Femenist theories on the family

Question 1

Marxist femenists pov

Answer 1

Argue that the main cause of women’s oppression is not men but capitalism. The NF serves the capitalist system for the benefit of the r/c and at the expense of the w/c. It does so by exploiting and oppressing women because they perform unpaid domestic labour such as:
Reproducing the future workforce -women bear children and socialise them to accept inequality.
Ansley argues that women are ‘takers of shit’; they absorb men’s anger by performing sexual and emotional services.Men therefore take out their frustration on women through abuse which prevents them from taking out their anger on capitalism.
Women are a ‘reserve army of labour’ - they can be employed when needed by the capitalists and let go to return to their primary role in the home

Question 2

Criticism of Marxist femenism

Answer 2

Fails to explain the subordination of women in non-capitalist societies

Question 3

criticisms of radical fem

Answer 3

Ignores class and ethnic inequalities
Offer unachievable solutions
Ignores violence by women against men and within lesbian relationships

Question 4

Explain radical femenism pov on family

Answer 4

Society is patriarchal -ruled by men. Therefore, men are the enemy- the source of women’s oppression is exploitation.
It is within the family that men dominate women the most as they benefit from women’s free domestic labour and sexual services. Men dominate women through domestic abuse or the threat of it.
The solution to exploitation and oppression of women according to Greer is separatism or political lesbianism - women and men living separately, women forming all-female ‘matrilocal’ households.