Feminists Flashcards
Feminism
aims to explain the subordinate position of women in society by examining the concept of patriarchy - rule by men
Liberal Feminism
- say gender inequality will end with the intro of legal changes e.g Sex Discrimination Act, Equal Pay Act, etc.
- legal changes will lead to a change in social attitudes, and socialisation of boys and girls will become less gender specific.
- hold a march of progress view – the progress towards gender equality is gradual, but is happening
e. g. men are starting to do chores
CRITICISMS- liberal feminists
they’re too optimistic- think that legal changes are enough to lead to a change in social attitudes but they aren’t, e.g. the Equal Pay Act was introduced in 1970, but women still earn 18% less than men.
Radical Feminism
Society is patriarchal, so men are the enemy, they’re the source of women’s oppression and exploitation.
In the family men dominate women the most as they benefit from women’s free domestic labour and sexual services. Men dominate women through domestic abuse or the threat of it.
What do radical feminists say the solution to oppression of women- GREER
Greer says the solution to exploitation and oppression of women is separatism or political lesbianism – women and men living separately and women forming all-female ‘matrilocal’ households.
CRITICISMS- radical feminists
they ignore the positive aspects of family life and that the position of women in society has improved considerably, e.g. access to divorce, better job opportunities, control over their fertility, etc.
-ignore the trend to gender equality.
Difference Feminism
-Argue that we can’t generalise women’s experiences, e.g. not all women live in nuclear families.
-Say different women experience patriarchy in different ways and to a different extent
e.g. straight and gay, black & white, wealthy & poor women all experience patriarchy within the family in different ways.
For example, the black lone parent families where women help each other are less oppressive of women than the traditional nuclear family.
CRITICISMS DIFFERENCE FEMINISM
cause divisions between women which makes our movement for equality weaker
Marxists Feminism
main cause of women’s oppression is not men, but capitalism.
The nuclear family serves capitalist system for the benefit of the r/c and at the expense of the w/c by exploiting & oppressing women as they perform unpaid domestic work such as:
-Reproducing the future workforce – women bear children and socialise them to accept unfairness
-Women are a ‘reserve army of labour’ - they can be employed when needed by the capitalists
(e.g. WWI and WWII when women worked in factories) and let go to return to their primary role in the home when no longer required.
-Women absorb men’s angers that would be directed at capitalism
The solution is the overthrow of capitalism through a revolution.
ANSLEY- marxists feminists- explain their view of reasons of male domestic violence against women
Ansley argues that women are ‘takers of shit’; they absorb men’s anger (at their exploitation at work) by performing sexual and emotional services which maintain emotionally healthy men.
Men therefore take out the frustrations of work on women through abuse which prevents them from taking out their anger out on capitalism.
This prevents a revolution.
CRITISISM- marxists feminists
ignore the trend to gender equality.
