Feminist Theories On The Family Flashcards
Feminists views on the family
critical
-argue that it oppresses women and reproduces patriarchy
-as such they have focused on the unequal division od fomestic labour and domestic violence against women
Do feminist take a consensus or critical view on the family?
Take a critical view
Which feminist can be used ?
Marxist feminist
Radical feminist
Feminist believe gender inequality …
is not natural or inevitable but something that society has created
Marxist-feminists suggest
that the nuclear family meets the needs of capitalism for reproduction and maintenance if class and patriarchal inequality
It benefits the powerful at the expense to the w/c and women
Margaret Benston (1972)
Marxist-feminist
=argues that nuclear family provides the basic commodity required by capitalism
Margaret Benston 1972 evidence
Labour power by reproducing and rearing future workforce at little cost to the capitalist class
ALSO
women in families can be used to reserve army of labour to be used in times of economic growth and pushed back into the home during times of economic slow-down
Reproducing and rearing the future workforce does what according to Margaret Benston Marxists feminists
maintains the present workforce’s physical and emotional fitness through wife’s domestic labour.
Radical feminist
Kate Millet (1970)
-see modern societies and families characterised by PATRIARCHY
-a system of subordination and domination in which men exercise power over women and children
Kate Millet (1970)
solution to women’s oppression
argue that the family is the root of all women’s oppression and should be abolished
-the only way to do this is through SEPARATISM-women and men must live separately
Radical feminist
Diana Gittens
refers to concept of age patriarchy to describe adult domination of children, which may take the form of violence against children and women
Which Radical feminist has similar views to Diana Gittens?
Delphy and Leonard
Delphy and Leonard
See the family as a patriarchal institution in which women do most of the work and men get most of the benefit
Radical feminist believe in
Patriarchal ideology
What do Radical feminist believe Patriarchal ideology does?
Stresses the primary of the mother-housewife role for women and the breadwinner the family as legitimating violence against women
Evaluation for radical feminists
some would argue that this model is outdated
-it fails to consider recent trends such as feminisation of the workforce and women’s use pf divorce laws
Evaluation for radical feminists
Liberal feminist Jenny Somerville
argues separatism is unlikely to work because heterosexual attraction makes it unlikely that the conventional nuclear family will disappear
Evaluation for radical feminists
Hakim (1995)
argues that this model fails to consider that females might be exercising rational choices in choosing domestic roles
Evaluation for radical feminists
Functionalist
argue that Radical Feminist ignore the very real benefits that the family provides for its members such as, intimacy and mutual support
the true reason for the
Overall evaluation
ignorant
Feminists also tend to ignore the positive aspects of family life
-feminists are preoccupied w the negative side of the family
-ignore the possibility that many women enjoy running a home and raising children
Overall evaluation
Manipulation
-Fs assumen that famiulies are maniuplated in some way by the structure of soicety to reproduce and reinforce patriarchy thorugh gendered diviison of labour w/ in families
Overall evaluation
Manipulation
evidence
Postmodernists
Postmodernists
-would argue that feminists ignore the possibility that we have some choice in creating our family rs
-in fact diversity of family types found today reflects the fact that we can choose our domestic set up for ourselves
Overall evaluation
Interpretivists
Fs tend to neglect the meanings families havde for individuals and how family members interpret family rs
E.G
-Fs ignore accounts of family life in whihc some females suggest motherhood is a fulfilling and rewarding experience
Overall evaluation
Difference feminists
-criticise fs for assuming that all women share similar experiences
E.G
lesbian & heterosexual, black & white women, m/c & w/c women have very different experiences of the family from one another
Overall evaluation
Black feminists
would argue that by solely regarding the family as a source of oppression, white feminist neglect black and Asian women’s experiences of racism
INSTEAD black feminist view black family positively as a source of support and resisyance to racism
