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Sociology P2 - Families & Households > Feminism > Flashcards

Feminism Flashcards

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Sociology 101 flashcards
1
Q

How do feminists view the family?

A

Like marxists, they take a critical view of the family
- oppresses women through the unequal division of domestic labour
- domestic violence
- do not regard gender inequality as natural or inevitable but something created by society for the benefit of men
THE FAMILY IS A PATRIARCHAL INSTITUTION

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2
Q

What are the 4 different types of feminism?

A

1- liberal
2- marxist
3- radical
4- difference

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3
Q

What do LIBERAL feminists believe?

A
  • campaigning against sex discrimination, equal rights , opportunities for women
    = legislation changes and reforms
  • equal pay, X workplace discrimination
  • women’s position in society improving
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4
Q

How do LIBERAL feminists believe they can gradually overcome women’s oppression?

A

1) Social changes
2) Political/legal changes
3) Economic (social) changes

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5
Q

LIBERAL FEMINISM
1) Social changes

A

changes in attitudes, raising aspirations of women
Sue Sharpe

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6
Q

LIBERAL FEMINSIM
2) Political/legal changes

A

1975- discrimination in employment outlawed (Equal Pay Act 1970 reinforced this)
- improved maternity and pensions
- reproductive rights, contraception and abortion
- 1990, rape in marriage
mass media- persuasion consciousness raising will convince men that social change aimed at dismantling the patriarchy will benefit all

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7
Q

LIBERAL FEMINISM
3) Economic (social changes)

A

WILKINSON- service economy, feminisation of British workforce, more economic power for women
- led to cultural changes in attitudes ‘genderquake’
- education/careers are more important than marriage/children
SHARPE- supports view, fathers more involved with children
- more egalitarian role within families

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8
Q

What does LIBERAL feminist Sommerville say?

A

women have more choice
- marriage
- sharing childcare paid/unpaid work
- greater equality in marriage

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9
Q

Liberal feminists view on the family

A
  • boys and girls learn through gender role socialisation
  • the traditional distributions of power within families which underpins gender role socialisation generally favours males
  • girls expected to subordinate lives to childcare, primary responsibility housework
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10
Q

What does Anne Oakley mean by hegemonic masculinity?

A

providers, protectors seen as superior

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11
Q

What does Anne Oakley mean by hegemonic femininity?

A
  • nurturers, emotional caretakers
  • focus on looks
  • secondary to males
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12
Q

What does Anne Oakley mean by manipulation?

A

appropriateness of child’s sex, parents encourage behaviour
learning/internalisation of gender roles= social conformity

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13
Q

What does Anne Oakley mean by canalisation?

A

parent’s channel child’s interests
- colour codes
- dress codes
- appearance codes
- toy and play codes
- etiquette codes
- family media codes
- speech codes
- domestic codes
- control codes

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14
Q

What are the strengths of liberal feminism?

A
  • Willmott and Young, men doing more domestic labour
  • parents socialise, similar aspirations for sons and daughters
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15
Q

What are the criticisms of Liberal feminism?

A

X reflects experiences of white MC women, not poorer sections
X women still have the burden of childcare and house with full full time careers
X domestic violence/rape in marriage are still significant problems
X general pay shows men still have higher incomes
X Marxists and Radical Fems believe only revolutionary change can bring equality

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16
Q

What are the main ideas of Marxist feminists?

A

Exploitation of women by the capitalist system and men
- reject optimisms of liberal, women’s inequalities are a result of being forced to serve the needs of capitalism

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17
Q

What are the 3 functions Marxist feminists say women perform?

A

1) Women reproduce the labour force
- unpaid domestic labour
- socialising next generation of workers
- maintaining and servicing current workers
2) Women absorb husbands anger
- alienation he feels from work
- ‘punch nag theory’, Fran Ainsley, women as ‘takers of shit’
3) Women are the ‘reserve army’ of cheap labour
- Benston, women taken on as extra workers when they are needed
- employers can let them go to return to their primary role of domestic labour

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18
Q

What dies Marxist feminist Ansley say?

A

Men have the power to get away with various forms of domestic abuse
- women who believe their main role is to nurture are less likely to demand higher pay and secure working conditions
- when they are ‘laid off’ from work they can return to their biological role of mother-housewife ‘proper job’

19
Q

What do Marxist feminists Benston and Ansley say?

A
  • women who stay at home are exploited by the capitalist class
  • bring up the future labour force
  • unpaid domestic labour
20
Q

What does Marxist feminist Benston say?

A

Patriarchal ideology is a product of capitalism
- convince women that their main place is at home
- reserve army of female labour
The patriarchal set up benefits the working man
- wage gives him social and economic power

21
Q

What are the strengths of Marxist feminism?

A
  • women suffer from domestic violence more than men
    (supports the punch bag theory)
  • women tend to get paid less
    ( exploited by capitalism, BBC pay scandal)
  • shown how gender roles are created and perpetuated by the capitalist society rather than being ‘natural’ as Functionalists would have us believe
22
Q

What are the weaknesses of Marxist feminism?

A

X the belief that the family should be abolished (socialist revolution) ignores the real benefits the family unit can provide for women
X growth of ‘house-husbands’ where women can be breadwinner
X ignore recent changed to the economy
X NR/Func- attacks and undermines nuclear family

23
Q

What are the key ideas of RADICAL feminism?

A
  • men exploit women not capitalism
  • the patriarchy existed before, always controlled women
  • will not change by establishing socialism
  • patriarchy benefits all men
24
Q

What do Radical feminists say about the nuclear family?

A

Mainly functions to benefit men
- power/superiority
- patriarchal ideology transmitted via gender role socialisation

25
Q

What do Radical feminists say the other functions of the family are?

A
  • encourage the sexual division of labour as ‘natural’ and unchangeable
    Women- sexual objects when single
    - mothers/housewives when married
26
Q

What doe Radical feminists Millet and Firestone say?

A

Men are the enemy
- they are the source of women’s oppression and exploitation
- ‘sex classes’ different interests and levels of power

27
Q

Why do Radical feminists say that the family and marriage are key oppressive institutions?

A
  • men benefit form unpaid domestic labour and sexual services
  • men dominate women, domestic violence threat
28
Q

What does Radical feminist Greer about how men are the dominant class who use their power to exploit women?

A
  • in marriage women remain subservient to husbands, single women are generally happier
  • wives are more likely to suffer from physical/sexual abuse, daughters victims of sexual abuse by male relatives within the family
29
Q

What does Radical feminist Greer suggest to overturn the patriarchal systems?

A

SEPERATISM- women must organise themselves to live independently form men
POLITICAL LESBIANISM- homosexual relationships replaced ‘matrifocal’ all female households
- believed the family needs to be matrifocal

30
Q

What do Radical feminists Delphy and Leonard say?

A
  • men may claim love for their wives but it doesn’t prevent them from exploiting them
  • women pay attention to men to give them a sense of well-being
    (flatter, excuse, boost, sympathise)
  • men rarely perform this function for women
31
Q

What does Radical feminist Purdy say?

A
  • W are disadvantaged (childcare responsibilities)
  • women encouraged to want to form couples and have children
  • eccentric/selfish if they choose not to
  • ‘baby strike’ stop having children
32
Q

What does Radical feminists Firestone say?

A

New reproductive technologies to exclude men from families
- women’s dependence on men derives from childbearing and child rearing functions
- nuclear, abolished, radically altered

33
Q

What are the strengths of Radical feminism?

A

Sommerville
- supports in aspects such as paternity rights
- employment sectors, not full equality
- vertical segregation in the workplace

34
Q

What are the weaknesses of Radical feminsim?

A

X ignores the progress already made, recent social changes
- divorce, job opportunities, fertility
- compensatory policies such as GIST and WISE
X Separatism and Political lesbianism are unlikely to work
- heterosexual attraction and nuclear family will not disappear
X men can also be victims of abuse
X fail to offer practical, realistic alternatives

35
Q

What are the key ideas for Difference feminism?

A

They are critical of all three previous perspectives because they assume all women are members of a single group who share interests and are equally exploited
- second wave feminist approaches assume women tend to love in conventional nuclear families and that they share similar experiences

36
Q

What does Difference feminism recognise?

A

Argue we cannot generalise women’s experiences this way
- lesbian, black, religious women all have very different experiences of the family from one another

37
Q

What is Black Difference feminism?

A
  • importance of racial/ethnic differences
  • some ethnic women have less power/status in families compared with other minorities
  • emphasises difference in age, class, nationality
  • MC women are exploited less by men than poorer women
    NOT ALL WOMEN ARE EXPLOITED EQUALLY
38
Q

Difference feminism- recognising increasing family diversity

A

e.g. women who are lone parents
- cannot be exploited by cohabiting man
- differences in gender relationships in families from different ethnic/religious background

39
Q

What does Difference feminist Nicholson say?

A

Women are better off outside traditional nuclear families
- all types should be accepted socially because they suit women in different circumstances

40
Q

What does Difference feminist Calhoun say?

A

Women can’t be exploited by men in lesbian families
- increasing choice in family life lesbian/gay= ‘chosen families’
- links to ‘preference theory’

41
Q

What are the strengths of Difference feminism?

A
  • white feminists neglect black feminists experience of racial oppression by regarding family solely as the source of oppression
  • black feminists regard view of black families positively as a source of support and resistance against racism
  • research in areas if family life which have either been neglected or not studied before
  • hard to criticise as it approaches a more modern perspective
42
Q

What are the weaknesses of Difference feminism?

A

X neglects the fact that women do share many experiences
(more at risk of low pay and domestic violence)
X losing sight of continuing inequalities between men and women

43
Q

General criticisms of feminism

A

X overall contribution of feminism is general to an understanding of the family
X ignores the real progress that women in society have made
X all assume the traditional nuclear family is most dominant
X increased family diversity is ignored
X structural theory- assumes all women are passive puppets manipulated by society to perform certain functions

Sociology P2 - Families & Households (13 decks)

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