Feminist views on the family Flashcards
What are the general feminist views on the family?
Feminists have been critical of gender roles related to the nuclear family, particularly two key functions:
Socialising girls to accept subservient roles within the family while socialising boys to think they’re superior.
Socialising women into the ‘housewife’ role, which limits them to the domestic sphere, making them financially dependent on men.
What are the liberal feminist views on the family?
Liberal feminists saw a ‘march of progress’ towards gender equality at home and in wider society through reforming existing laws.
Acts have been introduced to encourage employment (equal pay act), give woman more control over reproductive rights (family planning act) and increased marital rights for women (divorce reform).
Sommerville argues that many feminists ignore the progress for women, such as greater freedom to go into paid work, has created better gender equality within relationships.
She raises the possibility that some women shouldn’t deal with male partners who aren’t “pulling their weight”.
However, the believes that it’s most important to focus on policies which encourage greater equality within relationships.
What are Marxist feminist views on the family?
Marxist feminists challenged traditional gender roles at home, examining the unpaid labour of women and the expectations of society on women to look after their husbands.
As a result of the capitalist system, women provide free labour through a dual burden (Hochschild: encouraged to commit to paid and unpaid work) and a triple shift (Duncombe and Marsden: childcare, housework; emotional support of the family).
There’s an expectation of women to provide emotional support to workers, often described as ‘slaves of wage slaves’.
Women are exploited in the labour market as a ‘reserve army of labour’, which prevents men from striking for higher wages.
They see that women reproduce the labour force, which they do for free because their domestic labour is unpaid.
Ansley argued that women absorb the anger that would otherwise be pointed at capitalism.
Penny has argued that neoliberal capitalism has encouraged women to seek self-empowerment and freedom through consumerism.
Marxist feminists believe that the solutions for tackling gender inequality are that we need to tackle capitalism and the patriarchy: by campaigning for better working conditions and pay both in the home and in female dominated industries.
What are the radical feminist views on the family?
Radical feminists are critical of marriage, seeing it as an unequal institution that was patriarchal in nature and where men used financial and physical power to control women.
Men’s use of coercive power over women, often resulting in domestic violence, occurs physically, psychologically, sexually and financially.
They claim a male dominance in decision making.
There’s also an expectation on women to be the ‘housewife’ and ‘mother’, resulting in gender socialisation into stereotypical roles.
Radical feminists argue that there’s a ‘dark side’ of family life, with women being twice as likely to experience domestic violence than men.
Millett argued that “the patriarchy’s chief institution is the family”, which is a patriarchal unit within a patriarchal whole.
Traditionally, the patriarchy granted the father and the husband almost complete control over the woman.
In contemporary society, the status continues through their loss of name and obligation to live with the husband.
Some radical feminists argue that women only households and matrifocal households are the only ways to take down the patriarchy.
What are the evaluations of marxist feminism?
There was evidence of women’s oppression before capitalism and were women arguably more oppressed before capitalism.
The United Nations Gender Equality index shows a correlation between the capitalist development and women’s liberation.
The idea that women act as a reserve army of labour is outdated, with only a 7% gap in employment.
What are the evaluations of radical feminism?
Radical feminists ignore the progress that women have made in many areas of society.
Some argue that radical feminism is too unrealistic, as heterosexual relationships are required for reproduction.
Radical feminism ignores the domestic violence suffered by men.
What are the evaluations of liberal feminism?
Liberal feminism is a more ethnocentric view, mainly reflecting the experiences of white, middle class women.
Despite improvements in gender equality, there’s still inequalities that exist.
What are the general evaluations of feminism?
Some critics agree that there’s a lack of a coherent approach to the role of women in contemporary society, undermining the choice of some women to adopt to traditional values.
Feminists have been criticised for focusing on the experiences of white, middle-class women and ignoring the differences of women of colour, sexuality, disability and lower social status.
