Lesson 9 - Feminism And The Family

Question 1

Types of feminism

Answer 1

Radical - gender conflict

Liberal - improvement in gender equality

Marxist - women’s oppression serves capitalism

Question 2

Types of female oppression in the family - domestic and emotional labour, economic dependency and male domination

Answer 2

-domestic labour - most of the unpaid family work done by women
-emotional labour - wives jobs to provide emotional support
-economic dependency - married women usually economically dependent on husbands as they give up work for childcare
-male domination - men often control key decisions such as moving house. Domestic violence is also widespread and women are usually at the receiving end

Question 3

Radical feminist view on the family

Answer 3

-believe in separatism - men and women should be separate as men are the enemy
-political lesbianism - separate themselves from men as relationships are oppressive
-men benefit from women domestic labour and sexual services

Question 4

Liberal feminist view of the family

Answer 4

-argue woman oppression is gradually being overcome though changes in attitudes and law such as the sex discrimination act

Question 5

Marxist feminist view of the family

Answer 5

-argue the cause of female oppression is not men, its capitalism
-women reproduce the labour force through their unpaid labour in the house
-Ansley - describes women as ‘takers of shit’ who soak up the frustration their husbands feel
-women are ‘a reserve army’ of labour

Question 6

Difference feminist view on families

Answer 6

-argue we cannot generalise women’s experiences as all types of women experience different things
-for example black feminists argue that by regarding the family as a source of oppression, white feminists neglect black women’s experience of racial oppression
-other feminists argue that this approach neglects that despite differences a lot of experiences are shared

Question 7

Evaluation of the feminist view on families

Answer 7

-ignores positive aspects of family life - preoccupied with the negative and ignore possibility that many women enjoy running a home
-ignores trend of gender equality - rather than celebrating improvements they remain focused on inequalities
-they are structural theories - see families as passive puppets. Social action and post modernists argue feminists fail to recognise the choice of forming a family