Feminism Flashcards
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1st wave feminism - period operating and their key aims
- Basic legal reform for single and married women
- Securing women’s right to vote - 1867 the National Society for Women’s Suffrage
- Achieveing equal education for men and women
- 1848-1920
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2nd wave feminism - period operating and their key aims
- Casual racism exposed - social equality - sex and reproductive rights
- Equality in workplace and education
- Challenging patrachial norms, traditional gender roles and objectification of women
- 60s-80s
4
3rd wave feminism - period operating and their key aims
- Intersectionality and sexual liberation
- Pluralism
- Respect for self determination
- 1990-2010
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4th wave feminism - period operating and their key aims
- Sexual abuse, harassment, violence in the workplace and equal oay
- LGBTQ+ community - diversifies to black people
- Digital Activism - expanding feminist movement as they share personal stories and experiences
- 2010 onwards
2
Success of 1st wave feminism
- 1857 - Matrimonial Causes Act - allowed to divorce
- 1870 - Married Women Property Act - gave more the right to proper earnings
3
Success of 2nd wave feminism
- Approval of contraceptive 1960
- Right to have credit card and apply for mortgages under their own name
- Equal Pay Act 1963
Success of 3rd and 4th wave feminism
MeToo - rising population of gender sutdies, comprehensive social reform, trans rights
3
Key theorists of 1st wave feminism
- Mary Wolstoncraft - critical of Burke
- Elizabeth Stanton - organised 1st Women’s Right Convention
- Pankhurst Family
3
Key theorists of 2nd wave feminism
- Friedan
- De Beauvoir
- Audre lorde
Key theorists of 3rd wave feminism
- Anita Hill - spoke to an all male senile judiciary committee that judge Clarice Thomas had been harassed by
2
Key theorists of 4th wave feminism
- Laura Bates - Everyday Sexism Project 2012 - raises awareness of sexism experienced by women on a daily basis
- Ptyhia Peauy - ‘Feminists Spiritual Wave’
3
Key domestic successes over the last 150 years
- 2014 - Shared parental leave introduced
- 2002 - Parliament allows gay couple to adopt
- 2004 - Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act
3
Key educational successes over the last 150 years
- 1944 - Education Act
- 1993 - equality in higher education
- 1914-18 - 46.7% employed
2
Key political successes over the last 150 years
- 1979 - Margaret Thatcher first PM
- 2016 - 29% of MPs women and 32% of Cabinet women
5
Main principles of liberal feminism
- Liberty - the idea that women should be free to choose the nature of their own lives
- Equality of opportunity - women should enjoy the same chances in life as men
- Equal civil rights - the rule of law should fully extend to women
- Equal private rights like property
- Equal political rights - like the vote
3
The 3 main forms of action from liberal feminists to combat patriarchy
- End to discrimination and inequality
- Cultural attitude should be changed - women’s sense of inferiority anbd the manner in which this was reinforced needed to be changed through education, propoganda and opposition
- Political and leghal equality must be mainmtained and extended
4
Areas in which liberal feminism has succeeded
- Bring women into the political mainstream
- More inclusive and socially progressive - centrism and reformism
- Efforts to secure equal rights through legislation
- Advocacy for reproductive rights - pill, abortion, SDA Act 1975
3
Areas in which liberal feminism has failed
- Lack of critique of basic gender relationships - lack of class and race analysis
- Lack of analysis of ways in which women are different from men - intersectionality
- Workplace inequality
4
Radical feminism characteristics
- Destruction of patriarchal society and the new creation of w wholly new type of society
- They are more revolutionary then reformist in nature. Not violent rev
- Emphasise the importance of female consciousness
- Tend to be difference feminists
Equality feminists believe in
The elimination of all social, cultural and political differences between sexes to pursue absolute eqaulity
Difference feminists believe in
The belief that women are biologically and culturally different from men - it argues that these differences need to be recognised and celebrated
4
Radical feminism - problems they have with liberal feminism
- Difference feminists rather than equality feminists
- Revolutionary in their outlook, not reformists
- Stress the importance of female consciousness
- propose the absoilute destruction of patriachal society
4
Radical feminism - view on patriarchy
- Women exploited sexually and economically
- Men oppress women in all fields - home, econ - political in nature because of male chauvinism - men hate women so women have been taught to hate themselves and willingly subject themselvs to an inferior position
- Dialectic class struggle - origins of this were in biological diffferences that fostered - has existed because of this
- Sexually oppressed - pornography as symptomatic of men’s view of women as little more than sex objects - lesbian communities to liberate
3
Radical feminism - response to patriarchy
- Sexual liberation - escaping from the limitations of traditional male-female relationships - female liberated from male dom will not feel inferior or hate themselves
- Abolition of nuclear family and its replacement by communal forms of child rearing and living in general - will remove male dom of family
- Elimination of biological roles - modern bio technology to free women from biological enslavement - removal of sex differences - no longer need men to reproduce - fundamental liberation
Intersectionality
Feminism as a study of women’s position within society has to be combined with other elements of identity such as ethnicity or class (certain sections of radical feminism look at this too)
Germaine Greer quote
‘Until women themselves reject stigma and refuse to feel shame for the way others treat them, they have no hope of achieving full human stature’
