Feminism Key Thinkers Flashcards
What kind of feminist was Charlotte Perkins Gilman?
Socialist Feminist
What did Gilman believe women needed to be free
economic independance
How did Gilman believe women were reliant on their husbands
For women to survive, they were reliant on pleasing their husbands, so that he would financially support his family
What did Gilman believe was wrong
Gender stereotyping from childhood
How does Gilman believe children should be raised?
Boys and Girls should be socialised the same- no difference in the clothes, toys and activities boys and girls do
Gilman’s opinion on motherhood
- Motherhood should not stop a woman from working
- Suggested communal housing, which would free women from being domestic slaves
Simone de Beauvoir type of feminist
Socialist feminist
de Beauvoir key ideas (2)
- Women are taught and socialised into becoming women
- Otherness
Definition of ‘otherness’
Otherness-men are the norm; women are the ‘other
- therefore have a subordinate position in society
Simone de Beauvoir famous quote
‘One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman’
Women are taught and socialised to do and be what is perceived to be a ‘woman’
De Beauvoir analysis of ‘otherness’ (3)
- Woman have accepted and internalised their otherness
- Therefore women were inferior in their own eyes
- Women needed to first be conscious of their domination before they could struggle against it
Kate Millet Feminist type
Radical feminist
Kate Millet book
Sexual Politics (1970)
Kate Millet key ideas (3)
- Family is ‘patriarchy’s key institution’
- Socialisation gives men power and denies women power
- Patriarchal portrayal of women in art and literature
Millet view of female oppression
Female oppression is both political and cultural.
‘the personal is the political’
Millet’s view of the key to true sexual revolution
-Undoing the traditional family
How does Millet regard the institution of family (3)
- A mirror of larger society
- A patriarchal unit within a patriarchal whole
- Where young girls were taught “their place” by observing the hierarchical relationships
Millet’s view of the family in regard to socialisation (3)
- Family socialised the young into patriarchal attitudes
- This was further reinforced in all other aspects of society (school, the media)
- Culture supported masculine authority in all areas of life
Millet view of women portrayed in art and literature (2)
- Patriarchal culture produced works that were degrading to women
- In literature women were never their own agents, they were commodities silenced by men, who sought to sexually possess them
Sheila Rowbotham type of feminist
Socialist feminist
Rowbotham key ideas (2)
- Capitalism and sexism are closely linked
- Women are oppressed economically and culturally
Rowbotham ideas on the origins of sexism
-Sexism/ the oppression of women predates capitalism
Rowbotham belief on achieving sexual liberation (2)
- Required a “revolution within the revolution”
- Only way of destroying both was a radical change in the ‘cultural conditioning’ of humanity regarding child-rearing, homes, laws and the workplace
Rowbotham belief on how women were oppressed both culturally and economically
-Women are forced to sell their labour to survive, but also forced to use their labour to support their husbands and children
