feminism key thinkers

Question 1

what does Charlotte Perkins Gilman think? (Liberal)

Answer 1

• “the yellow wallpaper” was inspired by her personal experience as a new mother
• in “women and economics” Gilman argued that it was time to overturn the pattern of male/female relations
• to gill, the existing ‘seexuo-economic relation’ between men and women entrenched inequality
• Gilman stated that ‘there is no female mind. the brain is not an organ of sex’ ‘you might as well speak of a male liver’
• economic equality could only be achieved gilamn wrote, if the right to work outside the home was extended to married as well as unmarried women
• in her 1900s work ‘concerning children’, gill proposed that children should be cared for in communal nurseries and have their meals provided by communal kitchens. boys and girls should be raised wearing the same clothes and toys
• she wanted to liberate women from their restrictive and voersexualised costumes

Question 2

what does Simone de Beauvoir think? (Liberal)

Answer 2

• an extistentialist feminist meaning she argued for individual freedom above societal conventions
• she believed that the biological differences of sex have been used as a justification for predetermining the role of women
• ‘one is not born but rather becomes a woman’
• she rejected the idea of motherhood and women being indoctrinated from birth
• she developed the idea of ‘otherness’ where men have characterised themselves as the ‘norm’
• women need to liberate themselves and seek freedom from oppression to find their individual identity
• to liberate themselves, mown needed to do Moree than simply ask men for their freedom, they needed to join together and work actively for change
• what women needed was a cease to be ‘the other’ in society

Question 3

what does sheila rowbotheam think? (Socialist)

Answer 3

• for sheila, female oppression has economic roots, but also stems from the traditional nuclear family
  -rowthbotham concluded that women have always been oppressed. marriage is like feudalism she beleiveed
• capitalism worsened their oppression and women were doubly oppressed: forced to sell their labour to survive in the workplace.
• alienation from both capitalism and patriarchy meant ‘revolution within a revolution’
• men do not fullt understand the nature of oppression of women: “men will often admit other women are oppressed but not you”
• the family performs a dual function: to subject women to the demands of capitalism and to offer a place of refuge for men from the alienation of capitalism
• liberal feminism she argued, had been effective in raising awareness of women’s subjugation but it was an upper-class movement

Question 4

what does Kate miller think? (radical)

Answer 4

• Kate millet believed that the state is merely the agent of patriarchy. it is part of the problem but not the solution
• she believed the family was the chief institution in reinforcing the patriarchy. dismantling the traditional family unit was the key to a sexual revolution
• patriarchy granted men ownership over their wife and children, which entrenched sexism. marriage saw women lose their identity
• the portrayal of women in art and literature reinforces patriarchy. millet argues that sex in culture subjugates women. women are also portrayed as possessions of men. perpetuated through Adam and Eve style
• millet is critical of romantic love, monogamous marriage and the family unit as this trinity reinforces patriarchy
• patriarchy also reinforces heterosexualism as being superior
• the personal was political! because men and women did not form equal partnerships.
• the oppression of women was, millet wrote, more entrenched than any other form of division in society
• in order to transform the public and private lives of women, millet wanted people to realise that sex was distinct from gender

Question 5

what does belle hooks think? (post-modern)

Answer 5

• hookes believes society is full of complex relationships between different minorities
• hookes argues that children are socialised into gender stereotypes from a young age
• she broadened the feminist debate as she felt it was too focused on middle and upper class, college educated white women
• hooks focused on women of colour and all social classes
• she believed that women of colour faced both sexual and racial discrimination and neither the civil rights movement nor the women’s movement recognised this dual problem
• there is a need to reach out to women neglected by mainstream feminist though, such as women of different ethnicities and classes
• hooke’s ideas greatly influenced the idea of intersectionality- which challenged the feminist assumption that gender, was the most important factor in determining a woman’s life expereinces
• one of her final hopes was to embed a feminist masculinity within modern society. feminist masculinity would stress that men have value because of who they are not what they do