Feminism - Different types - final Flashcards
What sort of feminism was first-wave feminism?
Liberal feminism
What are the key principles of liberal feminism?
- Liberty - women should be free to choose the nature of their own lives.
- Equal opportunity - full access to education and a career of their choosing.
- Civil rights - the law must never discriminate against women.
- Private rights - women should be able to own property.
- Democracy - the right to vote and stand for election.
What did Betty Friedan call patriarchy?
‘the problem with no name’
Other than male superiority, what else does patriarchy involve according to Betty Friedan?
the self-assigned inferiority of women that could not see their own oppression.
What is meant by ‘otherness’?
Treating women as separate to society and inferior to men.
What 3 forms of action do liberal feminists propose to combat patriarchy?
- Gender equality - the end of discrimination and allowing women to make their own life decisions.
- Education - meant to combat cultural attitudes that reinforced women’s inferiority.
- Formal equality - equal treatment before the law and equal protection of rights between men and women.
When did liberal (or first-wave) feminism dominate up to?
1960s
What are the characteristics of radical feminism?
- The destruction of patriarchal society through revolution.
- Female consciousness.
- They are difference feminists, stressing and celebrating the differences between men and women.
How are women exploited in marriage according to Kate Millet?
Sexually and economically
What did Germaine Greer assert in her 1970 book ‘The Female Eunuch’?
- men oppress women because they hate them.
- women have been taught to hate themselves.
What did Andrea Dworkin believe women needed to do?
Form lesbian communities to stop being seen as sex objects to men.
How do radical feminists propose to combat patriarchy?
- Abolition of the nuclear family and the creation of communal child rearing.
- Sexual liberation by escaping traditional male-female relationships.
- The elimination of biological roles, where androgynous people no longer need men to reproduce using technology to reproduce instead.
What is cultural feminism?
A type of feminism that accepts that women are born culturally and biologically different, and that these differences are both useful to society and superior to men’s characteristics.
How do cultural feminists view women’s roles?
They accept that women are more likely to take up domestic roles but value them as highly, if not higher, than roles played by men.
Where do socialist feminists focus their efforts?
On the plight of working-class women.
What do socialist feminists argue women will be liberated from their inferior economic position?
The extreme modification of capitalism.
In the eyes of socialist feminists, who draw on the ideas of Engels, what are women in the capitalist system?
A source of low-paid and expendable labour.
What do socialist feminists seek above all?
The liberation of women from their economic dependence upon men.
How do liberal feminists suggest bringing about the end of female economic oppression by men?
- Power is to be distributed more evenly in society.
- A change in culture through education.
What is post-modernism?
A general term for rejecting thinking that is limited to traditional ways of viewing the world; for feminism this means rejecting socialist and radical feminist ideas.
What do post-modern feminists stress the importance of?
The importance of language in carrying forward patriarchal attitudes towards sexism.
What do post-modern feminists believe?
That women should be given the freedom to make their own choices and choose the nature of their relationships; they may choose traditional roles, or they may choose less traditional ones.
