Everything Feminism

Question 1

What are the three waves of feminism?

Answer 1

1st wave - 1850s - 1940s - Focused on political rights of women EG WSPU

2nd wave - 1960 - 1980s - Focused on the different roles society expected of men and women

3rd wave - 1990s - Concerned that feminism had failed to identify and recognise concerns of women of other cultures

Question 2

Definitions of sex and gender?

Answer 2

Sex refers to biological differences between men and women - characterised by the words male and female and remains the same regardless of time and cultures

Gender refers to social and cultural differences between men and women - categorised by the words masculine and feminine - expectations differ across time and culture

Question 3

Describe the gender roles a patriarchal society?

Answer 3

Primary roles in patriarchal society given to men EG boss, doctor, husband - supporting roles given to women to keep them in an inferior position - EG secretary, nurse, wife

Question 4

What do women identify the patriarchy as?

Answer 4

A system made for men run by men

Question 5

What are the six areas through which patriarchal ideas dominate society? (Theorising Patriarchy - 1990 - Sylvia Walby)

Answer 5

1 - The state - Women denied representation in positions of power
2 - Household - Women discouraged form occupations outside the home
3 - Culture - Adverts that emphasise a woman’s domestic role
4 - Sexuality - Women made to feel abnormal for having sexual feelings while this is okay for men
5 - Paid work - When women do take up paid jobs these are lower paid than those taken by men
6 - Violence - Domestic abuse only recently taken seriously by society

Question 6

What is the personal is political?

Answer 6

The belief that what goes on in the private sphere between men and women EG familial division of labour, attitude towards women who want to work, morality associated with women’s sexuality, all contribute to the wider societal issue

Question 7

Explain the difference between equality and difference feminism?

Answer 7

Equality feminists believe that the differences between men and women are irrelevant - both are equally capable of fulfilling all roles in society

Difference feminists (essentialists) believe that the differences between men and women are innate (natural) - argue that equality feminism has led to women rejecting their womanhood and instead trying to replicate male behaviour

Question 8

Equality feminism (4)

Answer 8

1 - Men and women are the same
2 - There is no such thing as male and female characteristics
3 - Any character differences are a result of nurture rather than nature
4 - Women should seek to throw off the yolk of gender roles and take their equal place in society alongside men

Question 9

Difference feminism (4)

Answer 9

1 - Men and women are fundamentally different
2 - Women approach things in a different way to men
3 - Women’s role as creators of life gives them a unique perspective on the world
4 - Women should be encouraged to explore their own unique powerful characteristics rather than suppress them and try to act like men

Question 10

Liberal Feminists - Human Nature (3) - What made women assign themselves as the inferior sex, who is human nature enforced on by what, role of the patriarchy?

Answer 10

• Cultural element to oppression of women that made women assign themselves as the inferior sex
• Human nature enforced on men and women by larger forces
• Patriarchy in culture and institutions EG businesses and gov that would make women feel inferior to men

Question 11

Liberal Feminists - The State (3) - What is the state part of and why, is there a want in the state to change the system, is the state part of the solution?

Answer 11

• Part of a wider societal phenomenon due to the oppression of women in a male-dominated society with the state accomplices of this oppression
• Much reluctance within the state to change this system
• State nonetheless part of the solution as it has the power to fix legal and political inequality

Question 12

Liberal Feminists - Society (1) - Who do they believe rules society and what consequences to they believe this leads to?

Answer 12

• Claim society is male ruled which leads to consequences for women such as male self-confidence, lack of opportunity for women in society, and leads to determined women ruling in society

Question 13

Liberal Feminists - The Economy - What assigns women a housewife role, what should women have the same opportunity to do, and what will solve this issue?

Answer 13

• Concept of otherness assigned women a housewife role and made it more difficult to participate in the economic world
• Women should have the same opportunity to learn economic studies as men
• They believe achieving equality will solve this problem as more women would participate in the economy

Question 14

Liberal Feminists - Key Thinkers - Charlotte Pekins Gilman (4) - Beliefs around sex and domestic economics, what must women do to survive, what does societal pressure compel young girls to do?

Answer 14

• First wave feminist
• Published “The Yellow Wallpaper” in 1892
• Sex and domestic economics go hand in hand - for women to survive they have to become dependent on their sexuality and body in order to please their husbands
• Societal pressure - young girls are compelled to conform in society and prepare for motherhood by playing with toys and wearing clothes that are specifically designed for and marketed to them

Question 15

Liberal Feminists - Key Thinkers - Simone de Beauvoir (5) - Key idea and what this means, key quote, solution

Answer 15

• Second wave feminist
• Published “The Second Sex” in 1949
• Developed the idea of ‘otherness’ - that men are perceived as the norm and have characterised women deviants from this norm as the ‘other’ sex in order to serve their needs
• This is not done by women themselves - “women are made not born”
• Solution is to give women the same opportunity to make as many choices as mem

Question 16

Socialist Feminists - Human Nature (2)

Answer 16

• Socialists feminists think that culture is inherently sexist due to capitalism and that in a socialist society men and women would treat each other as equals
• Socialist feminists stand against separatism and believe that men and women must work together to create a classless and equal society

Question 17

Socialist Feminists - The State (2) - What do socialist feminists want to remove and introduce, what do they believe about capitalism and the patriarchy?

Answer 17

• Socialist feminists want to remove the capitalist systems and introduce a communist system which they believed would offer more equality for women in terms of job opportunities, gender roles, etc
• Socialist feminists believe that capitalism and the patriarchy are intertwined and that capitalism is a direct cause of discrimination against women

Question 18

Socialist Feminists - Society (4)

Answer 18

• Socialist feminists believe in a reserve army of labour - a Marxist concept which gives employers a cheap workforce - those who are troublesome can easily be replaced by the reserve army of labour
• The ranks of the economically inactive maintain high levels of profit for the owners of capital
• The reserve army of labour is disproportionately female
• Women are more likely to be in low paid jobs with less security and could therefore be cast off when no longer needed

Question 19

Socialist Feminists - The Economy (4)

Answer 19

• Socialism enshrines common ownership of property and the means of production
• Socialist feminists assert that women are oppressed due to their financial reliance upon men
• Socialist feminists believe that women are subject to male domination within capitalism due to an uneven balance in wealth and they see economic independence as the driving force of women’s subjugation to men
• Feminist economics argues that traditional economic thoughts has historically ignored gender ideas by disregarding or underestimating women’s lives and work

Question 20

Socialist Feminists - Key Thinkers - Shelia Rowbotham (5) - Belief about what is caused while structures of inequality remain, what capitalism forced women to do, and the family?

Answer 20

• Second wave feminist
• In 1973 wrote “Women’s consciousness, men’s world”
• Believed that while there were still structures of inequality within society there would never be a way to get rid of inequality between men and women
• Capitalism - women are forced to sell their labour to survive and use their labour to support their family under the capitalist system
• Family - not just an instrument for disciplining and subjecting women to capitalism but a place where men take refuge alienation under a capitalist economy

Question 21

Radical Feminists - Human Nature (4) - What would happen under a more gynocentric approach, what is their theory about men, what does the patriarchy create, what are heterosexual marriages based on?

Answer 21

• Radical feminists believe that under a more gynocentric approach, women could enjoy fulfilling and meaningful relationships without the need for men
• Unlike other strands of feminism, radical feminism has men as entirely marginal - the ‘redundant male theory’
• Radical feminists believe that the patriarchy creates an ideology of rape designed as a conscious process of intimidation - women are therefore kept in a state of fear and even men who don’t rape benefit from the anxiety that rape causes
• Radical feminists believe that heterosexual marriages are based on power and lesbianism is a political choice

Question 22

Radical Feminists - The State (3) - Should the state be relied upon to combat the patriarchy, why/why not, what would happen in a female dominated world?

Answer 22

• Radical feminists believe that the state is powerless and should not be relied upon to combat the patriarchy
• The patriarchal culture is so embedded into the state that there is no way for the state to combat it
• They believe that a female dominated world would benefit from the naturally nurturing essence of women as they would be better at managing the environment

Question 23

Radical Feminists - Society (4) - What do radicals believe society is, what do they advocate for, what do they believe about the family, and what do they believe about the oppression of women in domestic circumstances?

Answer 23

• Radical feminists believe that society is purely patriarchal and that is it a system of oppression which is unconnected with any other ideology
• They advocate for a fundamental change in society’s structure and argue that a female dominated would would be more peaceful and environmentally friendly and see the oppression of women and nature as an aspect of the male need to dominate and due to women’s sense of nurture they are better suited to co-existing with the environment
• Radical feminists believe the family oppresses the mother and forces the children into rigid gender roles EG when getting married the changing of usually the woman’s last name demonstrates a loss of identity
• They believe the oppression of women in the domestic circumstances is ignored and that women no longer need to reproduce

Question 24

Radical Feminists - The Economy (n/a)

Answer 24

Radical feminists don’t have a fleshed out economic theory

Question 25

Radical Feminists - Key Thinkers - Kate Millet (4) - Views on the family, what did the patriarchy grant, what was needed to destroy the patriarchy?

Answer 25

• Second wave feminist
• Thought that the family oppressed both mothers and children and socialised children into gender roles and that this reinforced the patriarchy
• Thought that the patriarchy granted ownership over wife and children and that it reinforced heterosexual relationships over bi or gay relationships
• Thought that a sexual revolution was needed to destroy the patriarchy

Question 26

Post Modern Feminists - Human Nature (1)

Answer 26

• Post modern feminists believe that women, in common with men, have multiple identities and therefore experience multiple forms of oppression

Question 27

Post Modern Feminists - The State (1)

Answer 27

• Post modern feminists believe that the state is dominated by white males and therefore reflects and reinforces their dominant position in society

Question 28

Post Modern Feminists - Society (3) - What do they believe society is full of, what should women be given, what does each women have and what does this mean?

Answer 28

• Post modern feminists believe that society is full of complex relationships between different minorities
• They believe women must be given the freedom to make choices for themselves
• They believe each women has her own experience of life and must therefore liberate herself in her own way

Question 29

Post modern feminism - The Economy (5) - Are women discriminated in the economy, how?

Answer 29

• Post modern feminists along with all feminists believe that all women are discriminated against in the economic world - the main examples of this are
• Women being used as a form of unpaid labour in the home
• Women being used as a pool of low paid and often dispensable labour employed in times of economic growth but disregarded in times of economic slumps - by working for wages women help to keep the general level of incomes down by creating more competition for scarce jobs
• Women tend to be paid less than men (pay gap)
• Even in fields where women employees are welcome, senior roles tend to be reserved for men - glass ceiling for women - women are denied equality of opportunity

Question 30

Post Modern Feminism - Key Thinkers - bell hooks (4)

Answer 30

• Third wave feminist
• She believes society is full of complex relationships between different minorities
• Believes that children are socialised into gender norms (similar to liberal feminists) and that the gender debate was too focused on the upper classes - hooks focused on women of colour and all social classes as they faced more kinds of discrimination that weren’t recognised
• hooks greatly influenced the idea of intersectionality (coined by Kimberle Crenshaw) which challeged the feminist assumption that gender was the most important factor in determining a woman’s life experiences