Feminist View on the Family

Question 1

View on the Family

Answer 1

• oppresses women.

- does not regard gender inequality as natural but something created by society

Question 2

Liberal Feminism - Society

Answer 2

concerned with campaigning against sex discrimination and for equal rights and opportunities for women e.g. equal pay, sex discrimination.

Question 3

Liberal Feminism - How is society changing?

Answer 3

• argue that women’s oppression is being gradually overcome through changing peoples attitudes and through changes in the law.
• They believe we are moving towards greater equality but that full equality will depend on further reforms and changes in the attitudes and socialisation patterns of both sexes.

Question 4

Liberal Feminism - Family

Answer 4

• they hold a view similar to that of march of progress such as Young and Wilmott
• do not believe in full gender equality has yet been achieved in the family, they argue that there has been a gradual process e.g. some studies suggest men are doing more domestic labour

Question 5

Criticisms of Liberal Feminist

Answer 5

• Feminists argue they fail to challenge the underlying causes of women oppression and for believing that changes in the law or in peoples attitudes will be enough to bring equality.
  Marxist and Radical Feminists believe instead that fear reaching changes to deep rooted social structures are needed

Question 6

Marxist Feminist - View on Family

Answer 6

• the main cause of oppression is not the men but capitalism
• see the oppression of women in the family as linked to the exploitation of the working class.
• the family must be abolished and society replaced by a classelessness

Question 7

Marxist Feminist: What Functions does Womens Oppression Perform for Capitalism

Answer 7

• Women reproduce the labour force:
  through the unpaid domestic labour ,socialising the next generation and maintaining the current one.
• Women absorb anger that would otherwise be directed at capitalism from their male counterparts. This explains domestic violence against women
• Women are a reserve army of cheap labour - that can be taken on when extra workers are needed

Question 8

Ansley Marxist Fem: Women absorb Anger

Answer 8

‘takers of shit’ - who soak up the frustration their husbands feel because of the alienation and exploitation they suffer at work.

Question 9

Radical Feminists - View on Society

Answer 9

• argue that all societies have been founded on patriarchy. The key division in society is between men and women:
• Men are the enemy: source of womens oppression and exploitation
• Family and marriage are key institutions in patriarchal society. Men benefit from women’s unpaid labour and sexual services. They also dominate women through domestic and sexual violence or the threat of it

Question 10

Radical Feminists Solution

Answer 10

• the patriarchal systems needs to be overturned
• the family in which they see as the root of womens oppression needs to be abolished
• the only way to achieve this is through SEPARATISM
• Political lesbianism

Question 11

Seperatism

Answer 11

women must organise themselves to live independently of men

Question 12

Political lesbianism

Answer 12

the idea that heterosexual relationships are inevitably oppressive because they involve sleeping with the enemy. Argue for the all female or matrilocal households as an alternative to the heterosexual family

Question 13

Criticism of Radical Fem - Somerville

Answer 13

fail to recognise that womens position has significantly improved - with better access to divorce, better job opportunities, control over own fertility, and the ability to choose whether they want to marry or cohabit.

• heterosexual attraction makes it unlikely that separatism would work
• however she does recognise that women have yet to achieve full equality. There is a need for family friendly policies such as more flexible working, to promote greater equality between partners.

Question 14

Difference Fem

Answer 14

• we cannot generalise womens experiences
• lesbian and heterosexual, white and black, w/c and m/c have different experiences of the family from one another
  e. g. by regarding the family purely negatively white feminists reject black womens experience of racial oppression. Black Fem may view the family positively as a source of support and resistance against racism.

Question 15

Difference Fem Criticism

Answer 15

neglects the fact that all women share many of the same experiences e.g risk of domestic violence, sexual assault, low pay etc.