Feminism

Question 1

First wave of feminism:

Answer 1

Began in the 19th Century when the suffragettes fought for the right to vote.

Question 2

Abbot & Wallace

Answer 2

• Malestream sociology = seeing society only from the perspective of men.

Question 3

What are liberal feminists concerned with?

Answer 3

• Care about human rights and personal freedom.

Question 4

Liberal feminism - reformism

Answer 4

• Trying to gradually improve society through changing laws and culture.

Question 5

Types of changes proposed by liberal feminists:

Answer 5

Laws and policies = against sex discrimination in the workplace and at school, leads to equal opportunities. (1979 equal pay act + WISE)
Cultural change = changing sexist ideas about women.

Question 6

Two ways which liberal feminists believe society will progress towards gender equality:

Answer 6

• Change socialisation & culture to challenge sexism.
• Campaign for anti-discrimination laws.

Question 7

Walby

Answer 7

Says liberal feminists offer no explanation for the overall structure of gender inequality.

Question 8

Radical feminists and sexual politics

Answer 8

Refers to how all relationships between men and women are political because men dominate women through these relationships.

Question 9

Patriarchal power -> not going out at night

Answer 9

Men exercise power over women through sexual or physical violence and the threat of that violence.
Links to Brownmiller

Question 10

Brownmiller

Answer 10

Says that the threat of rape acts as a curfew, preventing women from going out alone at night.

Question 11

Radical feminists and constructed sexuality:

Answer 11

• Sexuality is constructed to satisfy men’s needs.
• Women are portrayed as passive sexual objects; penetration is seen as the main source of sexual pleasure.

Question 12

Rich

Answer 12

Argues men continue to force women into a narrow and unsatisfying compulsory heterosexuality

Question 13

Solutions to women’s oppression proposed by radical feminists:

Answer 13

• Separatism = since men will inevitably oppress women, women have to live apart from men. (Links to Greer)
• Consciousness-raising = women should share their experiences in women-only consciousness raising groups. May lead to collective action, e.g. Reclaim the Night and Slutwalks.
• Political lesbianism = heterosexual relationships are inherently oppressive because they involve sleeping with the enemy. The only non-oppressive relationships are lesbian.

Question 14

Greer

Answer 14

Suggests all-female matrilocal households.

Question 15

What social factors does radical feminism ignore?

Answer 15

• Assume that what matters to them, matters to everyone.
• Ignore class, ethnicity, etc…

Question 16

Pollert

Answer 16

Believes the concept of patriarchy is of little value. Everything bad gets blamed as ‘patriarchy’.

Question 17

Somerville

Answer 17

Thinks separatism is unlikely because it ignores heterosexual attraction.

Question 18

What does Marxist Feminism believe is the cause of women’s subordination?

Answer 18

• Caused by capitalism.

Question 19

Four functions that women’s subordination performs:

Answer 19

• Women are a source of cheap, exploitable labour = they are paid less because it is assumed they are dependent on their husbands.
• Women are a reserve army of labour = moved into the labour force when necessary, made redundant during economic recession.
• Women reproduce the labour force = raise the next generation of workers; service the current generation (husbands) at no cost to capitalism.
• Women absorb anger = Fran Ansley - wives are takers of shit.

Question 20

Barrett - why must we take non-economic factors into account to understand women’s position in the family?

Answer 20

• We have to look at women’s consciousness and motivations. E.g. why do women want to marry, when this is what oppresses them?

Question 21

Barrett - the ideology of familism.

Answer 21

• The nuclear family and the traditional sexual division of labour is presented as natural and normal.
• The family is portrayed as the only place when women will be fulfilled through motherhood, intimacy, etc…

Question 22

What else is required to secure women’s liberation, other than overthrowing capitalism?

Answer 22

• We need to overthrow familism.
• Only then will men and women be free from restrictive stereotypes.

Question 23

Mitchell

Answer 23

• It would be hard to overcome patriarchy even after the overthrow of capitalism.
• This is because ideas about femininity are so deeply implanted in women’s unconscious minds that they will be very difficult to dislodge, even in a communist society.

Question 24

Two criticisms of Marxist feminism:

Answer 24

• Fails to explain women’s subordination in non-capitalist societies.
• Women’s unpaid labour benefits capitalism, but that doesn’t explain why women do it rather than men. Hartmann says Marxism is ‘sex-blind’.

Question 25

Hartmann

Answer 25

Believes that capitalism and patriarchy have become intertwined.

Question 26

Dual systems feminism - how can women’s subordination be understood?

Answer 26

• We need to look at the relationship between their position in the domestic division of labour (patriarchy) and in paid work (capitalism).

Question 27

Walby - Interests of patriarchy and capitalism differ because:

Answer 27

• Capitalism wants women to work in low paid jobs.
• Patriarchy wants women at home.

Question 28

Pollert - how does patriarchy differ from capitalism?

Answer 28

• Patriarchy is a not a system in the same way that capitalism is.
• Patriarchy is just a description for a range of practises such as male violence; control of women’s labour.

Question 29

How does difference feminism differ from other feminist perspectives?

Answer 29

• Says that not all women are the same. Class, ethnicity, sexuality, etc all lead to different experiences.

Question 30

Claudia Jones

Answer 30

• Says that white feminists criticise the nuclear family.
• For black women, families provided protection against a racist society.

Question 31

Essentialism

Answer 31

• The idea that all women share the same fundamental essence.

Question 32

Poststructuralist feminism - what are discourses?

Answer 32

• Ways of seeing, thinking or speaking about things.

Question 33

The Enlightenment project - Butler

Answer 33

• Sees it as a form of power/knowledge.
• Really it was about saying that the things white western m/c men cared about were the most important.

Question 34

Butler - western feminists

Answer 34

• Says they are wrong to claim that the feminist movement represents universal womanhood.
• Says that the white western m/c women who dominate feminism assume that they care about what all women care about.

Question 35

Poststructuralism suggests there is no…

Answer 35

• Fixed essence of what it is to be a woman.
• This is because our identities are constructed through discourses, and discourses change in different times and cultures.
• Therefore, there can be no universal concept of what it means to be a woman.

Question 36

Segal’s criticism of poststructuralist feminism:

Answer 36

• Says women are oppressed by social structure not discourses.
• Feminists should want things such as equal pay.