Feminism Flashcards
1
Q
What approach is feminism?
A
2
Q
What causes inequality?
A
3
Q
What is the six structures that keep women in a subordinate position?
A
- Walby argues that women are kept in a subordinate position through six patriarchal structures which restrict women and maintain male domination
1. The Household = Women’s unpaid labor doing housework and childcare
2. Paid Work = Women are paid less and do more part-time work compared to men are dominate the higher paying jobs
3. The State = State is patriarchal and no attempt to improve women’s institutions
4. Sexuality = Double standards of sexuality, who are sexually active and to be heterosexual
5. Male Violence = Porn promotes degradation of women by men and promotes sexual violence
6. Cultural Institution = Sexual attractiveness of women to men
4
Q
What do Liberal Feminists argue?
A
- Nobody benefits from existing inequalities as both men and women are harmed.
- Gender inequality does not like in the structure of society but the cultures and values
- Socialisation in gender roles has created rigid expectations of men and women
- Discrimination prevents women from having equal opportunities
5
Q
What do Liberal Feminists suggest?
A
- They do not seek revolutionary change but to take place within the existing structure
- They must create equal opportunities through policy
- They want to eradicate sexism from children books and the media
6
Q
What are criticisms of liberal feminism?
A
- It is based on male assumptions and norms encouraging women to be more like men and denies the values associated with women
- It ignores deeper structural inequalities
- It is ethnocentric focussing on middle class educated women
7
Q
What do Radical Feminists argue?
A
- Society is patriarchal as it is dominated and ruled by men
- Men are able to exploit women and therefore benefit from the subordination of women
- Dworkin argues that rape, violence and pornography of methods where men maintain power over women
8
Q
What do Radical Feminists suggest?
A
- Separatism = Women only communes
- Matrifocal households
- Political lesbianism and political celibacy as heterosexual relationships are sleeping with the enemy
9
Q
What is an evaluation of Radical Feminism?
A
- It ignores different variations of oppression and how not every women is equally oppressed
- It solely focuses on the negative experiences of women whereas some women can have happy marriages
- It portrays women as universally good and men are universally bad
10
Q
What do Marxist Feminists argue?
A
- Capitalism is the principal source of women’s oppression and capitalists are the main beneficiaries
- Women are disadvantaged due to the emergence of private property and do not own the means of production
- The nuclear family is oppressive under capitalism as they reproduce the labour force through socialisation, absorb the men’s anger and the husband has to depend on capitalism for wages due to supporting their family
- They also teach the dominant ideology
11
Q
What do Marxist Feminists suggest?
A
- Working class women and men must work together for social change
- Eradicate capitalism as in a communist society, gender inequalities should disappear
12
Q
What is an evaluation of Marxism Feminism?
A
- Radical Feminists argue that they ignore other sources of inequality such as sexual violence
- Patriarchal systems existed before capitalism
- Women’s experience has not been happy under a communist ruling
13
Q
What do Difference Feminists argue?
A
- They do not see women as a single group but many different experiences such as working class, middle class, women from different backgrounds and women of different sexualities
- They criticise other views focussing on a false universality which is white, wester, heterosexual and middle class
- They are interested with the relationship of power and knowledge througn language
14
Q
A
