Feminist View of the family(week 17) Flashcards
Definition of Feminism
“Belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.”
Feminists and the family
- They challenge both the functionalist and Marxist perspectives.
- Focus on conflict within the family and how women are exploited through traditional gender roles put in force and reinforced for the benefit of men.
- From this perspective the family is an oppressive structure, imprisoning women in a narrow range of service roles (domestic labour/childcare).
- Female family roles/responsibilities allow men to exercise economic power through ‘free’ family services paid for by women’s domestic labour.
Types of Feminism
- Liberal feminism
- Radical feminism
- Marxist feminism
- Lesbian feminism
- Difference feminism
- Black feminism
- Humanist feminism
Liberal feminism
- Are concerned with extending to women the liberal values of liberty, equality and justice through legal and social reforms.
eg. 18th century Liberal thought Mary Wollstonecraft A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)
In many countries they were successful in getting some new laws passed: - Equal Pay Act
- Sex Discrimination Act
Critique’s of Liberal Feminism
- The Equal Pay Act & Sex Discrimination Act made things better in some ways but Radical Feminists argued that there were still deep-rooted problems.
- Liberal femininsts have been criticised by other feminists for not recognising that patriarchy is deeply embedded in society and that equality cannot be achieved by passing laws but by individuals changing.
Radical Feminism
Orgins: Late 1960s New Left civil rights and anti-war protests.
Beliefs: Gender distinctions are actually socially and politically constructed.
* They say that society, the nuclear family, religion, politics is patriarchal.
* The nuclear family suits men but expolits women. Women gain little from it and would be better off without it.
* They say that patriarchy will not be removed by the kind of changes liberal feminists suggest - there needs to be far-reaching radical change.
* Men are seen as responsible for much that is wrong with the world. eg. wars
* Some radical feminists argue that men and women should live separately in different communities.
Radical feminists on the Family
**Delphy & Leonard **see the family as an economic system: a hierarchical, patriarchal institution.
* Women provide 57 varieties of unpaid service.
* Labour relations benefit men who are the head of the household.
Purdy believes disadvantages of women result from childcare responsibilties rather than material inequalities.
Examples of Radical Feminism
Kate Millett: “The personal is political”
MEN, not just the patriarchy, at fault because all men benefit from women’s oppression. Patriarchal assumptions permeate all social institutions.
* Loosely organised groups callings for complete reconstruction of society:
Betty Friedan (NOW); Germaine Greer, Gloria Steinem, and Shulamith Firestone
Marxist Feminism
- Combines radical feminism with Marxist analysis.
- Believe that there is a symbiotic relationship between capitalism and patriarchy.
- Women get exploited twice; as women and as workers - Dual oppression
- Interested in the world of work
- Men have been able to work long hours (making profits for bourgeoisie) because women are doing domestic work for free.
- Women make capitalism possible.
- Men cannot easily go on strike/stop working because they have to support their families (also suits the bourgeoisie).
- They emphasise female exploitation through the idea of dual burden - exploited in the house and workplace.
Marxist feminist view on the family
Zaretsky: Family must be abolished - paying wages for housework preserves traditional inequalities.
Duncombe & Marsden(1993): argue they preform a triple shift, the third element being the responsibility for the emotional and psychological welfare of the family members.
Bruegel(1979): argued that women are a ‘reserve army of labour’ called into the workplace when there is a shortage and pushed back to the family when there is a surplus.
* This reserve status forces them into low paid, low status employment.
Lesbian feminism
- Lesbian-feminist politics is a political critique of the institution and ideology of heterosexuality.
- Heterosexuality is viewed as the ‘norm’
- Homosexuality is seen as ‘deviant’.
- Heterosexual relationships are seen as a cornerstone of male supremacy.
eg. Rita Mae Brown, Charlotte Bunch and more are part of “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” (1980)
Humanist feminism
Womens oppression is the inhibition and distortion of women’s human potential by a society that only allows the self-development of men.
Black Feminism
- Argues that sexism, class oppression and racism are inexticably bound together.
- Developed in the USA amongst African American women who felt they had little in common with white American Feminists.
- They saw that African american men were also exploited and shared similar problems, so they did not see all men as the enemy, in the way radical feminists did.
- Tend to focus less on issues such as seeing the family as a source of oppression and more on issues outside the family. eg. employment discrimination, employment.
- They see the family as a haven from racism.
Difference feminism
- Works with various types of feminism and postmodern theories.
Nicholson: Different types of family suit different women in different circumstances.
Calhoun: accepting gays & lesbians as forming families involves acceptance of variation from tradtional conventional families.
Evaluation - Weaknesses (against)
- Difficult to make overall judgements because there is a range of feminist perspectives.
- Marxist & radical feminist approaches can be seen as dated in parts of the world where there has been significant economic and social change.
- Radical feminists can focus too much on the nuclear family - there is much greater diversity in family norms.
- Concentrate on male power and show women as passive victims.
- Many women find motherhood fulfilling
- Many men and women form strong bonds based on mutual love and respect (not all relationships are based on male domination)
