Bromley "Feminist Theories" Flashcards
Liberal Feminism
- focuses on white, affluent and middle class, Western, heterosexual women
- Many women didn’t fall into this category (i.e. not all women have same starting points)
- was guided by principles of enlightenment and classical liberalism
- Principle site of oppression for liberal feminists is patriarchy (rule by men)
- Without equal rights, women were simply property of men
- Challenged these ideas by arguing women were capable of equal rational thought and deserved to be included within society
- Equality meant equality with white male counterparts since majority of movement was from white wealthy women
What did LibFem start with?
- Liberal feminism started with equality through access to education, the vote and property
- Such that women could be doers in the political realm
- Changed society greatly and enactment of married women’s property rights was a major turning point
- This thought did not transform society but rather argued for women’s inclusion
Marxist Feminism
Marxist feminists argued that women were an oppressed class due to economic dependence on men within the capitalist system Women = proletariats, Men = bourgeois
What did capitalism rely on
Capitalism was found to rely on both women’s productive and reproductive labour
Men attempted to control women’s reproductive capacities through patriar.
Childbearing responsibilities consequently tied women down to the household
By using women for domestic labour, they are garnering a service with no cost → instead, it should be valued AND paid (since women exhausting energy with no monetary reward)
What did marxist feminists say women needed to do?
Women needed to achieve economic independence from men:
Women’s entrance into paid economy
Socialization of housework and childrearing
What is the sexual division of labour
Explained how economy was split into good (high value, well paid) jobs and bad jobs (low value, unskilled, no/little pay → ex. motherhood)
Women were expected to fill the bad jobs while men took the good ones
This devalues the skills women learned at home as ‘natural talents’
Socialist Feminist
-Marxist feminists fought for an end to capitalism to free women but socialist feminists knew that further change was needed to end women oppression
-Socialist feminists integrate patriarchy with the capitalist exploitation into analysis of women’s oppression
-Some socialist feminists saw these as separate systems of oppression while some saw them as integrated
-When separated, debate between which system (patriarchy or capitalist) is primary or secondary arises
Ex. under patriarchy, women is always facing women only issues which take priority over universal capitalist issues
Ex 2. Women are alienated through patriarchy and capitalist uses this to make women commodities
What do socialist feminists say about “class”?
-it is not gender neutral
-women are not their own class but various factors must be considered (ex. race, class, sexuality, age, ability)
Patriarchal capitalism allows us to understand how the power of the system is embedded within the different classes
What do socialist feminists say is the only way to liberate women?
Only way to truly liberate women is to transform capitalism itself and eliminate patriarchy
Cannot simply be attained through paid employment due to double day/second shift
Women work during day for pay then within the household
-some socialist thought women should get paid for housework
What is radical feminism
Radical feminism identifies patriarchy as the problem HOWEVER, stated that it was more than just a hierarchy of men/masculinity over women/femininity
Patriarchy is embedded in social, political and economic institutions that are difficult to change
Radical feminists argued that women’s oppression was due to male control over their bodies and sexuality
DEEP
What are nuclear families? (what does it have to do with radfem)
Nuclear Families are seen as a patriarchal institution
- Such that romantic love, nuclear families and idealization of motherhood all contribute to the patriarchy and the oppression
- Since they were very traditional (ex. romantic love always monogamous and heterosexual in nature, otherwise illicit)
- Reproduction also tied women down to mothering
Anti Racist Fem Theory
Feminisms often excluded women of colour and marginalized them in their actions
Racialized → power dynamics that exist in white supremacist societies (non-white = only race, white is not a race)
Creates a sense of othering/otherness → systematically excludes individuals from a dominant group based on sex, race, religion, sexuality, etc.
Often rooted in the power of binary terms (hard to fit everyone in)
What do anti racist fem recognize
Anti racist feminists recognize multiple and intersecting sites of oppression operate in different ways in different women’s lives
Patricia Hill Collins argues purpose of acknowledging multiple aspects of our identities is not to rank or impose more hierarchies (ex. adding) but to explore complexities and locations of various power structures
What are the main arguments for liberalism?
- All individuals can think for themselves, therefore they can choose for themselves.
- Individuals are rational thinking entities
- Does not support the government making decisions for them/having access to their personal and private life
What changes did liberal feminists strive for to create equality?
They argued that if women had the right to education, to vote, to property rights and to their own salary, then they could demonstrate their equality to men and could be taken seriously.
