Families and households- Femminism

Question 1

Liberal: What do liberal feminists recognise?

Answer 1

-Women’s position in the family can have adverse effects on their power
-Major responsibilities of childcare and housework impact their careers and health

Question 2

Liberal: What do liberal feminists think is the best way to improve the position of women?

Answer 2

-Reform measures
-Remove all forms of discrimination
-To establish equality of opportunities for women
-Should be able to make free choices between motherhood, career or both

Question 3

Liberal: What would these reform measures include?

Answer 3

-Changing socialization and parenting to avoid gender stereotyping
-Establishing and asserting the legal rights of women
-Establish equal pay for women (Equal Pay Act 1970)
-Stop sex discrimination (1975)
-Equality Act (2010)
-Equality in maternity and paternity leave so both mother and father have the same legal rights to time of f work when children are born and parenting is seen as the responsibility of both parents
-Better and more affordable childcare so women and men can combine childcare with successful careers in paid employment
-More sharing of housework and childcare with men
-Stronger action against domestic violence

Question 4

Radical: What do they focus on?

Answer 4

-Focus on the problem of patriarchy in society and in the family as the main obstacle to women’s equality
-See the family as a patriarchal institution
_family benefits men and oppresses women
-Men

Question 5

Radical: Why do they see the family as a patriarchal institution?

Answer 5

_family benefits men and oppresses women
-Men exercise this power with physical or sexual violence (DV)

Question 6

Radical: What is the solution to this?

Answer 6

-Polictical lesbianism
-Reject relationships with men

Question 7

Radical: Why are lesbian relationships advantageous?

Answer 7

-Child abuse is common in heterosexual relationships
-Less likely in a homosexual relationship

Question 8

Radical: What are the economic arrangements?

Answer 8

-Domestic arrangemangements- Women
-Financial decisions- Men

Question 9

Radical: what are the 2 main causes of inequality? Why?

Answer 9

-Pregnancy and childrearing
-Makes women more vulnerable

Question 10

Marxist: What do these feminists emphasize?

Answer 10

-The way women are doubly exploited
-(work a double shift)
-Both as workers in an unequal, exploitative, capitalist society and as a mother

Question 11

Marxist: What does the family contribute to?

Answer 11

-The maitennece of capitailisim

Question 12

Marxist: how does the family contribute to the maintenance of capitalism?

Answer 12

Women produce the labour force- unpaid domestic labour
-socialise the next generation of workers into accepting society
Women absorb the anger- they accept the exploitation
The reserve army of cheap labour- when they aren’t needed they are let go of

Question 13

Difference: What do they recognise?

Answer 13

-That family diversity is increasing

Question 14

Difference: Why is increasing family diversity a good thing?

Answer 14

-Women may not be exploited in all family types
Example: lone parents cannot be exploited by a cohabiting man

Question 15

Difference: What can we not generalise about?

Answer 15

Women’s experiences

Question 16

Evaluate the feminists overal

Answer 16

-The family may benefit some members such as adult males
-Highlights the existence of violence, abuse and exploitation within the family
-Research has been carried out in areas of family life that have not been studied before such as motherhood, pregnancy, childbirth and childcare
-Analyses the contribution of housework to the economy

Question 17

Give some strengths of liberal feminists

Answer 17

-Offer practical and realistic solutions compared to radical feminists
-Influential in changing attitudes towards family life about domestic arrangements

Question 18

Give some limitations of liberal feminists

Answer 18

-While they make proposals that might improve the position of women within the existing society they do not tackle the fundamental inequalities that women face because of capitalism and patriarchy

Question 19

Give an author for liberal? What does she say?

Answer 19

-Proposals to improve modest policy reforms rather than revolutionary change
-Somerville

Question 20

Give some criticisms of Marxist and radical feminists

Answer 20

-Women’s roles are not the same in all families, some families have dual incomes
-Assume that women are passive victims in the family and do not have any choices
-More women have independent incomes which means that they have more power than feminists imply
-2/3 of divorces are initiated by women, which shows they can escape from oppressive relationships

Question 21

Marxist: Give an author

Answer 21

-Ansley (1972)

Question 22

What does Ansley say?

Answer 22

-Women are like sponges, they soak up the frustration due to the exploitation they experience

Question 23

Radical: Give 2 Authors

Answer 23

-Millet
-Greer

Question 24

What does Greer argue?

Answer 24

-The creation of all female households as an alternative to the heterosexual family

Question 25

What does Millet argue?

Answer 25

-Family is male-dominated by men using their physical power to assert their control which can often lead to DV

Question 26

Difference: What does Nicholson argue?

Answer 26

-Women are often better outside traditional families and all types of families and households should be socially accepted because they suit women in different circumstances