Femenist Views Of The Family Flashcards
What is the general femenist view of the family?
they believe that the family is a tool of female oppression and that the nuclear family serves the needs of men rather than women
What is the triple shift?
refers to the three roles that women are expected to perform for the family:
- emotional support
- domestic labour
- paid work
What are the 4 types of feminism?
- Liberal feminism
- radical feminism
- marxist feminism
- Intersectional feminism
What is the liberal feminist view?
- they have an optimistic view of the family
- focus on increased equality that exists
What is the radical feminist view?
Negative view of the family
Men benefit more than women and do very little housework and childcare
See marriage as a type of prison
Support diversity (single, gay, divorce…)
How is the family seen as a place of work?
Feminists argue that housework is as real as waged work outside the home
Housework and childcare is mainly done by women — unpaid and not really recognised as work at all
Men are often the ones to gain from it
What did Oakley emphasise?
That housework is hard, routine, and unrewarding and remains primarily the responsibility of women though sometimes men help
What is the glass ceiling?
An invisible barrier that prevents certain people from rising to senior level positions
How can the symmetrical family be seen as a myth?
Women perform most housework tasks
They make sacrifices to buy children clothes and ensure family members are properly fed
They are less likely to make the more important decisions
More likely to have their career impacted
What is the Marxist feminist view?
View the family as negative in a critical way
Believe women’s oppression is capitalism
How do Marxist feminists see women as contributing to the capitalist exploitation of the working class?
Do the triple shift
Give birth to the next generation of workers
They are the ‘reserve army of labour’
Look after the men by satisfying their needs
How has Marxist feminism been criticised?
Ignores the diversity of modern family life — assumes that everyone lives in heterosexual nuclear families
Paint a very negative picture of family life
Outdated — women may not be the ‘takers of shit’ anymore
What did Jenny Somerville say about radical feminists?
That they fail to recognise that a woman’s position has improved considerably and she argues that separatism is unlikely to work
Criticisms of feminism
Liberal feminists see radical feminists as too radical
The new right don’t always see equality as a good thing
Most women do want to spend time with men, marry them and have children together
Fails to challenge the underlying causes of women’s oppression
