Feminism Flashcards
Liberal feminists
reform laws and policies
change socialisation patterns
optimistic
female functions for capitalism
- cheap, exploitative labour
- reserve army of labour
- reproduce labour force
- absorb anger
Marxist feminist
unpaid homemaker in dependent economic position due to capitalism
Ansley
‘takers of shit’
soak up husband frustration due to alienation at work
Barrett
‘familism’ maintains oppression
familism
nuclear family & sexual division of labour presented as ‘norm’
Rich
men force women into a narrow unsatisfying ‘compulsory heterosexuality’
compulsory heterosexuality
patriarchy constructs sexuality e.g through porn
‘separatism’
live apart from men, creating new culture of independence
Greer
argues for creation of all-female or ‘matrilocal’ households
radical feminists
all men oppress all women
PoMo feminists
other branches fail to reflect diversity of experience - focus on white, m/c, straight women
Butler
no fixed entity called ‘womanhood’ as identities constructed through different discourses
Feminism
structural/positivist thinking but prefer interpretivist methods
conflict theory
Dobash & Dobash
study of domestic violence
early theory criticism
only partial explanation of experience in modern society. ignore class and ethnicity
methodology criticism
low in reliability
small scale, qualitative, subjective approach so hard to generalise
liberal criticism
over optimistic
ignore deep rooted structures causing oppression
marxist criticism
fail to explain in non-capitalist societies
radical criticism
assumes all in the same position
Sommerville - radical criticism
separatism unlikely due to heterosexual attraction
PoMo criticism
fail to recognise similarities which may divide women into sub-groups, weakening feminism
