feminists on the family

Question 1

DUNCOME AND MARSDEN - the triple shift

Answer 1

occurs when women take on unpaid and paid work, but also the emotional work in the family

Question 2

GERMAINE GREER (radical feminist)
alternatives to the family

Answer 2

• live separate lives from men = separatism
• matrilocal households of all females
• political lesbianism as heterosexuals are ‘sleeping with the enemy’

Question 3

JENNY SOMERVILLE (liberal feminist) criticism on radical feminism:

Answer 3

• fail to recognize how women’s position has improved e.g. better access to divorce, job opportunities and control over fertility
• heterosexual attraction makes it unlikely political lesbianism would work

Question 4

MARGERET BENSON (marxist feminist)

Answer 4

• women’s unpaid labour is very profitable to business owners
• to pay women at minimum wage for their work would cause a massive redistribution of wealth
• the support of the family is a hidden tax, wage buys the labor power of two people

Question 5

FRAN ANSLEY (marxist feminist)

Answer 5

• wives are ‘takers of sh*t’
• they absorb their husbands frustration and anger and their own powerlessness and oppression
• bosses rest more secure if workers are letting out their frustrations at capitalism on their wives