Feminist Theories Of Gender Inequalities Flashcards
Social control
Feminists agree on little except that women experience social control and domination because society works to benefit men. Women are controlled in public sphere because they do not have equal access to structures and institutions in society. Women controlled in the private sphere because there vulnerable to male violence and hatred
Biological theories to make dominance
Claimed that women are the weaker sex and there reproductive functions make them unable or fit for life outside the home.
Maintaining gender inequality
. Law creation tends to be male dominated
. Women who oppose patriarchy seen as anit family
. Women earn less
. Bodies subjected to harassment and criticism
. Turned into objects through the male gaze
. Vulnerable to poverty
. Vulnerable to symbolic violence
Feminist criticisms of biological theories
. Differences between the same sex ads much grater then the differences between the sexes on average
. Differences between males and females shaped from infancy
. Different values placed on different genders
. Social inequality is factual reality that cannot be explained by biology
Legal structures contributing to female inequality
. Liberal feminists
. Argue that males and females are socialised into there gender roles from birth.
. Women discouraged from developing positive self images and encouraged to be subordinate to men.
. Women gradually lose status after the age of 40 the gender pay gap favours men
. Women less likely to be promoted
. Lib fems argue if men and women both fight for equal rights it will lead to equality
. Other fems argue the process is too slow and society is unequal.
Doctrines of gender and family contributing to female inequality
. Dominant ideology that the nuclear family is best for raising children and a classic family life is portrayed this way by the media
. Family life is dominated by legal processes the government controls who you can marry, who inherits property, whether marriage can be ended and even laws about women’s own bodies.
. Radical and lib fems tend to focus on the domestic control of women and about Tahoe the family can be a dangerous place.
. Durant - estimated employed women do 2/3 of the housework on average once they are in a relationship
Economic control contributing to female inequality
. Until the 1970s it was assumed that male wages and economic activity were more valuable than a woman’s rights to equal pay. Women could expect to earn less then men for similar work regardless of their skills or experience and were barrred from higher paying jobs.
. First equal pay act I 1970 but was not implemented till the mid 1970s by which time employers were able to regrade work as female in order to continue to pay less.
. According to Marxist feminists and the trade union movement there were two main causes to women’s inequality in the labour market:
- the routine devaluing women’s skills so barring them from progression and promotion
- the segregation of work inti female work traditionally known as the 4 Cs which are among the lowest paid occupations in the uk.
Symbolic violence and othering contributing towards female inequality
. Bordeiu- concept of symbolic power to suggest that in many cases an assumption of superiority exists in society that weakens victims. Males will define themselves as male because they do not have fem characteristics. This process is described as ‘othering’ e.g men other women or define themselves as male because females are other and different in this case woman are also lower status.
. Bordieu refers to sexism and racism as being examples of symbolic power he claimed that the dominant exercised symbolic power but that the victims accepted it significantly with ought significantly challenging it.
. Lees - example of the way rape victims are often blamed for being raped because it is argues they were out drunk or being dressed in a provocative manner. These are not arguments that could be applied to male victims of violence.
Nothing happened contributing to female inequality
. Kelly and radford- point out male violence against women often contains an element of sexual power so that even when violence is not overt the threat of violence still limits the lives of women
. Radical feminist point out that all men have the power to rape.
. Women are warned not to walk alone at night, whereas men are able to move freely
. Many behaviours which distressed women are not for you to see by the police so women must tolerate this behaviour.
Summarise point of female inequality
Feminist argument is that male domination over women is so deeply built into societal culture the inequality is inevitable in all areas of life and that women sometimes accept it as inevitable. The point of feminists of all perspectives is that it is within the power of men to set the social rules.
Assessment of feminist theories
. It becomes difficult to measure some forms of power or how real experiences described really are feminists of the use qualitative methods
. Six positive feminism developed to the 80s argued that there is nothing wrong with pornography and sexualised behaviours. Women should be allowed to express their sexuality as men do.
. Hakim argues feminism over states the case and that inequality is the result of women’s economic choices. They now have economic power that was not available to them in the past thus inequality is not a fact but a result of individual women choosing specific occupation.
The young foundation
Published a report which claimed there are systematic and deep in inequalities between women and men in Britain and that the situation is getting worse. They used to range of secondary data provided by variety of organisations and found 27% of women will be paid less than the living wage and that poor paternity pay that men were excluded from the loss of their children. At least seven women a month diet the hands of a partner.women are under represented in culture, sport, business and all other forms of public life.
