Feminism Flashcards
What does feminism say about the trad nuclear family 2 functions
a) socialising girls to accept subservient roles within the family, whilst socialising boys to believe they were superior – this happens through children witnessing then recreating the parental relationship
b) socializing women into accepting the “housewife” role as the only possible/acceptable role for a women. Indeed it was the only way to be feminine/to be a woman. Essentially, feminists viewed the function of the family as a breeding ground where patriarchal values were learned by an individual, which in turn created a patriarchal society.
what is the liberal feminist perspective
believe that social change is possible through reform.
Somerville
crtiisies radical and marxist fems, says how there has ben progress greater freedom to go into paid work, and the greater degree of choice over whether they marry or cohabit etc.
room for improvements
Causes of inequality in relationships – A combination of two things – (1) Mainstream working culture which requires long and inflexible working hours which are still based on the idea of the main breadwinner, (2) Men refusing to pull their weight in relationships.
evaluation sommerville
radical= impossible for progress to be made need to reject patriarchy to gain equality
evaluations
Sommerville recognises that significant progress has been made in both public and private life for women
It is more appealing to a wider range of women than radical ideas
It is more practical – the system is more likely to accept small policy changes, while it would resist revolutionary change
Her work is based on a secondary analysis of previous works and is thus not backed up by empirical evidence
Radical Feminists such as Delphy, Leonard and Greer argues that she fails to deal with the Patriarchal structures and culture in contemporary family life.
Marxist Fem
the exploitation of women is necessary for capitalism,
1) family cares for the next-gen and is cost-free as housework is unpaid.
2) Women reproduce the next labor force
3) Women absorb men’s anger (Ansley)
4) Are an army reserve for cheap labor
evaluation
ignores variation between different ethnic groups
morgan = focuses on trad families and not modern.
Radical feminist
Radical feminists argue that all relationships between men and women are based on patriarchy – essentially men are the cause of women’s exploitation and oppression. For radical feminists, the entire patriarchal system needs to be overturned, in particular the family, which they view as the root of women’s oppression.
greer
women should leave matrifocal relations eg IVF, political lesbianism means less abuse.
dual burden/ triple shift
Some Radical Feminists go further arguing that women suffer from the ‘triple shift’ where they have to do paid work, domestic work and ‘emotion work’ – being expected to take on the emotional burden of caring for children.
dark side of familiy
Radical Feminists also argue that, for many women, there is a ‘dark side of family life’ – According to the British Crime Survey domestic violence accounts for a sixth of all violent crime and nearly 1 in 4 women will experience DV at some point in their lifetime and women are much more likely to experience this than men
evaluation rad
ignore progress, makes women seem passiveIn some ways, however, it still seems very relevant. For example, the ME TOO campaign and the Harvey Weinstein scandal both show that harassment and sexual abuse of women remain common.
overall
women seem too passive, power may be shared, black fem not acknowledged , gay relationships
