feminist theories Flashcards
Oakley (liberal feminism) - sex and gender
sex - biological makeup
gender - what you socially regard yourself to be
Oakley (liberal feminism) - the enlightenment project
liberal feminists recognise the successive progress towards gender equality:
- changes in socialisation and culture: gradually leading to more rational attitudes towards gender
- political action to introduce anti-discriminatory laws and policies: bringing progress to society in which gender is no longer important
Firestone (radical feminism) - patriarchy
the origins of women’s patriarchy lie in women’s biological capacity and care for infants, since performing this role makes them dependent on males. patriarchy is the primary and most fundamental part of all inequality and conflict. men are the women’s main enemy. all men oppress women and all men benefit from patriarchy.
Firestone (radical feminism) - ‘the personal is the political’
radical feminists believe all relationships involve power, and they are political when one dominates the other. radical feminists focus on the way in which patriarchal power is exercised through personal relationships, often through physical or sexual violence. Brownmiller argues the fear of rape is a powerful deterrent against women going out alone at night. sexual politics - personal relationships are political as men dominate women through them.
Firestone (radical feminism) - achieving women’s liberation
- separatism: living apart form men and creating a new culture of female independence, free from patriarchy
- consciousness raising: women-only consciousness raising groups that may lead to collective action against men
- political lesbianism: heterosexual relationships are ‘sleeping with the enemy’ and therefore lesbianism is the only non-oppressive form of sexuality
Barrett (marxist feminism)
marxist feminists disagree with radical feminists:
- capitalism is the main cause of women’s oppression, not patriarchy
- capitalism is the main winner from female oppression, not men
they believe that women
- provide cheap exploitable labour
- are a reserve army of labour
- reproduce the labour force
- absorb anger
Barrett (marxist feminism) - ideology of familism
it is because of our ideology in society from birth that ‘brainwashes’ women to believe that the sexual division of labour and their position is natural and normal. the nuclear family is portrayed as the only place where women can attain fulfilment
Barrett (marxist feminism) - achieving women’s liberation
- overthrow capitalism
- overthrow the ideology of familism that underpins the nuclear family and its unequal division of labour
Butler - difference feminism
difference feminists do not see women as a single homogenous groups -differences of class, ethnicity, sexuality etc. all lead to different experiences of patriarchy, so they emphasise diversity. they argue previous feminist theory claim ‘false universality’: it claims to apply to all women, but in reality, it is only about the experiences of white, western, heterosexual, middle-class women
difference feminism - essentialism
difference feminists criticise radical, liberal and marxist feminists for being essentialists, whereby they see women as essentially the same and therefore fail to recognise diversity.
Butler (poststructuralist feminism)
discourses (way of seeing, speaking and thinking) are what cause oppression. e.g. medical discourse that oppresses women is the natural process of childbirth. now, women are labelled as ‘patients’ and power is transferred to doctors.
Butler is highly critical of the enlightenment for the way that white western middle-class women have taken over feminism and also the way that they present ‘universal’ image of womanhood
poststructuralist feminism - anti-essentialism
there is no fixed essence of what it is to be a woman because identities are constructed through different discourses and there are many different discourses in different times and cultures
