FAMILY+HOUSEHOLDS - Feminism and the family Flashcards
What is the key belief feminists have of the purpose of family
- Oppresses women
What are the 2 key functions a nuclear family performs for feminists
1) Socialisation of girls into inferior roles + enforcing the idea that being a housewife is inevitable for them
2) Teach patriarchal values = patriarchal society
What are the 2 main areas of exploitation within the nuclear family
- Domestic labour / violence
- The dark side of the family
What are the 4 types of feminism
- liberal
- Marxist
- Radical
- Difference
1) Liberal feminism
- What does Somerville say needs to happen to improve the family lives for women
- What evidence is there for this already happening; ONS survey?, men?
- Oakley
SOMERVILLE: Policy reforms rather than revolutionary change should introduced to improve females family life
EVIDENCE:
- (contemporary) ONS: Survey shows gender pay gap to fall from 17.4 to 8.6 from 1997-2018
- MEN: Doing more domestic work and parents socialise their children more equally than before
OAKLEY: Both men and women suffer from stress due to their individual work roles and financial inequality between them
1.2) Liberal feminism
– Evaluation
+ Somerville
+ Range
+ Practicality
- Will law change be enough
- Marxists + radical feminists
+ Somerville recognises the progress made in public and private lives of women
+ More appealing to a wider range of women than radical feminists
+ More practical than radical, huge change
- Fail to challenge the underlying causes of women’s oppression. Changed in the law won’t be enough to change attitudes
- MARXISTS + RADICAL: Deep rooted social changed are needed instead of far-reaching ones
2) Marxist feminism
- What is their belief about the origins of women oppression
- Beechy - 2 keywords and beliefs
- Ansley
- Feeley
BELIEF: Cause of womens oppression is capitalism
BEECHY: Reproduction of labour - dont get paid for DOMESTIC WORK = good for capitalism since they only pay the male
- Provide child care = producing next gen. of workers (social reproduction)
BEECHY: Reserve of CHEAP LABOUR - only get work when they are needed, or they’ll be let go
ANSLEY: ‘Takers of shit’ - soak up frustration of alienated male husbands
FEELEY: Family is authoritarian - is dominated by males, and teaches girls pacifism to accept their place in the hierarchy of power
- 2) Marxist feminism
- - What are solutions to the problems of exploitation of women in the family
- Hard
- Soft
HARD: Revolution to overthrow capitalism
SOFT: Payments for invisible work to close the pay gap
- 3) Marxist feminism
- - Evaluation
- Morgan
- Have women made progress already?
- MORGAN: Nuclear family is less common today = less applicable theory
- Ignores evident progress women have made
(shortening of the pay gap, more men doing work etc)
3) Radical feminism
- What are their main beliefs about men and family and marriage
- Greer - what does she argue about marriage and how does this happen
- Greer - what does she argue about motherhood
- What does Greer suggest is a solution to this to improve the lives of women
BELIEFS: Men are the sources of womens exploitation
- Family + marriage benefit men from womens unpaid labour and sexual services
GREER: Marriage reinforces patriarchal relations - ‘ghastly figure of the bride’; traditional concepts of femininity + when honeymoon is over, marriage = a depressing pattern and shows the gendered public-private divide
GREER: Motherhood has little value in society
- EVIDENT BY: Attention is child-centred, mothers and babies not welcome in public areas like restaurants, women expected to return to work and to the feminine ideal
SOLUTION: Matrilocal households instead of heterosexual families
- 2) Radical feminism
- Delphy + Leonard on the family
- Solutions; political lesbianism and separatism - explain
DELPHY + LEONARD: family is an economic system in which men benefit from womens exploitation of work
SOLUTIONS:
- POLITICAL LESBIANISM: rejecting heterosexuality and men. Because heater relationships cause inequality as they involve ‘sleeping with the enemy’
- SEPARATISM: Women must organise themselves and live independently from men
3.3) Radical feminism
– Evaluation
+ Recognition
- Somerville
- Separatism
- Practicality
+ recognises women still have things to achieve and need for policies to promote greater equality
- SOMERVILLE: Fail to recognise that womens position has improved w/ more choice and control over fertility
- SEPARATISM: Heterosexual attraction makes it unlikely for separatism to work because of the need for intimacy
- PRACTICALITY: These solutions are unobtainable
4) Difference feminism
- Key belief
- Example of how this is true
- What is the argued solution
- Evaluation (-)
BELIEF: Can’t generalise womens experiences
EXAMPLE: Regarding the family purely negative = disregarding black womens experience as they positively believe the family is support against racism
SOLUTION: Must take a more individualistic approach to law creation and solutions
EVALUATION: - Neglects the fact many women share the same experiences - all at risk of violence, assault, low pay etc.
