Feminist Theories On The Family

Question 1

Feminists views on the family

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Do feminist take a consensus or critical view on the family?

Answer 2

Take a critical view

Question 3

Which feminist can be used ?

Answer 3

Marxist feminist
Radical feminist

Question 4

Feminist believe gender inequality …

Answer 4

is not natural or inevitable but something that society has created

Question 5

Marxist-feminists suggest

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Margaret Benston (1972)

Answer 6

Marxist-feminist
=argues that nuclear family provides the basic commodity required by capitalism

Question 7

Margaret Benston 1972 evidence

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Reproducing and rearing the future workforce does what according to Margaret Benston Marxists feminists

Answer 8

maintains the present workforce’s physical and emotional fitness through wife’s domestic labour.

Question 9

Radical feminist
Kate Millet (1970)

Answer 9

-see modern societies and families characterised by PATRIARCHY
-a system of subordination and domination in which men exercise power over women and children

Question 10

Kate Millet (1970)
solution to women’s oppression

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Radical feminist
Diana Gittens

Answer 11

refers to concept of age patriarchy to describe adult domination of children, which may take the form of violence against children and women

Question 12

Which Radical feminist has similar views to Diana Gittens?

Answer 12

Delphy and Leonard

Question 13

Delphy and Leonard

Answer 13

See the family as a patriarchal institution in which women do most of the work and men get most of the benefit

Question 14

Radical feminist believe in

Answer 14

Patriarchal ideology

Question 15

What do Radical feminist believe Patriarchal ideology does?

Answer 15

Stresses the primary of the mother-housewife role for women and the breadwinner the family as legitimating violence against women

Question 16

Evaluation for radical feminists

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Evaluation for radical feminists
Liberal feminist Jenny Somerville

Answer 17

argues separatism is unlikely to work because heterosexual attraction makes it unlikely that the conventional nuclear family will disappear

Question 18

Evaluation for radical feminists
Hakim (1995)

Answer 18

argues that this model fails to consider that females might be exercising rational choices in choosing domestic roles

Question 19

Evaluation for radical feminists
Functionalist

Answer 19

argue that Radical Feminist ignore the very real benefits that the family provides for its members such as, intimacy and mutual support

Question 20

the true reason for the

Question 21

Overall evaluation
ignorant

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Overall evaluation
Manipulation

Answer 22

-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

Question 23

Overall evaluation
Manipulation

evidence
Postmodernists

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Overall evaluation
Interpretivists

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Overall evaluation
Difference feminists

Answer 25

-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

Question 26

Overall evaluation
Black feminists

Answer 26

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