4

ESSENTIALISM

• The belief that the biological difference between men and women lead to distinct differences in their fundamental natures.
• The fundamental nature of men and women are, therefore ‘natural’ rather than socially constructed.

Question 5

What is the principle of Gender?

Answer 5

GENDER PRINCIPLE

1. Gender roles are socially constructed and form gender stereotypes.
   a) This is the argument that men’s and women’s roles are predetermined by society so that they are socialised to behave in a certain way.
   - The innate character of being masculine or feminine.
   b) Masculine and feminine are used to describe an ‘ideal’ gender type to aspire to.
   - EXAMPLE. Virginia Woolf gives a telling description in ‘A Room of One’s Own (1929)’ where she relates the woman to the ‘Angel in the House’ reinforcing gender roles.
2. Key thinkers
   a) Simone de Beauvoir argued that biological differences between sexes have been used by male-dominated state and society as a justification for predetermined gender roles of women.
   - Men were socially conditioned as the ‘norm’ whereas women were ‘otherness’.
   - Otherness meaning that women are treated as an inferior minority who are subordinate to men in a patriarchal society.
   - Men were the ‘first sex’ while women were the ‘second sex’.
   b) Charlotte Perkins Gilman argued that gender roles are socially constructed from a young age, subordinating women to the will of men.
   - Women are socialised into thinking themselves naturally frail and weaker than men.
   c) Kate Millett and Bell Hooks perceive social construction as beginning in childhood within the family unit.
   - Gender roles are therefore neither natural nor inevitable.

Question 6

What is the principle of Patriarchy?

Answer 6

PATRIARCHY PRINCIPLE

1. Social system supporting male domination and female subordination.
   a) A society dominated by men in the interests of men.
   b) The systematic oppression of women by men, pervasive throughout society.
2. Different factions of feminists respond to patriarchy.
   a) Liberal feminists.
   - Patriarchy can be reformed by the state.
   - Seen in Western society through female emancipation, access to education, workplace equality, the legislation of abortion, changes in marriage and divorce law.
   b) Radical feminists.
   - Focus in both public and private spheres and that patriarchy is too pervasive to be reformed.
   - Change must be revolutionary.
   - EXAMPLE. Germaine Greer argued that male respect for women is affection as they have a deep-seated loathing of women.
   - EXAMPLE. Barbara Goodwin concludes the sheer number of domestic violence and rape cases should give women some idea of this.
   c) Socialist feminists.
   - Believe that female consciousness is created by mem as part of the capital machine.
   - EXAMPLE. Sheila Rowbotham adopted a Marxist theory of history that concluded that women have always been oppressed and that revolution was needed to destroy both capitalism and patriarchy.
3. Sylvia Wallby’s 6 overlapping patriarchal structures that promote discrimination from her ‘Theorising Patriarchy (1990)’ book.
   a) The State.
   - Unrepresents women in power.
   b) Household
   - Society conditions women to believe that their natural role us as mother/homemaker.
   - Domesticity is destiny.
   - EXAMPLE. Kate Millet views that ‘the family is patriarchy chief institution’.
   c) Violence
   - 1/4 women in the UK will suffer domestic violence from men.
   - 2 Women have been killed every week in England and Wales bu a current or former partner.
   d) Paid Work
   - Women are often underpaid for the same roles.
   - Women-centric careers also tend to be linked to gender stereotypes of nurturing, such as nursing and teaching.
   e) Sexuality
   - Women are made to feel that their sexual feelings are abnormal, wrong of deviant.
   - Society encourages men to explore the full extent of their sexuality, as a symbol of masculine virility.
   - EXAMPLE. Germaine Greer argued in the ‘Female Eunuch (1970)’ that society forces women to repress their natural sexual desires as ‘dirty’ or ‘unladylike’.
   f) Culture
   - Society reinforces roles of women, from being the primary carer to how they should look.
   - Women are objectified and highly sexualised in adverts and media, pressuring women to look a certain way and often linked to anorexia among younger women.
   - Many of these ‘expectations’ are from the result of patriarchal culture.

Question 7

What is the principle of Personal is Political?

Answer 7

PERSONAL IS POLITICAL PRINCIPLE

1. From Carol Hanisch’s 1970 essay, it is the idea that women are oppressed in both the public and private sphere.
   a) Public sphere.
   - The visible area of society where relationships are public, such as the workplace and within civic life.
   - EXAMPLE. Women protested at the Miss World Competition in London 1970.
   b) Private sphere.
   - The area of society where relationships are seen as private. These relationships are less visible and centred on the home and domestic life.
   - Women are subject to domestic abuse yet it was considered a ‘private matter’.
   - Relationships between sexes are based on power and dominance, not just those in the public sphere - this status quo should be challenged
2. Different factions of feminists respond to patriarchy.
   a) Liberal feminists.
   - Focus on the public sphere of society (equal pay and conditions in the workplace)., as the private life of a woman is outside of the remit of political analysis.
   - EXAMPLE. Simone de Beauvoir championed contraception as it allowed women control of their bodies and the chance to avoid endless childbearing.
   b) Radical feminists (private life to public scrutiny).
   - EXAMPLE. Charlotte Perkins Gilman refuted this, arguing that the personal is political, as patriarchy is prevalent in the private sphere of domestic life which forces young girls to conform to motherhood with gender-specific clothes and toys.
   - EXAMPLE. Kate Millet believed that family is a social construct as children are socialised to see their parents acting out traditional gender roles as natural and inevitable, with marriage seeing women lose their identity (surname), and men being granted ownership over their wife and children through patriarchy and entrenching sexism with the idea of male superiority.
   c) Socialist feminists.
   - EXAMPLE. Sheila Rowbotham argued that marriage was like feudalism, with women akin to serfs paying feudal dues to their husband.

Question 8

What is the principle of Equality Feminism and Difference Feminism?

Answer 8

EQUALITY AND DIFFERENCE FEMINISM

1. Equality Feminism
   a) Majority viewpoint that biological differences are inconsequential and that gender differences are socially constructed.
   - Thus there is no specific feminine traits
   b) EXAMPLE. Simone de Beauvoir dismissed the idea of innate female characteristics as ‘a myth invented by men to confine women to their oppressed state’.
   - Women have been dominated due to their bodies.
   - Contraceptives, abortion, rejection of the family and monogamy would allow women to compete with men in society.
2. Difference Feminism
   a) Minority viewpoint by believing in essentialism, whereby biological differences are consequential and do determine gender differences.
   b) Traced back to first-wave feminism who believe that women were men’s intellectual equal yet had gender-specific characteristics.
   c) EXAMPLE. In the 1980s, Carol Gilligan stated that sex was one of the most important determinants of human behaviour in her book ‘In a different voice’.
   - Posting that women were naturally more nurturing, caring and communal than men.
   - Argued that there is a ‘single mode of social experience and interpretation’ whilst men and women experience and interpret the world in different ways.
   - Equality feminists misunderstand these differences, leading to women attempting to replicate male behaviour while neglecting their own feminine natures.

Question 9

What is cultural feminism?

Answer 9

CULTURAL FEMINISM

1. A radical version of difference feminism and challenges the dominance of men in society.
   a) Asserts that women’s value is superior and should be promoted.
   b) Women have distinct ‘female essence’, which is caring and nurturing as opposed to aggressive and competitive men.
   c) This is inverted sexism, and if patriarchy cannot be defended, neither can matriarchy.
   d) EXAMPLE. The Greenham Common Peace Camp in the 1980s was in protest against the government’s decisions to site nuclear missiles there.
   - It was women-only as women were ‘life-givers’ who had to protect their children.
2. Political Lesbianism and Separatism
   a) Not a unified view, but women should create permanent separate societies from men to distance themselves from a patriarchal society.
   b) EXAMPLE. Charlotte Bunch argued in ‘Learning from Lesbian Separatism (1976)’ that in a male-supremacist society, heterosexuality is a political institution and the practice of separatism is a means of escape.
   - Lesbianism is, therefore, a political choice.
   c) EXAMPLE. Sheila Jeffreys wrote about political lesbianism in her 1979 book - Love your enemy?

Question 10

What is the principle of Intersectionality?

Answer 10

INTERSECTIONALITY PRINCIPLE

1. Women have multiple overlapping identities as week as gender: including race, class, age, sexuality, and religion.
   a) Generalising about the female experience of patriarchy is pointless when middle-class women will have a very different experience from black working-class women and other types.
   - Oppression can, therefore, occur in more than one form.
   - Solidarity is across all forms of discrimination to discover alliances amongst communal groups.
2. bell hooks
   a) Criticised second-wave feminism for conceptualizing feminism from a white middle-class perspective and college-educated background.
   - Argued that both liberal and radical feminists largely ignored the concerns of minority groups.
   b) Confliction of colour, as well as black men, wanted racial equality and the assumption of their proper place as ‘patriarch in the home’.
   c) EXAMPLE. hooks inspired Kimberle Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality that challenged the notion that gender is the most important factor in understanding women’s lives.
   - In the DeGraffenreid v General Motors case 1976, 5 black employees sued GM for wrongful dismissal on discrimination. The district court dismissed the case yet ignored the overlapping identities of black women being double discriminated against.

Question 11

What defines Liberal Feminism?

Answer 11

LIBERAL FEMINISM

1. A Reformist belief that society can be reformed via democratic pressure and legislation to alter the negative consequences of oppression to reach equality.
   a) Do not believe in a radical revolutionary change in the way state, society and economy are organised.
   - Greater focus on the public sphere (society) rather than the private sphere (domestic life).
   - Less focus on patriarchy and more on highlighting discrimination.
   b) Radical feminists criticised liberal feminists for its reluctance to analyse the private sphere of family life and by 3rd wave/postmodern feminists for its white, female, middle-class definition of feminism.
2. Campaigned for:
   a) An end to discrimination and inequality in the workplace and a belief in gender equality.
   b) An end to outdated cultural attitudes via education and opposition to sexist language.
   c) Changes in the law to facilitate legal equality in al public spheres of society.
3. Influenced by concepts of:
   a) Individualism.
   - Principle of being independent and self-reliant.
   b) Foundational equality.
   - Humans are all of equal worth and therefore are entitled to the same rights and freedoms.
   c) Equality of opportunity.
   - Everyone, regardless of gender, should have the same life chances within society.
   d) Political equality.
   - Women should have the same rights as men to vote and to hold political office.
   e) Gender equality.
   - Men and women should be treated the same within society.
   - Full cultural equality, which outlaws the idea that men are superior to women.
   f) Legal equality.
   - Everyone should be treated the same in the eyes of the law.
   - For feminists, this means that women should have exactly the same lawful right as men.
4. Mary Wollstonecraft.
   a) A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) argued for political equality and that women should have the vote.
   - The assumption was that political emancipation would lead to gender equality and legal equality, particularly in relation to the economic sphere of property ownership.
5. Betty Friedan.
   a) The Feminine Mystique (1963) started second-wave feminism and was based on questionnaires from women.
   - ‘The Problem that has no name’ epitomised the dilemma that many women, living domestic lives as wives and mothers felt; ‘dissatisfaction’ and trapped within life.
   b) Like Simone de Beauvoir, Friedan emphasised the concept of ‘otherness’ and that women should be free to choose the roles they took.

Question 12

What are some example of the legislative achievement of feminism in the UK?

Answer 12

LEGISLATIVE ACHIEVEMENTS

1. The Married Women’s Property Act 1870.
   - Allowed women to be the legal owner of money and property.
   - Prior to this act, all of the women’s assets became her husband’s upon marriage.
2. First Sitting MP, 1919.
   - Nancy Astor became the first woman to sit in the House of Commons.
3. Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928.
   - All women over 21 given the vote regardless of property ownership.
4. Equal Pay Act 1970.
   - Made it illegal to pay women lower rates for the same work.
5. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
   - Made it illegal to discriminate against women in work, education and training.
6. First Female Prime Minister, 1979.
   - The election of Margaret Thatcher demonstrated gender equality.
7. The Sex Discrimination (Amendment) Act 1986.
   - Prevented discrimination against women in the selection, promotion, vocational training and working conditions, and made it illegal to dismiss a woman on the basis that she had reached state pensionable age, where that age was different for men and women.

Question 13

What defines Socialist Feminism?

Answer 13

SOCIALIST FEMINISM

1. Believes that gender inequality in society stems from economics and that capitalism causes patriarchy.
   a) Women should join together with men to fight capitalism and in doing so, remove patriarchy too.
   b) Two branches of socialist feminism: Reform and Revolutionary.

REFORMIST SOCIALIST FEMINISM (Traditional)

1. Charlotte Perkin Gilman
   a) Viewed collectivism and cooperation as female qualities.
   - Capitalism’s exploitive qualities reinforced patriarchy and that socialism would gradually succeed, allowing women and men to coexist in egalitarian society and economy.
   b) Viewed herself a humanist rather than a feminist.
   - Parity between the sexes.
   c) Gilman anticipated intersectionality in arguing that gender and capitalism were interconnected forms of oppression.
   - Only economic independence could give women freedom and equality with men.
   - Motherhood should not prevent women from working outside of the home.
   - Gilman anticipated the personal is the political.
   - She championed communal forms of living where child-rearing and housework would be shared and been professionalized, allowing women a wider role in society.

REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALIST FEMINISM

1. Friedrich Engels
   a) Wrote ‘The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884)’
   - The move away from matriarchal societies to patriarchal ones coincided with the arrival of capitalism.
   b) Women serve the needs of capitalism in several ways.
   - Capitalism needed workers to be supported and looked after by unpaid helpers to enable them to carry out a proper day’s work.
   - Women were confined to the domestic, private sphere where their roles would be to take care of their husband, have children and socialise those children in becoming the next generation of workers and carers that capitalism needed. This is known as the reproducing of the labour force.
   c) Women also acted as a reserve army of labour and could be used as part of the workforce when needed.
   - This reserve army could be sent home when their usefulness had ended.
   d) As capitalism was based on the accumulation of private property, assuring the paternity of their heirs was vital to men.
   - So women were therefore required to be virgins until marriage and monotonous throughout the marriage.
2. Sheila Rowbotham
   a) ‘Hidden from History (1973)’ expanded on Engel’s theory.
   - Working-class women found employment in factories where they were paid less than men, had no childcare provisions and were worked ‘like cattle’ both at home and in the workplace.
   b) Although men do not understand the nature of the oppression of women, they will often admit it.
   c) She adapted Marxist historical materialism.
   - Argued that women had always been oppressed and that their alienation from capitalism and patriarchy meant that there needed to be a ‘revolution within a revolution’ to destroy capitalism and patriarchy.
3. Simone de Beauvoir
   a) Argued that consumptive materialism inherited within capitalism had weakened women’s position within society.
   - Materialism is the idea that society has become addicted to purchasing consumer goods.
4. Juliet Mitchell
   a) Argued that even the destruction of capitalism may not be sufficient to end patriarchy in ‘Women’s Estate (1971)’.
   b) There are social functions that women must liberate themselves from and reframe:
   - Their role in the workforce and production.
   - Their childbearing role.
   - Their socialisation of children.
   - Their societal position as sex objects.
   c) Mitchell adds a cultural dynamic to complement the economic arguments of socialist feminism.

Question 14

What defines Radical Feminism?

Answer 14

RADICAL FEMINISM

1. Believe that there needs to be radical changes to society in the form of a sexual revolution to fundamentally change the structure.
   a) Rebutted liberal thinking by focusing on both public and private spheres with ‘the personal is political’.
   b) Focused on different aspects of patriarchy and sexism with original solutions.
   - They believe that gender inequality is the foremost system of oppression.
   - Patriarchy is an independent system of oppression, separate from other ideologies.
   c) There is a lack of cohesion across this branch of feminism.
2. Kate Millett
   a) ‘Sexual Politics (1970)’ takes a psychoanalytical approach to feminism.
   b) Millett was critical of romantic love and monogamous marriage (as aspects of patriarchy), and argued that children were socialised via the family unit and that these norms of behaviour were reinforced by religion, education, myths, art and literature.
   - Women had been treated as the property of men historically as the husband could divorce and keep money/children if a woman committed adultery.
   - The approach to ending this false consciousness was abolishing the nuclear family and replacing it with communal living and childrearing.
3. EXAMPLE. Alternative solutions to patriarchy
   a) Erin Pizzey’s analysis of ‘the personal is political’ focused on domestic violence in family life.
   - Pizzey set up the first women’s refuge in London in 1971, offering women and their children a refuge from domestic violence.
   b) Charlotte Bunch argued that heterosexual relationships were based on power and that lesbianism was a political choice.
   - The nuclear family should be abolished and replaced with lesbian communities.
   c) Andrea Dworkin argued that pornography was symptomatic of men’s perception of women as sexual objects.
   d) Germaine Greer argued that patriarchy had socialised women to view their sexual desires as unfeminine and o be embarrassed about their bodies.
   - Women had been indoctrinated to believe that they must retain eternal youth rather than physical and emotionally embrace their age and experience.
   - Greer argued for sexual liberation and the abandonment of traditional marriage and the male domination that this entails.
   - She favoured communal living and childrearing.
   - Similar to Kate Millett bit more a heterosexual perspective.
   e) Shulamith Firestone saw history as a dialect struggle relating to biological difference between men and women.
   - Patriarchy has always existed as women have been enslaved by men.
   - Firestone’s perfect society would eliminate gender distinctions and embrace androgyny (the physical characteristics of both sexes).
   - She regards childbirth as barbaric and advocated artificial insemination, arguing that when technology advanced men might be impacted wombs and bear children.
   - Firestone was influenced by Simone de Beauvoir.
   f) Naomi Wolf wrote in ‘The Beauty Myth (1990)’ that beauty was the ‘last best belief system that keeps male dominance intact’.
   - Photoshopped images are normalised to make ‘perfection’ unattainable.

Question 15

What defines Postmodern Feminism?

Answer 15

POSTMODERN FEMINISM (4th wave)

1. Refects the simplistic and broad generalisations inherent within earlier feminist traditions.
   a) There are interacting factors other than gender which deepen oppression (intersectionality - bell hooks).
   b) EXAMPLE. Kira Cochrane argues that intersectionality ‘seems to be emerging as the defining framework of 4th wave feminism’.
   c) Patriarchy continues to adapt and find new ways to oppress.
   - EXAMPLE. Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards argue in ‘Manifesta (2000)’ that successive generations will need to establish what feminism means to them.
   d) There are different themes within postmodern feminism:
2. Cyberpatriarchy
   a) Kira Cochrane argues that technology is a source of patriarchy and is intersectional:
   b) EXAMPLE. Diane Abbott received more twitter abuse that any other MP in the 2017 general election campaign.
   - Social media generalises abuse, she is abused for being both a woman and for being black.
   b) EXAMPLE. The Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain received intersectional discrimination with online abuse that had three overlapping forms of oppression: gender, race (Bangladeshi) and religion (Muslim).
   c) EXAMPLE. Natasha Walker argued that modern women now face ‘hypersexualisation’ from the internet and social media.
   - Femininity has been associated with sexiness and that young girls face a highly sexualised culture that is a new form of patriarchy as it pressurized them to dress a certain way.
   - Studies have shown that in the last decade, girls between the ages of 12 and 18 have faced pressure and harassment from boys of the same age to send nude photos (sexting).
   - Many young people have committed suicide after pictures have circulated against their will.
3. Female Genital Mutilation
   a) EXAMPLE. Nimko Ali set up the Daughters of Eve in 2012 to prevent FGM.
   - FGM is intersectional in at least 4 aspects: Gender, racial, religious and historical.
4. Honour Killings
   a) Approximately 5,000 girls are killed by their families every year, yet it could be far higher.
   b) An intersectional form of patriarchy, mostly associated with Islam in India and Pakistan alongside Sikh, Hindu and Christian families.
   - EXAMPLE. Tom Ough publishes examples in the Daily Telegraph.
5. Transfeminism
   a) Intersectional values as it demonstrates how complicated defining sex and gender is.
6. Rape and Sexual Assault
   a) EXAMPLE. The One Billion Rising Campaign attempts to end violence against women.
   - The Billion refers to the UN statistics that 1/3 women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime.
   b) UN research illustrates the intersectional complexity of rape.
   - Certain characteristics such as sexual orientation, disability status, ethnicity and country of origin can increase vulnerability to violence.
   c) A 2018 Revolt Sexual Assault report found that 70% of university respondents had experienced sexual assault with only 10% reporting it to the police or university.
   - ONS estimates that 4% of women have experienced rape.

Question 16

What are some of the Postmodern Feminist legislative successes?

Answer 16

POSTMODERN FEMINISM LEGISLATIVE SUCCESSES

1. First National Black Conference held, 1984.
   - An example of postmodern feminism and intersectionality.
2. First Black Lesbian Conference held, 1984.
   - An example of postmodern feminism and intersectionality.
3. Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985 and the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003.
   - The 2003 act makes it an offence for UK nationals or the permanent UK residents to carry out female genital mutilation abroad, or to aid, abet, counsel or procure the carrying out of female genital mutilation, even in countries where the practice is legal.
4. Election of the first black female MP, 1987.
   - Diane Abbott becomes the first black female MP.
5. Gender Recognition Act 2004.
   - Allows individuals to change their sexual gender.
6. Gender Recognition Amendment Consultation, 2017-18.
   - If proposals go ahead, it will allow individuals to self-identify their sex.

Question 17

What is Post-Feminism?

Answer 17

POST-FEMINISM

1. Writing in the late 1980s and the early 1990s argued that most feminist goals have been achieved and that women should move on.
   a) EXAMPLE. Camille Paglia criticised feminism for portraying women as ‘victims’ and argued that women needed to take responsibility for their own life and sexual conduct.
2. Criticised for examining feminism solely through a white, middle-class framework that ignores the complexities of female experiences that postmodern feminism explores.

Question 18

Who are the 5 key feminist thinkers?

Answer 18

KEY FEMINIST THINKERS

1. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
2. Simone de Beauvoir
3. Kate Millett
4. Sheila Rowbotham
5. bell hooks

Question 19

What defines Charlotte Perkins Gilman?

Answer 19

CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN (1860 - 1935)

1. Biography
   a) American upbringing.
   b) ‘The Yellow Wallpaper (1892)’ is a short story if a woman suffering from mental illness after 3 months of being closeted in a room by her husband for the sake of her health.
   - This was inspired by her postnatal depression and unhappy marriage.
2. Influence
   a) Considered to be a humanist yet her ideas influence both radical and socialist feminism.
   - She anticipated ‘the personal is the political’ in her ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ novella.
3. Main concepts
   a) Sex and domestic politics
   - Sex and the capitalist economy were interlinked.
   - Capitalism’s exploitive qualities reinforced patriarchy and that socialism would gradually succeed, allowing women and men to coexist in egalitarian society and economy.
   - Women were reliant on their sexual assets to gratify their husbands, who in turn would support them financially.
   - Gilman viewed marriage as comparable with prostitution: ‘the transient trade we think evil. The bargain for life we think good’.
   b) Societal pressures of gender stereotyping
   - Gender roles are socially constructed from a young age, and Gilman argued that children should play with gender-neutral toys.
   - She wished to reverse this false consciousness so women would no longer see themselves as naturally trailer and weaker than men.
   c) Economic independence
   - Economic independence was the only thing that could bring freedom to women and make them equal to men.
   - Motherhood should not stop the women from working outside of the home.
   d) Proposed solutions
   - Gilman sought economic independence for women and advocated centralised nurseries and co-operative kitchens to give women freedom and autonomy.
   - Communal housing should be opened to men and women so individuals live singly and still have companionship and home comforts.
   - Both men and women would be economically independent, this would allow for marriage without their status having to change.

Question 20

What defines Simone de Beauvoir?

Answer 20

SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR (1908 - 1986)

1. Biography
   a) French upbringing.
   b) In ‘The Second Sex (1949)’ de Beauvoir draws from her own unhappy childhood experiences and treatment of women throughout history with essentialism to pose the question ‘What is a woman?’.
   - Essentialism argues that humans have no natural nature or essence and men have this created a feminine myth through which to oppress women.
2. Influence
   a) Reluctant to call herself a feminist.
   - More for less a humanist.
   b) Initially believed a socialist revolution was the answer to change, yet backtracked as she realised that it did not change a woman status nor liberate them.
   - Argued that consumptive materialism inherited within capitalism had weakened women’s position within society.
   - Materialism is the idea that society has become addicted to purchasing consumer goods.
3. Main concepts
   a) Sex and gender as women are socialised into becoming ‘women’.
   - She argued that femininity was an artificial societal construct: ‘One is not born, but rather becomes a woman’.
   - She was in some ways as much a humanist as she was a feminist; ‘The fact that we are human beings is infinitely more important than all the peculiarities that distinguish human beings from one another’.
   b) Motherhood
   - Turning women into slaves as they were forced to focus on motherhood and femininity instead of politics, technology or anything beyond home and family.
   - Championed contraception as it allowed women control of their bodies and the chance to avoid endless childbearing.
   c) Otherness
   - ‘Otherness’ is imposed on women by men.
   - Male domination meant that they were the first sex (norm), while women were the second sex, as men argued that they were the norm.
   - Women had accepted and internalised their otherness, they were inferior in their own eyes too.
   - Women needed to become conscious if their domination before they could struggle against it.
   d) Feminine nature
   - She was dismayed by the idea of a separate, mystical ‘feminine nature’.
   - This was an example of further oppression against women.
   e) Patriarchy
   - Recognised that feminism had done some good, but they should not reject being a part of the man’s world, but share in it.

Question 21

What defines Kate Millett?

Answer 21

KATE MILLETT (1934 - 2017)

1. Biography
   a) An American academic.
   b) ‘Sexual Politics (1970)’ is regarded as the first systematic analysis of patriarchy.
2. Influence
   a) One of the most influential radical feminists.
   - She challenged liberal feminism by arguing that ‘the personal is political’.
   - Oppression was both cultural and political/institutional.
3. Main concepts
   a) Family
   - Millett perceived the family unit as the foundation of patriarchal thought and as a social construct, as children were socialised into gender roles that they grew up perceiving as normal.
   - Patriarchy reinforced heterosexualism as being the bisexual or homosexual relationship.
   - Patriarchy granted the father nearly total ownership over his wife and children. Her status as his property continued in her loss of name and the legal assumption that marriage involved an exchange of women’s domestic service and sexual consent for financial support.
   - Her solution was to dismantle the family unit for communal living and childrearing.
   b) The portrayal of women in art and literature
   - Women’s gender roles were stereotype in art and literature.
   - Millett’s analysis included a feminist deconstruction of the work of influential male writers D.H.Lawrebce, Henry Miller, and Norman Mailer, whom she branded sexist, misogynistic and phallocentric.
   c) Sex
   - Attacked romantic love and called for an end to monotonous marriage and the family, which she referred to as patriarchy’s ‘Chief Institution’.
   - Sexual revolution would bring patriarchy to an end.

Question 22

What defines Sheila Rowbotham?

Answer 22

SHEILA ROWBOTHAM

1. Biography
   a) An academic feminist who wrote the influential book: ‘Woman’s Consciousness, Man’s World (1973)’ she explores how domestic household work done by women was a part of commodity production as it allowed the production and reproduction of men’s labour.
   b) ‘Hidden from History (1973)’ expanded on Engel’s theory.
   - Working-class women found employment in factories where they were paid less than men, had no childcare provisions and were worked ‘like cattle’ both at home and in the workplace.
   - Although men do not understand the nature of the oppression of women, they will often admit it.
2. Influence
   a) A socialist feminist who developed the Marxist theory of history that concluded that women have always been oppressed as sexism predates capitalism and that there needed to be a ‘revolution within a revolution’ to destroy both capitalism and patriarchy.
3. Main concepts
   a) Capitalism
   - Rowbotham was influenced by Marx and Engels, which informs her socialist feminism.
   - Capitalism worsened the oppression of women, forcing them to sell their labour to survive in the workplace and to cede their labour in the family home.
   b) Family
   - Rowbotham stresses that the family performs a dual function: to subject and discipline women to the demands of capitalism and to offer a place of refuge for men from the alienation of capitalism.
   - Marriage was like feudalism, with women akin to serfs paying feudal dues to their husband.

Question 23

What defines bell hooks?

Answer 23

BELL HOOKS (1952 - )

1. Biography
   a) American intersectionality feminist.
   b) ‘Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (1981)’ explores the complexities of relationships between different minorities.
   c) Adopted the pseudonym of her great grandmother.
   - Lower case letters in a gesture of nonconformity.
2. Influence
   a) Postmodern feminism as mainstream feminism excluded the concerns of women of colour.
   - Women of colour are often found in a double bind and exponentially oppressed.
   b) Need to articulate and recognise a feminist theory of empowerment that was accessible to people of colour.
   - Solidarity between genders, races and classes.
3. Main concepts
   a) Women of colour
   - hooks broadened the feminist debate as she felt it was too focused on middle- and upper-class college-educated white women.
   - She focused on ‘women of colour’ and all social classes.
   b) Intersectionality
   - hooks’ ideas greatly influenced the idea of intersectionality - a term coined by Kimberle Crenshaw - which challenged the feminist assumption that gender was the most important factor in determining a women’s life experiences.
   c) Gender stereotypes
   - hooks argued that from a young age, boys and girls are told to fit into the boxes of characteristics expected of them.
   - Boys are denied the right to express emotion.
   - Girls are taught to change themselves to be attractive.

Question 24

To what extent do feminist agree over the concept of Patriarchy?

Answer 24

CONCEPT OF PATRIARCHY

1. Areas of agreement
   a) Most feminists are equality feminists and use the term ‘patriarchy’ to define a society that is dominated by men and that seeks to oppress women.
   b) Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Simone de Beauvoir were among the first to identify gender stereotyping, and feminists such as Betty Freidan and Kate Millett explicitly defined patriarchy as a cultural and not a biological phenomenon.
   c) There is agreement among equality feminists that patriarchy is not a static concept.
   d) The majority of equality feminists agree that patriarchy must be opposed in the public sphere of society.
2. Areas of disagreement
   a) Liberal and radical feminism disagree on where to challenge patriarchy.
   - Liberals prefer the public sphere of society.
   - Radicals argue that patriarchy must be challenged in both public and private spheres.
   b) Liberal feminists believe state, society and the economy can be reformed of patriarchal tendencies.
   - Radical feminists argue that there must be revolutionary change (although there is no consensus of what this change would be).
   c) Post-feminists argued that most feminist goals have been achieved and that patriarchy has largely been defeated.
   d) Postmodern feminists argue that patriarchy is far more complicated than liberal, radical or socialist feminists have imagined because of intersectionality.

Question 25

To what extent do feminists and key thinkers agree over the concept of Human Nature?

Answer 25

HUMAN NATURE

1. Equality feminists
   a) Believe that the natures of men and women are the same.
   b) Distinctions between sex and gender is artificial.
   c) Support gender equality, believing gender stereotypes are social constructs.
   d) Patriarchy can be overthrown when gender roles and stereotypes are challenged.
   - Women’s biology should not determine her social position.
2. Difference feminists
   a) Believe that men and women have fundamentally different natures stemming from biology (essentialism).
   b) Liberation can only be achieved when women are encouraged to allow their different natures and creative spirit to flourish.

KEY THINKERS ON HUMAN NATURE

1. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
   - Women are equal to men and biological differences are irrelevant.
2. Simone de Beauvoir
   - Gender differences are not natural but the creation of men.
3. Kate Millett
   - Women are oppressed by men (patriarchy) and should free themselves by engaging in lesbian relations.
4. Sheila Rowbotham
   - Female consciousness is socially constructed by men.
5. bell hooks
   - Women have multiple identities and therefore experiences multiple forms of oppression.

Question 26

To what extent do feminists and key thinkers agree over the concept of the State?

Answer 26

THE STATE

1. Liberal feminists
   a) Believe that the state can play a role in promoting female liberation by promoting legal and political equality.
   b) The state can help to ensure equality of opportunity between the sexes.
   c) The state should concern itself only with correcting inequalities in the public sphere, by promoting equality of opportunity and outlawing discrimination.
2. Radical feminists
   a) Believe that providing an equal, legal framework is insufficient to overthrow the patriarchy.
   b) The state promotes the interests of patriarchy.
   - The state has a role to play in eradicating patriarchal values in the public and private sphere by outlawing pornography and ensuring harsher punishments for domestic violence and rape.
3. Socialist feminists
   a) Reject the liberal idea of that state as a neutral body, suggesting that it works in the interests of capitalism and thus patriarchy.

KEY THINKERS ON THE STATE

1. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
   - No explicit views on the state.
2. Simone de Beauvoir
   - The state reinforces a male-dominated culture which limits women’s autonomy and freedom.
3. Kate Millett
   - The state facilitates patriarchy.
4. Sheila Rowbotham
   - The state facilitates capitalism, which in turn oppresses women.
5. bell hooks
   - White men dominate the state at the expense of women.

Question 27

To what extent do feminists and key thinkers agree over the concept of Society?

Answer 27

SOCIETY

1. Liberal feminists
   a) Women are discriminated against in society and focus their attention solely on the public sphere.
2. Radical feminists
   a) Believe that society is pervaded by patriarchal values that seek to preserve men’s dominant position in society.
   b) Argue that the ‘personal is the political’ in all relationships between men and women.
   - Relationships are based on power and dominance.
   c) Radical equality feminists want a society in which gender ceases to structure a person’s identity.
   d) Radical difference feminists believe that this encourages women to be ‘male-identified’ and perpetuates feelings of ‘otherness’.
   - Some difference feminist expresses this in cultural feminism.
3. Post-modern feminism
   a) Challenges the notion that gender is a sole factor in determining female oppression in society.
   - Experiences of patriarchy differ (intersectionality).

KEY THINKERS ON SOCIETY

1. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
   - Women have been historically assigned inferior roles in society.
2. Simone de Beauvoir
   - Societal norms restrain both men and women from achieving self-realisation and true freedom of expression.
3. Kate Millett
   - Society is patriarchal in both the public and private spheres.
4. Sheila Rowbotham
   - Capitalist society reinforces the dominance of establishment males to the detriment of women.
5. bell hooks
   - Society is a multifaceted arrangement between different minority groups.
   - Women who are of the lower class and of a racial minority are oppressed on several levels.

Question 28

To what extent do feminists and key thinkers agree over the concept of the Economy?

Answer 28

THE ECONOMY

1. Socialist feminists
   a) The economy is the key determinant of female oppression.
   - Capitalism in the economic sphere, not patriarchy, determines the nature of female oppression in society.
   b) Capitalism needs women to play a subservient role in the economy and society as a reserve army of labour.
   - Capitalism, not patriarchy, requires them to fulfil this function.
   c) Modern socialist feminists argue that there is an interplay between capitalism in the economy and patriarchy in society that oppresses women.

KEY THINKERS ON THE ECONOMY

1. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
   - Men dominate the economy because societal norms obligate women to a domestic role.
2. Simone de Beauvoir
   - Men dominate economic life which limits the life choices open to women.
3. Kate Millett
   - Millett’s ideas on the economy reassemble socialism but are peripheral to her feminism.
4. Sheila Rowbotham
   - Women’s main role in the economy is to provide a reserve army of labour.
5. bell hooks
   - Women face different levels of oppression.
   - White, middle-class college-educated women face oppression but are more liberated than black working-class women.