5. Feminism

Question 1

What were the waves of feminism and their focuses?

Answer 1

• First-wave feminism - Focused on the legal and political rights of women e.g. in the UK through the suffragette movement
• Second-wave feminism - Focused on the different roles that society expected of men and women. This was where the concepts of patriarchy, sex and gender, and ‘the personal is political’ were discussed
• Third-wave feminism - Emerged in the 1990s, was concerned with the idea that feminism had solely focused on white middle-class women, failing to recognise the concerns of women of other cultures
• Fourth-wave feminism - Some suggest that a new wave of feminists are reacting against inequality based on media images of women, online misogyny and issues arising through the expansion of social media

Question 2

What is feminism and its goal?

Answer 2

• An ideology that believes society and its core institutions do not always work equally in the interests of women and men
• The goal of feminism is for all people to be treated equally. What differentiates feminism from other social movements is the focus on gender and how it relates to the oppression of women, as well as people with non-binary gender identities and expressions

Question 3

What’re the main core ideas and principles of feminism?

Answer 3

• Sex and gender
• Patriarchy
• The person is political
• Equality feminism and difference feminism
• Intersectionality

Question 4

What is the idea around sex and gender being a core idea for feminists?

Answer 4

• Sex - the biological differences between men and women. This is clear. Some radical feminists such as Julie Bindel and Sheila Jeffreys have argued that trans-women for instance, cannot be accepted as women because these biological differences are not in dispute; altering genitalia or body shape cannot change this
• Gender - less clear. Gender relates more to a person’s ‘innate character’. Society teaches us to aspire to an ideal image of masculinity and femininity. Males should be strong, brave, confident, logical and responsible. Females should be sensitive, emotional and caring. E.g. Women are often socially conditioned to ‘play dumb and look pretty’ when around men
• One of the main reasons some feminists object to sexualised images of women is that they argue that these images simply reinforce this stereotype of women as mere sex objects who are there to be dominated by men

Question 5

What is patriarchy?

Answer 5

A society dominated by men and run in the interests of men

Question 6

What concept did Sylvia Walby have of patriarchy?

Answer 6

• The concept of Patriarchy must remain central to a feminist understanding of society.
• She argues that there are six patriarchal structures which restrict women and maintain male domination - the existence of these structures restricts women’s freedom and life-chances compared to men

Question 7

What are the 6 structures to patriarchy?

Answer 7

• State - Women are unlikely to have formal power and representation
• Household - Women are more likely to do the housework and raise the children
• Violence - Women are more prone to being abused
• Paid work - Women are likely to be paid less
• Sexuality - Women’s sexuality is more likely to be treated negatively
• Culture - Women are misrepresented in media and popular culture

Question 8

Why have the 6 structures of patriarchy been the ones chosen to describe it?

Answer 8

• State - Denial of representation and women under-represented in positions of power
• Household - Domesticity is destiny. Kate Millett - “the family is patriarchy’s chief institution”
• Violence - Dark side to family life. 2 women killed every week by partners or former partners
• Paid work - Lower paid jobs. Assistants to men. Part time positions
• Sexuality - Female sexuality seen as ‘unladylike’ or ‘slutty’ Men allowed to fully explore their sexuality
• Culture - Ideal body image. Size 0. Naomi Wold - fixation on women’s weight and body image is about control and obedience

Question 9

What is a ‘private sphere’?

Answer 9

The area in society where relationships are seen as private, specifically home and domestic life

Question 10

What is a ‘public sphere’?

Answer 10

The area in society where relationships are public, specially life outside the home, particularly society and work

Question 11

What is ‘the personal is political’ and its meaning?

Answer 11

• Was a slogan associated with the rise of second-wave feminism
• It’s origin is unknown but its associated with Carol Hanisch and her essay of that name published in 1970
• Public sphere (society) and the private sphere (family)
• Subjugation of women had been limited to the public sphere but this slogan aimed to raise awareness among women that oppression existed not only in the pubic sphere but in the woman’s role in the family
• The essence of this slogan was to highlight to women, and to wider society and politicians, that aspects of life that were considered ‘personal’ and therefore private were in fact part of a system that sought to repress women
• E.g. Domestic abuse (extreme)

Question 12

Relating to the ‘private sphere’ how did family keep women and girls subjugated?

Answer 12

• Women and girls taught to be dependent and obedient, men to be dominant and self-reliant
• Women socialised into accepting the role of housewife as the only and most fulfilling role
• Children see parents acting out traditional gender roles and accept this as natural and inevitable
• Women expected to carry out free domestic work as well as paid work
• Women expected to cater to their husband’s every need
• Women sacrifice career prospects to have children and expected to raise children at a cost to their own paid work
• Promotion prospects blocked once they return to work

Question 13

What is equality feminism?

Answer 13

The biological differences between men and women are inconsequential. It’s the pursuit of equality that is key

Question 14

What is difference feminism?

Answer 14

Where men and women are fundamentally different. Women should not deny their femininity in order to ‘become like men’

Question 15

What is ‘essantialism’?

Answer 15

Biological factors are significant in behaviour differences between men and women

Question 16

What is cultural feminism?

Answer 16

A form of difference feminism that seeks to challenge the dominance of male culture in society by promoting ‘women’s values’

Question 17

What did Carol Gilligan argue on the view of difference feminism?

Answer 17

• Published ‘In a Different Voice’ in 1982
• Gave attention to the concept of difference feminism. She wrote that men and women think and speak in different ways and argued that women’s voices and experiences had been ignored because they sounded so very distinct from men’s
• She argued that she was not making moral judgment about the differences, but just acknowledging they were there

Question 18

What is the view of difference feminists and what they want to voice?

Answer 18

• They call for highlighting and valuing the differences between men and women, rather than encouraging women to deny their distinctiveness and seeking to be ‘like men’. They believe that, by celebrating women’s special and unique qualities, they will create a more female-oriented culture
• They argue that traditional equality feminism has encouraged women to replicate mens behaviour and deny their own nature, which only alienates women from themselves
• Difference feminism seeks to encourage women to accept their own female qualities, which are as important as men’s
• Some go further, stressing the superiority of women’s cultural values - such as compassion and pacifism - believing that these will overcome masculine qualities of selfishness, violence and lack of self-control in sexual behaviour

Question 19

Why is difference feminism controversial amongst other feminist groups?

Answer 19

They argue that suggesting that women have a passive, nurturing, caring nature takes women back hundreds of years and undermines all the progress that the women’s movement has made

Question 20

What is intersectionality?

Answer 20

An idea that challenged the notion that ‘gender’ was the singular function in determining a woman’s fate, arguing that black and working-class women’s experiences of patriarchy are different from that of white, middle-class women

Question 21

What is the concept of intersectionality?

Answer 21

• The concept arose in the late 1980s and is associated with third-wave feminism. Intersectionality criticised previous forms of feminism for ignoring black and working-class women’s experiences of patriarchy
• The term was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, when showing how black women were often marginalised by both feminist and anti-racist movements because their concerns did not fit comfortably within either group. She argued in 2015 that intersectionality ‘has given many advocates a way to frame their circumstances and to fight for their visibility and inclusion’
• Intersectionality was aimed at widening the narrow focus that feminism traditionally had, to welcome the many different experiences that women from different cultures, classes and religions experience, and to give these women a voice

Question 22

What is liberal feminism?

Answer 22

They see individualism as the basis of gender equality

Question 23

What is an example of a liberal feminist and their idea?

Answer 23

• Mary Wollstonecraft
• She published ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ at the end of the 18th century, women’s rights remained unconsidered
• She was determined to change this and to add a dissenting female voice to those demanding political emancipation

Question 24

What is the history of liberal feminism?

Answer 24

• It was an early form of feminism which primarily associated with the demand for women’s suffrage
• The assumption was that once women had a vote, they would have a voice, and politicians would need to listen to them if they wanted to be elected
• Their aim after the vote had been achieved was equality in all areas of the law
• Philosophically, they saw the individual as the basis for gender equality

Question 25

What is gender equality?

Answer 25

The belief that men and women are of equal value in society and should be treated the same

Question 26

What is an additional concern liberal feminists have?

Answer 26

• The equal distribution of rights and entitlements in society, known as legal and political equality
• Liberal feminists in the last century campaigned for educational equality, pay equality, abortion and divorce laws and freely available contraception for men and women
• Liberal feminism also seeks to ensure equal access to the public sphere, which is connected to the liberal idea of equality of opportunity

Question 27

What is legal equality?

Answer 27

No one is above the law and the law applies equally to all

Question 28

What is political equality?

Answer 28

Equal right to vote and protest

Question 29

What is equality of opportunity?

Answer 29

All individuals have equal chances in life to rise and fall

Question 30

Which liberal feminist supported the idea of equality of opportunity?

Answer 30

• Betty Friedan
• Her book The Feminism Mystique is often credited with starting second-wave feminism
• In it she outlined ‘the problem that has no name’, by which she meant the misery and frustration of middle-class women festering in domesticity, which was supposed to make them feel fulfilled but in fact trapped them
• She asserted that women were as capable as men in any career path and lobbied for the reform of laws that restricted women
• She believed that women were being held back ‘from their full potential because they were limited to only a few jobs that were ‘acceptable’ for women

Question 31

What is the idea behind liberal feminism being reformist?

Answer 31

• The idea believing that gender imbalance can be overturned primarily through domestic pressure
• Believes that, once all barriers to women entering the workplace have been removed, it is merely a matter of time before women will enter all areas of industry
• They believe that as women start doing traditional ‘men’s jobs’, society will accept that there is no industry that women cannot work in
• Also, the more young girls see women in all types of jobs and positions of responsibility, the sooner gender stereotypes of the past will start to disappear

Question 32

How is liberal feminism different to the rest?

Answer 32

• They do not seek to challenge the private, domestic sphere
• It argues that society should give women (and men) the equal opportunity to stay at home or go out work, or both
• Liberal feminism doesn’t believe that a fundamental restructuring of society is necessary
• Rejects the idea of patriarchy as the pervasive and systematic oppression of women, instead highlighting discrimination against women which will slowly disappear

Question 33

What is a reformist?

Answer 33

Someone seeking to change society gradually and peacefully

Question 34

What are gender stereotypes?

Answer 34

The dominant and usually negative views in society on this different ways men and women should behave

Question 35

What is discrimination?

Answer 35

Less favourable treatment of one group of people compared to other groups

Question 36

What is a socialist feminist?

Answer 36

Someone who believes that gender inequality stems from economics and that capitalism creates patriarchy

Question 37

What was the idea that a socialist feminist had with capitalism?

Answer 37

• Friedrich Engles
• Noted in ‘The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State’ that the move away from matriarchal societies to patriarchal ones coincided with the arrival of capitalism
• Suggested that women were oppressed primarily by capitalism

Question 38

What did Friedrich Engles argue were the ways that women served the needs of capitalism?

Answer 38

• 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 to be confined to the domestic, private sphere where their primary roles would be to take care of their husbands, have children and socialise those children into becoming the next generation of workers and carers that capitalism needed. Sometimes known as reproducing the labour force
• Women acted as a reserve army of labour and could be used as part of the workforce when needed, then sent back home when their usefulness had ended
• Because 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 the marriage and monogamous throughout marriage

Question 39

What is ‘reverse army of labour’?

Answer 39

The idea that women constitute a spare workforce that can be called upon as and when needed

Question 40

What is an example of a socialist feminist and their key idea?

Answer 40

• Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• Envisaged socialist societies as revolving around alternative living arrangements whereby childcare would not be the concern of individual mothers
• Instead a more communal basis of living was imagined, with couples living alongside other couples, and perhaps also single people, allowing the responsibility of housework to be shared and companionship to be enjoyed by all

Question 41

What is the difference between traditional and modern socialist feminists priorities/views?

Answer 41

• Traditional socialist feminism prioritises class over gender
• Modern socialist feminism sees patriarchy and capitalism as interlocking systems of oppression, suggesting that patriarchy could survive the collapse of capitalism

Question 42

Who did Juliet Mitchell criticise and why?

Answer 42

• In Women’s Estate criticised Marx and Engles
• This is because they considered women’s oppression to be nothing more than an aspect of the bourgeois family
• She argued that the family is an independent source of female oppression as it keeps women hidden away and dependent on their husbands financially

Question 43

What are the 4 ways Juliet Mitchell believes women are oppressed and her idea behind these ways?

Answer 43

• 4 way are: Through reproduction, sexuality, socialisation of children and production
• Capitalism is responsible for some of these but she argues that some are also unrelated to capitalism
• Her idea is that women should fight both capitalism and patriarchy to create a classless society where men and women can work alongside each other as equals
• Only when all 4 areas are transformed will women be truly free

Question 44

What is radical feminism?

Answer 44

The belief that the biggest problem facing society is gender inequality

Question 45

What is the view of radical feminists and their take on other strands of feminism?

Answer 45

• That radical feminism isn’t a single idea, but a collection of idea by different feminists united by a belief that society can be defined purely by patriarchal
• They think other strands of feminism are caught between their commitment to women’s emancipation and other ideology eg. Liberalism or socialism

Question 46

What wave of feminism and slogan is radical feminism linked with?

Answer 46

• Second-wave feminism
• ‘the personal is the political’
• Politics power relationships can be found in all relationships between men and women
• Different radical feminists focus in different areas of the ‘personal’ to show how they are ‘political’, and now patriarchy pervades every aspect of life
• They seek to challenge patriarchy by raising awareness of its existence among women as much as men

Question 47

What impact did Kate Millett have on radical feminism?

Answer 47

• In ‘ Sexual politics’ she started the thinking process that we now call radical feminism, critiquing patriarchy with a particular focus on its role in the family
• She showed how, historically, society treated women as the property of her husband
• e.g. If a women committed adultery the husband had the legal right to divorce her and keep all her assets that she may of brought to the marriage and not allow her to see their kids

Question 48

What is the overall view on radical feminism?

Answer 48

• It is not a cohesive ideological approach to the oppression of women in society
• They have different areas of interest and often disagree with each other and sometimes diametrically opposite views on the same issue
• However, they would all agree that patriarchy is alive and well in modern society

Question 49

What is post-modern feminism?

Answer 49

They argue that patriarchy manifests in different ways depending on a woman’s race, class etc.

Question 50

What wave of feminism was post modern feminism associated with?

Answer 50

Third-wave feminism

Question 51

What does post modern feminists argue for?

Answer 51

• For a more fluid understanding of being a ‘woman’.
• It argued that there are as many different between women’s experiences as there are between men and women’s experiences,
• Arguing at times that there is no such thing as ‘women’ - i.e. that it is impossible to generalise about theoretical people called ‘women’ because women’s experience of life are so vastly different

Question 52

What two books did bell hooks wrote and what did they suggest?

Answer 52

• ‘Ain’t I a Woman’
• Suggested that the combination of sexism and racism led to black women having the lowest status of any group in American society, and that this was compounded by the marginalising of black women’s experiences from the mainstream feminist movement
• ‘Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center’
• Criticised the idea of second-wave ‘sisterhood’, which sought to find a commonality of oppression among women, thereby excluding the experiences of minority women
• By seeking connections between women, this immediately gave white, middle-class women voice and a bond, while discouraging women of colour from speaking up about their different experiences
• Instead, hooks argued, women should seek to understand the different cultures that women are brought up in and by recognising the different guises that oppression works under, a genuine sisterhood can be found

Question 53

How does the core principle/ idea of feminism ‘Nature’ differ between different types of feminists?

Answer 53

• The vast majority of feminists are equality feminists, who believe that the natures of men and women are the same, and that the distinction between sex and gender is artificial
• They support gender equality, believing gender stereotypes to be a social construct
• Difference feminists disagree, believing that men and women have fundamentally different natures stemming from biology, known as essentialism
• Equality feminists believe patriarchy can be overthrown when gender roles and stereotypes are challenged
• They believe that a woman’s biology should not determine her social position; biology is thus not destiny
• By contrast, difference feminists believe that liberation can only be achieved when women are encouraged to allow their different natures and creative spirit to flourish

Question 54

How does the core principle/ idea of feminism ‘The State’ differ between different types of feminists?

Answer 54

• Liberal feminists believe that the state can play a role in promoting female liberation by promoting legal and political equality
• The state can also help to ensure equality of opportunity between the sexes
• Radical feminists disagree, believing that providing an equal, legal framework is insufficient to overthrow patriarchy
• They argue that the state primarily promotes the interests of patriarchy
• Socialist feminists argue the liberal idea of state as a neutral body, suggesting instead that it works in the interest of capitalism and this patriarchy
• Liberal feminists believe that the state should concern itself only with correcting inequalities in the public sphere, by promoting equality of opportunity and outlawing discrimination
• Radical feminists believe that the state has a role to play in eradicating patriarchal values in the public and private sphere by outlawing pornography and ensuring harsher punishment for domestic violence, rape and other crimes against women

Question 55

How does the core principle/ idea of feminism ‘Society’ differ between different types of feminists?

Answer 55

• All feminists believe that women are not treated equally in society. However, they differ in the extent to which they think there is a problem and the reason behind it
• Liberal feminists argue that women are discriminated against in society, but focus their attention solely on the public sphere
• Radical feminists believe that society is pervaded by patriarchal values that seek to preserve men’s dominant position in society. They argue that ‘the personal is political’, in that all relationships between men and women, both in the public (society) and the private sphere (private relationships), are based on power and dominance
• Radical equality feminists want a society in which gender ceases to structure a person’s identity, whereas radical difference feminists believe this encourages women to be ‘male identified’ and perpetuates feelings of ‘otherness’. Some difference feminists express this through sultural feminism.
• Post-modern feminists challenge the notion that ‘gender’ is the sole factor in determining female oppression in society. arguing that black and working-class women’s experiences of patriarchy are different from those of white, middle-class women - this concept is known as intersectionalty

Question 56

How does the core principle/ idea of feminism ‘The Economy’ differ between different types of feminists?

Answer 56

• Socialist feminists believe that the economy is the key determinant of female oppression - that capitalism in the economic sphere, not patriarchy, determines the nature of female oppression in society.
• They argue that capitalism needs women to play a subservient role in the economy and society - as a reserve army of labour - because capitalism, not patriarchy requires them to fulfit that function
• Modern socialist feminists have argued that there is an interplay between capitalism in the economy and patriarchy in society that causes the oppression of women

Question 57

What were the key facts of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860 - 1935)?

Answer 57

• American
• Associated with socialist feminism
• The Yellow Wallpaper (1892). The story of a woman with mental illness kept prisoner in her room for 3 months by her husband, is based on Gilman’s own story of her experience of postnatal depression. Instead of confinement, she claimed that what she needed was mental stimulation
• She went against all the beliefs of the time. Most of these beliefs have now been adopted by wider society

Question 58

What were Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) main arguments?

Answer 58

• Women relied on sex and domesticity to keep their husbands happy
• From childhood, young girls were socialised to dress, behave and act out in a stereotypical way
• Economic independence was the only was to set women free
• Motherhood should not stop women from working
• Communal living was the answer, where women and men could live in couples but not have to worry about economic status

Question 59

What were the key facts of Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)?

Answer 59

• French
• Initially believed socialism was the answer but later changed, realising it didn’t change women’s status
• Her husband was a man called Jean Paul Sarte and he wrote ‘Being and nothingness’. One of his quotes were “L’enfer, c’est les autres” - “Hell is other people”

Question 60

What were Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) key arguments/ideas?

Answer 60

• ‘Woman are not born, they become women’. Motherhood is used as a way of turning women into slaves. Femininity discourages women from politics, technology, or anything that is not based on home or family
• ‘Otherness’. She thought from the historical viewpoint that men are the ‘norm’, women, ‘deviants’
• Women just as bad as men in believing and reinforcing the idea of otherness and second-class citizens. Consciousness was needed
• Women should behave any way they wanted. Rejected feminine and masculine stereotypes
• Feminists should not reject being part of a ‘man’s world’, but should seek to share in it

Question 61

What were the key ideas of Kate Millett (1934-2017)?

Answer 61

• Wrote Sexual Politics (1970) and the book gave birth to radical feminism
• The traditional family was the principle tool of the patriarchy. Wives and daughters were socialised into subservient roles
• Marriage was simply an exchange between men and women of sexual consent and domestic service for financial support
• Masculine authority spread beyond the family into all aspects of society - friends, schools, media, etc. female participation was not encouraged
• Women treatment in art and literature made them into commodities to be sexually possessed by men
• Discouraged romantic love and monogamy, instead advocating a sexual revolution

Question 62

What are the key facts of Sheila Rowbotham (1943-present)

Answer 62

• British
• Capitalism and sexism oppress women
• Marxist

Question 63

What were the key ideas that Sheila Rowbotham (1943-present) presented?

Answer 63

• Equates being a wife with the same status as a mediaeval serf. Sexism pre-dates capitalism, but capitalism now re-enforces it
• Advocated a ‘revolution within a revolution’. Sexism had to be overthrown along with the wider revolution against capitalism. ‘Cultural conditioning’
• Women doubly oppressed by capitalism because not only did working-class women have to sell their labour to survive, they were also forced to use their labour to support their families
• The family was not only an institution for disciplining and subjecting women for capitalism, it was also a place of refuge for men from the alienation of capitalism

Question 64

What are the key facts of bell hooks (1952-present)?

Answer 64

• American
• Adopted the pseudonym of her great grandmother. Lowercase letters in a gesture of nonconformity
• Post-modern

Question 65

What are bell hooks (1952-present) key ideas?

Answer 65

• Boys AND girls are taught from an early age to fit into stereotypical boxes - boys mustn’t show their feelings, girls should aim to change themselves to appeal to others. This needs to change
• Mainstream feminists were too focused on the experiences of middle-class white women and had either consciously or unconsciously ignored the struggles of women of colour
• Black women were the victims of both sexism and racism
• Argues for a more inclusive version of feminism that seeks to unite rather than divide. Solidarity between genders, races, and classes is the key