Femininsim Flashcards
Affirmative action
Policies to improve opportunities for historically excluded or under-represented groups in education through admissions and employment policies.
Androcentric
Placing men or the masculine view at the centre of perspectives on the world.
Androgynous
The characteristics of male and female in the same person, revealing that differences between men and women are so slight that they should have no impact on their political, social or economic role.
Cultural feminism
A new form of culture could be developed based on feminine traits that women possess, but which are devalued by patriarchy. Strong cultural feminism argues that women have essential traits that are peaceful, nurturing and intuitive.
Difference feminists
Those who believe that women are essentially different from men biologically and psychologically. These differences matter.
Equality feminists
Those who believe that the goal of feminism is to achieve equality between the sexes by freeing women from difference. Liberal, radical, socialist and postmodern feminists all have different visions of how this will be achieved.
Existentialism
Humans have no nature, or essence, and use their freedom to make themselves through their own actions.
Intersectionality
The idea that women experience oppression in varying configurations and in varying degrees of intensity based on the intersection between different forms of oppression
Patriarchy
A whole network of systems of control, which systematically allow men to dominate and exploit women.
Private sphere
The opposite of the public sphere; the family, the home and the body where individuals have freedom largely unregulated by the state.
Public sphere
Typically seen as the world of politics, culture and industry, where public values, ideals and goals of society are formed.
Reform Darwinism
The concept that humans are not helpless in the face of evolution; through their actions, they can shape and control it.
Reproductive labour
Unpaid labour performed by women in the home, such as cooking, washing clothes and bearing/raising children. This unpaid labour produces the workers of the future and ensures the current workers are fit and able to work.
Separatist feminism
Believes that political and sexual inequalities between men and women cannot be resolved and so opposes heterosexual relationships of any kind. It focuses on women working together, living together and engaging in relationships with each other to achieve their goals.
