feminism Flashcards
What are the 3 types of feminism?
Liberal
Radical
Difference
What are 3 key assumptions about feminism
Patriarchy
Men and women should be equal
Theory of womens subordination is society, and a political movement
Whats the difference between liberal and radical feminists?
Liberal- cultural attititudes is the cause of patriarchy
Radical- cause is men
What are liberal feminists concerned with?
How could this be achieved?
Human rights and freedoms of the individual, equality within men and women through gradual change:
Laws and policies- e.g. 2010 equality act helps equal opportunities in workplace, education against women
Cultural change- e.g. beliefs that women are less rational (due to biological differences) legitimise their discrimination>dual burden
What do liberal feminists believe cultural stereotypes originate from?
How is this overcome
Culturally constructed through socialisation
Change society’s socialisation patterns e.g. appropriate role models like females teaching male dominated subjects, fathers doing domestic tasks
A strength of liberal feminism is that it produced evidence…explain
That documented the inequality and discrimination of women
This helped the demand for reform in areas e.g. equal pay act
A limitation of liberal feminism is that its too optimistic…explain
See the obstacles to equality as simple prejuduces to individuals, or irrational laws that can be gradually reformed
Ignores the possibility of deep structures of oppression, e.g. capitalism, patriarchy
*Radical feminists criticise them for this
Radical feminists key concept is the patriarchy, what is this?
Give 3 assumptions of the patriarchy
=Society in which men dominate women
Patriarchy is universal (exists in all societies)
Patriarchy is the main cause of opression
All men oppress all women (all men benefit from the patriarchy)
Give 2 ways radical feminists want to overcome the patriarchy
Political lesbianism- some rad fems believe hetro relationships are inevitaabley impressive as you are ‘with the enemy’, so lesbianism is the only non oppressive form sexuality
Consciousness-raising- sharing their experiences in women only groups, facing problems together e.g. ‘slut walk’
Give 2 criticisms of radical feminism
The patriarchy is declining, liberal fems argue that womens position has improved the last few years e.g. education, job
Cannot explain why female oppression takes different forms in different society
Assumes women are in the same position, ignores class and ethnic differences
Alternatively, what is difference feminism?
Do not see women as a single homogenous group, unlike radical and liberal feminism
This is because white vs black, middle vs working, lesbian vs hetro women have different experiences of the patriarchy, capitalism, racism, homophobia
What is ‘false universality’?
Give an example of this
Feminist theory has claimed itself this according to difference feminists
This is that feminist theory is only focussed on the experience of white, western, hetrosexual, middle class women
E.g. feminist theory argues that the patriarchy is the main source of oppression to women, black feminists would argue that racism is their main source
Give 2 criticisms of difference feminism
Walby argues that the similarities are more important amongst women, e.g. in comparison to men, women are in greater risk to low pay, domestic violence, sexual assault
