Feminism Core Ideas

Question 1

Who created the first well known piece of work of feminism and what was it called?

Answer 1

Mary Wollestonecraft
A vindication of the rights of women

Question 2

What were some of Wollstonecraft’s main points in her book?

Answer 2

She urged that women be offered an education and that they assert their right to be considered as useful members of society. They should become independent from their husbands and this will aid them to become a good mother

Question 3

What did John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor do to promote feminism?

Answer 3

Campaigned for the passage of the Married Women’s Property Act (1882), which allowed women to keep their own property after they married

Question 4

What did Charlotte Perkins Gilman do in the origins of feminism?

Answer 4

She wrote extensively about the lack of opportunities for independent women and argued the inferior position of women in the home was a model of their subordinate position in wider life

Question 5

What issue attracted the most attention at the beginning of feminism?

Answer 5

The franchise- votes for women

Question 6

What progress was made in American politics for women between 1890 and 1920

Answer 6

In 1890, the National American Women Suffrage Association was founded. By 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the US constitution was passed, guaranteeing equal voting rights for women

Question 7

What progression was made towards feminist goals in the UK between 1903 and 1928?

Answer 7

In Britain, the women’s social and political union, run by the Pankhurst family, led the suffragette movement. They achieved the vote for married women over 30 in 1918 and equal voting rights in 1928.

Question 8

What did the suffragette movement become known as?

Answer 8

The first wave of feminism

Question 9

What were the assumptions made by the suffragettes about when they achieved the vote?

Answer 9

They assumed women would quickly seek election to office and that parliament would pass legislation to improve conditions for women, and, in particular, would establish equality in all kinds of social and economic fields

Question 10

What came out of the women gaining the vote?

Answer 10

Not much- little impact.
Only thing was slight improvements in education and partial opening of professions

Question 11

What was the second wave of feminism and when did it emerge?

Answer 11

1960s
Broader cultural movement that sought to critique a post-industrial society, especially identifying the alienation of various social groups from a society of mass communication and consumerism.
These groups included youth, ethnic minorities and black population, the gay community, disabled people and women

Question 12

What are the two issues feminists address concerning human nature?

Answer 12

Sex and gender
The personal is political

Question 13

What is meant by the term sex?

Answer 13

For feminists, it refers to the biological differences between men and women. They are seen as inevitable, natural and unalterable

Question 14

What are the main biological differences between men and women?

Answer 14

Women give birth
Women tend to have lower levels of physical strength

Question 15

How do feminists think sex should change peoples opinions towards a person?

Answer 15

Sex differences should be irrelevant to the way in which a women is treated in society and in relationships and shouldn’t affect general status

Question 16

What is essentialism?

Answer 16

The fundamental nature of biological differences between men and women. Some feminists say such differences are essential to understanding the status of a women in their inferior position

Question 17

What would feminists argue that sex has caused upon the status of women in society?

Answer 17

For most, they argue they have determined the gender roles of women in history and today. More radical feminists agree but argue there is no need for this to carry on today

Question 18

What is gender?
How was it created?

Answer 18

This refers to the cultural differences between sexes, leading to men’s superiority and women’s inferiority. This is the creation of a patriarchal society and is not natural

Question 19

Traditionally, how are gender and sex seen as connected?

Answer 19

Ideas that the roles played by women were biologically determined.
Women are unable to do demanding jobs because of their regular need to give birth and take care of children. Therefore women, were more caring and so wouldn’t be suited to the competitive world of business and capitalism
Women were seen as the homemakers while men were the breadwinners

Question 20

What were pre feminist, male dominated cultures views towards women?

Answer 20

Women are inferior to men because earning money is more important than motherhood. Women were seen as unable to use judgement and had little need for more than basic education, reinforcing ideas they are inferior

Question 21

What did Betty Friedan point about cultural attitudes towards gender?

Answer 21

Gender differences are so deep rooted that women themselves tended to share it with men

Question 22

What is Friedan’s quote about gender differences?

Answer 22

“Each suburban wife struggled with it alone… she was afraid to ask even herself of the silent question “Is this all?”

Question 23

What is a liberals view to the issue of sex and gender?

Answer 23

They accept the significance of sex differences but regard gender differences and the superiority of men as an artificial construct, created by patriarchal societies. There is no reason biological differences should be converted into gender differences. The inferior attitude towards women is learnt and has deep roots in history, education and cultural institutions like the media

Question 24

How would a liberal feminist try to respond to the link between gender and sex?

Answer 24

Centres around the need for reform , through legislation for equality and education to combat sexist attitudes

Question 25

What is radical thinker Juliet Mitchell’s opinion on sex and gender differences

Answer 25

Male gender exists in all aspects of life and so must be destroyed in all these places. She also stressed how the views towards women have been generated in literature and the arts. There needs to be something of a cultural revolution to combat patriarchy

Question 26

What is radical thinker Shulamith Firestones’ view on sex and gender?

Answer 26

She stressed the importance of sex rather than gender in the oppression of women. She saw women as an oppressed group facing a dialectic struggle and so to triumph women must remove the sex differences that have led to their oppression. This can be achieved by removing all sexual functions of a women and would be replaced with androgyny

Question 27

What is androgyny?

Answer 27

A state where men and women would co-exist without sexual relations. People should be free to choose their sexual identity and may have no sexual identity at all

Question 28

What are social feminists views on sex and gender?

Answer 28

They see the oppression of women as being bound up in the whole operation of capitalism. Women, like workers have become the oppressed class who become a cheap source of labour. They aren’t paid in the home and in paid employment, they make up a large proportion of low paid, often part time workers. They are hence dispensable so when there is a slump women are the ones thrown out of work. They are therefore low paid and lack job security

Question 29

What are socialist feminist responses to sex and gender?

Answer 29

Destruction of capitalism at the most extreme level, or at least, it’s modification as women should be guaranteed the same protection, working conditions and pay

Question 30

What are the arguments that sex is the reason for differences between men and women in society?

Answer 30

-it’s inevitable that women will take a leading role in child rearing, so men dominate the world of work
-women are physically weaker so inevitably have an inferior position
-women are born with a caring character and so are less fit to capitalism

Question 31

What are the arguments that gender is the reason for differences between men and women in society?

Answer 31

-men have vested interest in maintaining their dominant gender role in society
-the gender role of women is embedded in their consciousness from an early age to such an extent that women don’t understand it’s patriarchal origin
-in a modern society, there’s no reason why the different biological status of women should affect their role in the economy. They are simply an artificial construct to perpetuate the patriarchy

Question 32

Who first coined “the personal is political” and who popularised it? Who does it help to distinguish between?

Answer 32

First coined by Firestone, but was popularised by Carol Hanisch

It helps us to distinguish between liberal and radical feminists

Question 33

What do liberals say about the private public sphere?

Answer 33

There is a separation as the private sphere is no concern of others, especially not the state. As long as our actions don’t harm others, e.g. domestic violence, there’s no need for interference

Question 34

What is the private sphere?

Answer 34

Concerns aspects of our life that are particular to ourselves and close family. It’s behaviour that doesn’t affect others and can relate to how men and women interact and how women themselves choose to live

Question 35

What is the public sphere?

Answer 35

Our actions do affect others and thus become more of a concern to the state. For example, how men treat women, how women are portrayed in the workplace, in politics, media and society at large e.g. low wages and sexual assault

Question 36

What is the radical approach to the public private sphere?

Answer 36

Radical feminists like Firestone and Hanisch, do not recognise the distinction between the two. For them, everything is political. For example, if women are kept at home engaged in homemaking it’s not a private matter because it’s an aspect of wider patriarchy. They argue most women don’t understand the personal is political because their consciousness has been distorted by a male dominated society

Question 37

What did Germaine Greer say about the personal is political?

Answer 37

Sexual Relationships are determined by men who have managed to make women feel ashamed of their bodies and sexuality. In other words, they have been manipulated to serve the interests of men. Thus such private matters become political