Feminist View Flashcards
What does feminism as a movement argue?
Society is patriarchal : serves men and exploits women
What are the different types of feminism?
Liberal
Radical
Marxist
Difference (black)
Describe the liberal feminist view of the family
Tend to have an optimistic view on the family.
They focus on the increased equality that exists between men and women and that many couples see their relationship as an equal partnership.
Look at the emergency of the “new man”
What do Radical feminists argue?
- Men benefit more from family life than women.
- Argue that men do very little compared to women (housework and childcare).
- Often see marriage as a type of prison for women, and argue that men use violence against women if they don’t get their own way.
- Men benefit from women’s unpaid domestic labour and from their sexual services, and they dominate women through domestic and sexual violence or the threat of it.
- The nuclear family mainly functions to benefit men because of gender role socialisation. This is when boys and girls are taught what is seen as acceptable behaviour for their gender, which leads to them behaving in stereotypical ways .
What do Radical feminists support?
Family diversity - same sex and lone parent
Divorce - because it allows women to escape marriage
What do Marxist feminists argue?
The main cause of women’s oppression is not patriarchy but capitalism.
In what ways do women serve capitalism?
- Women look after the men who work for the bosses. They satisfy their physical, emotional and sexual needs, and ‘service’ the men like a car going to a garage.
- Women absorb anger - When men have a bad day at work they take out their anger, frustration and aggression on their wives and children.
- Women reproduce the labour force by giving birth to the next generation of workers:
- Women are used in the job market as a ‘reserve army of cheap labour’ useful when there are plenty of jobs to fill, but when there is not they are ‘sent back’ to be housewives.
- Men benefit more from family life as there is an expectation that women have children and take time off work to look after their children = women cannot compete with men for promotions because they don’t have the experience like men do = glass ceiling
What does Margaret Benston argue?
Margaret Benston(1972) argued that women are the slaves of wage slaves
What does Fran Ansley argue?
Women are takers of shit
What do difference feminists argue?
They argue that most white feminists tend to group all women together and ignore the ethnic differences that exist between women.
Give examples of ethnic differences between women
African-Caribbean women are more likely to be single parents than white or Asian women.
Asian women may experience more patriarchy in their families than white women, and may have to do more housework and childcare. They may have more religious and cultural responsibilities than other groups too, and arranged marriage could be an issue.
How are people critical of the different types of feminists?
There is not just one variety of feminism, and they tend to criticise and challenge each other, which may weaken their overall message.
How can feminism be seen as outdated?
- Feminist views can be seen as dated, as women now have equality in terms of job opportunities and equal pay.
- Some commentators argue that the battles have been fought and the gender war is over.
- Marxist feminism in particular can be seen as dated as most women now work, and the idea that they spend their time ‘servicing’ their husbands would be treated with scorn by most modern women.
What is global patriarchy?
A social system in which men hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property.
